Considering we spend a third of our lives asleep, a good mattress is one of the most important purchases you can make.
From Simba and Emma to Nectar and Dusk, the sleep business is booming. Thanks to constant innovation, the days of lumpy mattresses and back pain are long gone. Whether it’s hybrid spring designs or cloud-like memory foam models, myriad brands are competing for a place in your bedroom.
Bringing the comfort of a hotel room into your own home, Premier Inn has been collaborating with Silentnight since 2023, allowing you to buy the exact mattresses you sleep on while staying at their hotels.
As well as its adverts starring Lenny Henry, the UK’s largest hotel chain is chiefly known for its high quality mattresses that help drift you off to the land of nod. Carefully designed and rigorously tested, the Premier Inn mattress claims to regulate your temperature and provide edge to edge support, thanks to a blend of breathable foams and a pocket spring system.
With mattresses from the likes of The Marriot, Ritz-Carlton, The Westin and Soho House costing upwards of £1,500, Premier Inn’s model is also one of the most afforable on the market with sizes starting from £549 – but does it promote the best possible sleep experience? Keep reading to find out.
How we tested
As part of my quest for the best night’s sleep, I tested out the Premier Inn x Silentnight mattress 2.0 for around a month. I’m prone to bouts of insomnia and am an annoyingly light sleeper (the slightest movement from my partner or noise outside can wake me up). So, I wanted to see if the hotel-grade model improved my overall sleep. Considering how quickly I nodded off, as well as how deep my sleep was, I assessed comfort, quality, value for money and looks. Here’s my verdict.
Premier Inn mattress
Unlike some mattresses – especially memory foam – Premier Inn’s 2.0 model arrives flat rather than rolled. This isn’t a problem when it comes to delivery, as it can be taken to your room of choice without an extra charge. There’s a couple of packaging layers to cut through but once complete, your mattress is ready to kip on straight away. In comparison, rolled mattresses take a few hours to fully flatten out.
The Premier Inn mattress is made up of seven layers, including an innovative gel layer for bounce and a memory foam layer for that dreamy sinking-in feeling. The design has edge-to-edge support to provide comfort, while the temperature-regulating sleep surface is also impressive, keeping me cool in the few weeks of summer and cosy on colder nights. Finished with a micro-quilted surface, I also liked that the top layer can be unzipped and rotated, which is a lot easier than turning the entire mattress.
Owing to the seven layer design, it’s noticeably higher and heftier than previous mattresses I’ve owned. This is great for those who want extra support but less ideal for those who need to move it for whatever reason, as it’s a lot heavier than most foam models.
When testing, I found that it offered medium to firm support and was impressed with the zoned system, which helps to evenly distribute weight across the mattress. This design feature is particularly good when sharing a bed (in other words, you’re not rolling into each other all night and waking the other person up). Better still, I found I got into a comfortable sleeping position far more quickly than I did with my old mattress, which required more tossing and turning.
It does lack the sleek design of other brands and looks more like a traditional pocket spring mattress, but this is easily forgotton when the bed’s made up with your favourite bedding. And, while it’s hefty to unpack and position, once it’s onto your bed frame, it’s hard to fault.
Buy now £674.10, Premierinnbed.co.uk
The verdict: Premier Inn mattress
Scoring top marks for comfort, support and breathability, Premier Inn x Silentnight’s mattress 2.0 is a stellar all-rounder. With prices starting from £549, it’s hundreds cheaper than hotel competition from the likes of Soho House and Hypnos, while also being more affordable than industry leaders Simba and Emma. It’s not the most visually appealing mattress owing to its large size and traditional looks, and it’s also very heavy, which limits maneuverability. However, these are minor gripes considering its performance.
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