Is any bed more inviting than a hotel bed? Whether you’ve just checked in after flying across time zones, or returned after a day of sightseeing or gruelling business meetings, when you sink into that mattress and wrap the fresh duvet around you, it can feel like heaven.
The ideal hotel bed is one that is so welcoming and comfortable that when you first settle in, you cannot imagine ever wanting to leave. The cosy mattress, soft white linen and plump pillows conjure such a luxurious experience that the thought of ever getting out of it will seem impossible. “I’ll just stay here for the entire trip,” you start to think, as you ease into a deep sleep. Yet when morning comes, you are refreshed and ready for another day on your feet. A much-deserved lie-in, luxuriating in the cradle would have worked its magic.
As a travel writer, I’ve snoozed in hotels from every chain, in every continent – most recently, during a stay at Hilton London Bankside. There, the bed was so perfect that, the moment my head hit the pillow, my mind, body and soul (which had just travelled across manic London) were soothed into a blissful comfort. The beds at Bankside are known as serenity beds – with extra spine support and plush pillows, it’s easy to see why. What that adds up to is a blissful night’s sleep.
And, boy, do we need it. Apparently 34% of Britons have booked a holiday just to catch up with sleep. But why is it that we slumber so well in hotels?
For a start, hotel rooms are clutter free, so you won’t arrive to find an overflowing laundry basket or a cold cup of tea and half eaten biscuit next to the bed. According to a study by New York’s St Lawrence University, a messy bedroom can lead to a poor night’s sleep and increased anxiety, so hotel minimalism is important.
Then there’s the temperature. The sweet spot for sleep is around 18C, and as hotel rooms are often fitted with air conditioning, you can get the temperature just right. Darkness is also important, so blackout curtains or blinds – which are increasingly common in hotel rooms – can help you sleep well.
But the bed is at the heart of your sleeping experience. Over the years, my wishlist for a hotel bed has become a demanding mass of contradictions. I want the mattress to be supportive and firm, yet soft and welcoming. I want it to be the perfect design whether I sleep on my back, my front, or my side, because I reserve the right to change positions during the night.
I want there to be more pillows than I use, all lined up so I can audition them, and only take some of them through to the next round. I also want the bed to be reasonably high and tall, to give it that feel of the Princess of the Pea majesty, rather than gap-year futon.
It’s wonderful to get into a neatly made bed, but I don’t want the quilt or duvet tucked so tight that getting in is like feeding myself into a fax machine. Once I’m in, I want to feel warm and cosy, but not overheated.
The bed at the Hilton London Bankside delivered on all these fronts. “Getting a good night’s rest is just as important as exercising and eating right,” says Louise Moore, director spa operations and development at Hilton Group. “If you’re staying at a Hilton, you can use the Hilton Honors app before you arrive to select a quiet room, or pre-order extra pillows from housekeeping. Hilton isn’t only continually testing innovative sleep-enhancing and noise-cancelling solutions, but also ensures it maintains a consistent and high quality standard.
“According to a global 2023 trends report by Hilton, 50% of travellers feel it’s important that their future travels address their mental or physical wellness. From using the same pre-approved suppliers across our portfolio of 18 world-class brands, to ensuring pillows and duvets have a specific size, weight, fibre, and even thread count, we know it’s a priority to provide our guests the best quality sleep,” says Moore.
I had a glorious hour reading my book before I switched off the lights. I lay like a triumphant starfish for a while – I mean, what is the point of a bed to yourself if you don’t stretch out? Then I sank into a heavenly sleep until morning.
I woke up feeling absolutely blissed out. I was rested and refreshed, the stiff neck I’d been suffering from for a few days was gone, and my Fitbit was so excited by how well I’d slept, it could hardly wait to let me know.
The best hotel beds help you forget the stresses and strains of the world outside and allow you to sink into a womb-like experience of comfort, pleasure and rejuvenation. It doesn’t matter how far you’ve travelled – a night in a hotel bed is a world-class act of self-care.
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