Hoteliers are doing everything in their power to ensure their guests get a good night’s rest. Hotelier India looks at what they’ve got on offer.
Given the frenetic pace of life, a weary traveller staying in a hotel wants to sleep in a bed that is as nice as the one he has at home. And now there’s no reason why he cannot. A good night’s rest requires comfortable bedding.
And everyone’s striving to provide better comfort levels in terms of bedding service and pillow facilities to ensure a good night’s sleep for their guests.
The revolutionary ten-layer all-white bed, pioneered by the Westin Hotels worldwide in 1999, is now here in India. In keeping with their commitment to sleep and wellness, the Heavenly Bed is a unique design that ensures the most rejuvenating sleep possible by providing total body support and reducing motion transfer. Thus, sleep is not disturbed by any movement.
The Beautyrest Pocketed Coil mattress specially created for the Westin Hotels & Resorts is what sets it apart. Anticipating their guests’ needs and ensuring that exceptional service and luxurious comfort are never out of style, is a Westin tradition.
Explains Lance Ourednik, General Manager, Westin Mumbai Garden City, “The bed in our rooms help to restore the mind and body and ensure that the sleep is an unparalleled experience.
The guest wakes up feeling rested, bright and positive. Our guests across the world have shared this feedback with us. Hence, this bed has been universally termed as the Heavenly Bed.”
Housekeepers are now emphasising the fact that a bed is the most essential thing in a hotel room and has a direct impact on the customers’ preference for the hotel a second time.
However, most of them maintain that as far as the selection of beds and mattresses is concerned, it should firmly support the body contours without sagging to take care of the posture.
The basic hotel guest bed consists of a box-spring also referred to as a bed base, of wooden or metal frame covered in cloth, containing springs that sit on the floor and act as a brace.
The variety of beds available in the market today is an exercise in choice. From spring and foam to latex beds, water beds, adjustable beds, pocket spring beds, and visco-elastic beds, they have to be dust, mite and allergenic resistant too. This choice extends to mattresses too. Mattress options have changed dramatically in the last decade or so.
Memory foam and latex mattresses are quite common and inner spring mattresses have changed as well. Manufacturers are incorporating new types of foams into the top of mattresses. Innovation is ensuring that guests have better sleep.
While the standard height of the box spring remains 13-inches, the height of a mattress ranges from 6-to12 inches. Pocket spring mattresses with individual springs encased in a pocket, which ensures that bed movement by one person does not disturb the companion, are the first choice of many hotels. They are mostly used in premium category rooms.
Raha pocket spring mattresses with UniCased Edge Design, and Springwel pocket spring mattresses, are some of the popular brands being used in hotels in India.
As for sheets, although thread count is a key component (220 or more per square inch), experts say what’s more important is the fabric – pure Egyptian cotton is always preferred to a cotton-polyester blend.
Guests these days prefer both a soft and firm mattress bed and bed base, flat and light duvet and bed throws instead of bed covers.
Equally critical are blankets in providing a positive sleep experience. A good quality blanket snuggles around the body and creates a positive sense of well being.
Blankets made of wool, mink, or other materials that are soft-to-touch yet warm and cosy. They are usually matched to blend with the overall colour scheme and décor of the room.
To further enhance the sleep and comfort experience, various types of cushions include boudoir pillows, euro pillows, bolsters, and the latest addition – New York pillows are provided by the hotels.
Boudoir pillows or small rectangular decorative pillows, are also known as breakfast pillows, while the euro pillows are larger, square cushions that embellish the bedding, giving it a classy finish and are mostly coordinated with bed runners.
The Oberoi
Hotel, Mumbai offers its’ guests Luxury Plush Pillow top Sealy Posturepedic mattresses, which are designed with the Orthopaedic Advisory Board, using the latest technology and science, and slept on by more orthopaedic surgeons and doctors than any other brand.
