Why good hotel beds are important
With hotels and resort companies now sponsoring sleep research studies, commissioning their own branded mattresses, and even posting rest e-newsletters, the competition to win clients’ loyalty by promising them a much better night’s remainder means that placing a pillow-top cushion and higher-quality sheets on the bed could not be enough. To stay ahead, hotels and resorts are presenting full-scale rest efforts.
The bed wars, as they’re famously understood in the sector, have been intensifying swiftly. They’re currently a benefit to the significant bed mattress business, which PricewaterhouseCoopers estimates will certainly market $1.4 billion in beds to resorts in 2005 alone– virtually double the number they have marketed over the previous five years. It’s a motion that’s beginning to compel hotels and resort chains without branded bed programs to embrace one in order to compete, claims Joseph McInerney, head of state and Chief Executive Officer of the American Hotels and resort & Accommodations Association (AHLA) in Washington, D.C. “Resort chains are bring out brand-new beds because that’s just what their consumers wish,” he says.
Many credit report Starwood’s Westin Hotels & Resorts with beginning the trend 6 years earlier when it presented the Heavenly Bed. The first bed commissioned by a resort firm and provided a brand, the Heavenly Bed was billed as an “retreat for the tired vacationer,” and it looked the component: an intense white duvet, a down blanket, 5 feather-and-down cushions, three 230-thread-count sheets (one sheet is laid over the blanket, a technique referred to as triple sheeting), and a custom-designed 12Â 1/2-inch-thick Simmons cushion with 900 individual coils. Within one year, Westin had improved its occupancy fees and had actually begun the first retail bedding operation of any sort of resort chain, offering the Heavenly Bed on its Website. To date, 30,000 folks have gotten goods on Westin’s site; 7,000 have acquired the whole queen-sized collection for $2,565.
In 2003, Starwood followed its very own success by launching the Dessert Sleeper at its Sheraton chain, and most just recently, the 4 Comfort Bed at its 4 Facts by Sheraton resorts. In the past year, Radisson started changing 90,000 mattresses with the Rest Number bed, which allows couples adjust the firmness of each side of their mattress individually making use of a remote control.
Marriott and Revival hotels began obtaining new cushions three years earlier, yet in January, Marriott stated it would change many of the cushions and all of the bed linen in eight of its chains. JW Marriott, Marriott, and Renaissance will enjoy the best bed linen: a pillow-top cushion, 300-thread-count sheets, 6 cushions, a white duvet, and an ornamental bed scarf across the foot of the bed. The entire task, which will present through 2005, will cost the business around $190 million, including marketing initiatives. Marriott is also marketing its bedding on-line this summertime.
Hyatt’s Grand Bed is on the way for all Grand Hyatt and Hyatt Rule hotels in the Usa, Canada, and the Caribbean by the end of the year. The hotel’s new bed is a 13-inch-thick, pillow-top Sealy Posturepedic with 250-thread-count triple sheeting and a down duvet in place of the aged bedspread.
With the bed wars in full swing, a host of brand-new programs to customize beds is under way. W Hotels now have a twilight solution; housekeepers supply a lavender-filled pillow insert, an eye cushion, and jasmine important oil to visitors’ spaces each night around nine o’clock. Crowne Plaza’s new Rest Advantage program stocks spaces with curtain clips (to shut out light), earplugs, and rest CD’s that play comforting songs. Kimpton has actually put super-sized 96-inch-long cushions in some areas for high visitors. Loews’ rehabilitation concierge supplies white-noise machines and eye masks. Rumor has it that some resorts are even getting ready to introduce special duvet menus, as well as beds that visitors could lower or increase to different heights.
These programs are escalating as the hotels and resort industry recovers from a three-year economic downturn. Hotels and resort revenues were up 13.3 percent in 2004 over 2003, and hospitality research business PKF Consulting expects them to increase another 14 percent this year. Analysts say the rising need for hotel rooms– especially in the greater cost varieties– has been fueled by company tourists, whose cost accounts permit them to be less conscious cost compared to convenience vacationers.
While these efforts are costly, execs at the major chains are motivated by the reality that guests seem to be willing to pay even more for a room with a better bed. In Westin’s case, research showed that its guests would certainly pay in between $12 and $20 additional each night. Marriott anticipates to be able to charge up to $30 even more a night in its Marriott line of hotels and resorts, because clients perceive the overall high quality of the area to be higher with a more lavish bed. And the press to project an enhanced bed photo is filtering to lower-priced hotels and resorts, too. Marriott’s research has shown that for visitors at these residential properties, exceptional beds suffice to keep visitors faithful, shares Marsha Scarbrough, Marriott’s vice president of brand name product approach. The new criterion for its Residence Lodge, Court, and Fairfield Lodge brands (among others) is now a nine-inch-thick cushion, up from a previous four inches in many cases. House Inns will certainly now enjoy triple sheeting. “Vacationers would like to sleep on a bed that’s at least as good as the bed they contend residence,” shares the AHLA’s McInerney. “Now, there’s no reason why they can not.”.
Because of their great flexibility, built-in closets are an extremely practical solution, since then enable optimum use of the available space. Read more …
