Sleep talk
When I travel for business or pleasure, I consider getting good sleep as an important factor …because it gives me the energy I require to power through the days away from home. So, whenever, I check-in to a hotel room, I immediately go to bed. I mean, not to sleep straightaway, but to check out if the bed in the room, measures up to 1-of-2 ratings I have on hotel beds. Is the mattress better than the one in my bedroom? Or is it equal? Anything less makes me uncomfortable.
A large screen TV in an overwhelmingly spacious room with stunning views is all fantastic, but for me, the most important element of a hotel room is the bed. Imagine travelling non-stop over ten hours, with exhaustion from jet lag and body ache – only to discover that the stylish room you booked has a sagging mattress beneath the bed sheets? Whatever price point the hotel is at, the core reason why any hotel is in the hospitality business is because it is in the business of sleep. That’s it.
So I try to book a hotel that has a room with a great bed in it. Previously, when choosing a room with a good bed, I was driven by intuition. The picture on the brochure was great or the hotel has a good reputation or so they tell me. Then I decided to book rooms with two beds by choice (at least when the room has double or queen beds). This enabled me to spread the risk of finding a bed that was below my ‘better-than or equal-to-my-bed-at-home’ rating. Nowadays, I look at recent guest reviews about the hotel…seeking out for comments on the hotel bed and other relevant observations.
Surveys conducted confirm that the majority of guests consider the hotel bed as an integral part of the experience of staying at a hotel - any hotel, and, that a good night’s sleep is one sure way to ensure higher ratings and customer satisfaction. Jennifer Rota will attest to this fact. Way back in 2010, as the General Manager of the new Distrikt Hotel she knew that the hotel’s opening near NY’s ‘Times Square’ posed a huge challenge.” We’re in a one-block radius with every chain you can imagine, so how are we going to stand out?”
It’s a kind of dilemma that can keep any hotel manager awake at night. Ultimately, Rota locked in on the sleep experience, investing in airport grade ‘sound proof’ windows, enhancing the thread count in bed linen to 500 and offering firm pillows as well as turndown service in all 155 rooms.
New York received a record-breaking 54.3 million tourists in 2013. It also has and still does, have a reputation for sleeplessness where sleep is about 60% of the guest’s stay in the city and there’s nothing worse than having to struggle through on a fully paid-for short night’s sleep.
Hotel prices all over the world may fluctuate - peaking during good times and dropping during the bad. People’s expectations however, when it comes to hotel rooms stay constant. We don’t settle for less, even when enticed with discounted rates…and that’s when a good bed counts.
Ilzaf Keefahs – writes on hospitality related matters that he is passionate about, and likes to share his views with hoteliers and customers alike.
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