Suchitra Gambhir, Executive Housekeeper, The Oberoi, Mumbai, says, “Our King-size (72 inch x 78 inch) mattresses are extremely popular. They help distribute body weight among all pressure points evenly and they are posture-friendly. The advanced spring coils used in the mattresses also promise longevity of the mattresses as they prevent sagging.”
She adds, “We also offer four types of pillows. Duck down pillows are filled with the finest duck down. They are soft and cushion the head and neck at a natural, restful angle. Sensitive sleepers appreciate the natural springy softness of cotton used in the pillow. Special care is taken to make this pillow a hypo-allergenic alternative to feather for those guests with allergies.
Made from condensed foam, the contour pillow has a graduated thickness for comfort. While sleeping on your back, it adjusts to the shape of the nape of the neck to provide neck support. The slightly higher elevations on the edges are best for side sleepers.
The fibre pillow supports the head in its natural and neutral position.
These hypo-allergenic pillows are available in three varieties: firm, medium and soft. We find that guests frequently request specific types of pillows, based on either allergies, or sleeping positions.”
ITC Hotels, Mumbai primarily cater to the discerning business traveller, and therefore acknowledge the restorative role of a good night’s sleep in the holistic well being of an individual.
“The guest’s comfort is our prime objective. To ensure that the guest enjoys a good sleep, we offer a special kit that contains all the anti-stress amenities to relax and have a refreshing sleep,” informs Seema Chaturvedi, Executive Housekeeper, ITC Grand Central.
This kit comprises a Pillow Menu – apart from the regular soft polyfill pillows and non-allergic pillows, they also offer a pillow menu to the guest to choose from the wide range, Mattress Comfort Card – firm mattress/super soft, WelcomSlumber Kit, WelcomSlumber Booklet to ensure guests enjoy the maximum comfort.
This little booklet includes some tips to help one deal with common sleep disturbances, Dream Kerchief – fragrant soft handkerchief with essential oils and a Beverage Menu to let guests choose their drinks, which are extremely refreshing and help the body to sleep.
Taj West End Bangalore offers feather down pillows, 400-thread count Egyptian cotton sheets, hypoallergenic down comforters. Sanjay Sood, General Manager, says “To enhance the bed space, we use the Ploh pillows and duvets and 307 thread count German Batiste white goose down duvets.
The Pillows have Ploh soft panels and the duvet ultra light 307 thread count German Batiste ticking. The bed linen is of 280 thread count pure mercerized cotton bed sheets from Frette while the duvet and pillow covers are of 492 thread count.”
He further adds, “We offer our guests a preference of bed- soft, hard, feather, preference of pillows – microfiber, cotton, goose down, shredded foam, etc.”
Traditionally, a wooden base is used with branded mattresses. But the Welcomdream Bed at ITC Hotels have a box spring (8 inches) and mattress (12.5 inches) with firm pillow top and Posture Tech coil.
While selecting the sheet material, they consider the fabric quality, feel of the fabric, whiteness and higher number of thread count, which makes the bed linen softer (high thread count of 300/400), pure soft cotton satin weaves.
They also offer bolsters and throw pillows that not only provide additional comfort but also serve the purpose of accessorising the bed.
“At every step of our commitment towards guest satisfaction, we shoulder our responsibility to conserve nature. As a part of this endeavour, we encourage our guests to reuse the linen to save water usage. And guests not only appreciate this but also support us enthusiastically,” sums up Seema Chaturvedi, Executive Housekeeper, ITC Grand Central.
She adds, “This is a long term investment. These specially designed beds are of high quality and therefore hardly require any maintenance.”
Some hotels such as Le Royal Meridien, opt for custom made bed frames.
While some Mumbai guest beds are made of solid teak wood frames with ply in between, others, like The Park, Kolkata, prefer Burma teak wooden frames “Sleep is not merely a little time snatched out of a busy schedule, it is vital for your mental, physical and emotional well-being, and that is why we sell sleep and not rooms,” states Chaturvedi.
It is evident that the hospitality industry has realised the importance of sleep and so are going all out to pamper their guests with the best of beds and bedding.
