“Choose the feel first; the hotel name matters far less. A medium to medium-firm pocket-sprung mattress in a king size, with a top you can turn or zip off, is what keeps a hotel bed feeling new for years.”
What makes a hotel bed feel so good
Most of the hotel effect comes down to feel. Hotels buy for the widest range of guests, so they settle in the middle. Tristine Hargreaves, executive director of the National Bed Federation, put it this way to Which?, “To cater for the majority of guests, hotels should carefully select their beds to ensure they are neither too firm nor too soft.” She also advises a king or super king if your budget and room allow, because a partner is less likely to wake you in a bigger bed, and hotel beds tend to be larger than a standard UK double (135x190). In practice the hotel recipe is a medium or medium-firm pocket-sprung mattress with a cushioned top, in a generous size. If you are upgrading anyway, our king size and super king rankings cover those sizes in depth.
Pillowtop, two sides or a zip-off top
Every mattress on this page needs a little upkeep, and the design decides what kind. A pillowtop has one sleeping side, so you rotate it head to foot every few months, and its top is usually the first part to show body impressions. A double-sided mattress, such as the Aspire 7000 Dual Sided, the Vispring Elite, the Hotel Supreme 1400 or the Travelodge Dreamer, also needs flipping, which spreads wear over two faces and keeps it feeling even for longer. A zip-off layer, the pillowtop on the M&S Ultimate 5000 or the topper on Premier Inn’s mattress, lets you turn the comfort layer on its own. If your current mattress still supports you well, a soft topper is the cheaper way to add that hotel top layer, and our mattress topper ranking compares the options.
Real hotel models or hotel-style
You can buy the exact mattress from some UK chains. Premier Inn sells its bed through Premier Inn at Home, Travelodge through travelodgebed.co.uk, and Sleepeezee sells its Hotel Supreme 1400 direct. Hypnos supplies hotels through a separate business, Hypnos Contract Beds, and keeps those ranges for the trade, so at home you choose from its retail mattresses. At the very top end, Savoir sells its Nº2 as the original Savoy mattress, priced well into five figures.
Hotel mattresses are built to a stricter fire rating. SATRA explains that hotels, hospitals and other non-domestic settings should meet the medium, high or very high hazard levels of BS 7177, which add a larger ignition test (known in the trade as Crib 5) to the cigarette and match tests every home mattress must pass. That protects a building full of strangers and adds nothing to comfort. The hotel-branded beds also come with thinner buying terms, with no sleep trial on the Premier Inn or Travelodge mattress, so lie on one in a hotel room before you order.
Pick by the way you sleep
Side sleepers who like to sink in should start with the pillowtops, where shoulders and hips meet a deeper soft layer. Back sleepers, front sleepers and heavier people usually prefer a flatter, more even surface with no deep soft layer on top, such as the Aspire 7000 Dual Sided or the Hotel Supreme 1400. If you overheat, natural wool fillings and the gel-topped Cool Refresh 3200 handle warmth better than a memory foam top. For a sore back, our back pain ranking goes further than any hotel can, and our best mattresses ranking covers every type of mattress, hotel-style or not.
