For frequent travelers, there’s something extra special about the quality of a hotel mattress. For some reason, it’s more comfortable than the bed we have back home, even if it’s not as expensive. In this review, we tried to match up high-quality beds with hotel mattress brands, so when you ask yourself, “What kind of mattresses do hotels use?” we’ll help you find a sufficient answer.
When it comes to the best hotel mattress, you’ll find that they have a lot in common.
- First, hotel beds are most commonly either hybrid or innerspring mattresses that fall around a medium on the firmness scale to suit most people.
- Additionally, most hotels turn to classic brands such as Sealy, Serta-Simmons, and Beautyrest. To fully recreate your hotel sleeping experience, you can opt for one of these brands. Because hotels purchase luxury mattresses, they’re likely to run you at least $2,000.
For those of you that are saying “land the plane already,” here are our experts’ picks for the best mattresses you could find at hotels.
Top Hotel Mattresses Of 2023
- Best Firm Hotel Quality Mattress :Helix Dawn LuxeStarting at $1099 Shop Now
- Best Classic Innerspring Hotel Mattress :Saatva ClassicStarting at $935 Shop Now
- Best Plush Hotel Quality Mattress :Nest Bedding SparrowStarting at $949 Shop Now
- Best Hotel Mattress for Heavy People :WinkBeds ClassicStarting at $1149 Shop Now
- Best Pillow Top Hotel Mattress :Nolah Evolution 15Starting at $1799 Shop Now
- Best Eco-Conscious Hotel Mattress :Brentwood Home OceanoStarting at $999 Shop Now
- Best Hotel Quality Mattress for Side Sleepers :DreamCloud PremierStarting at $1398 Shop Now
Compare Best Hotel Mattresses
Best Firm Hotel Quality Mattress
Dawn Luxe is an upgraded pillow top mattress from Helix Sleep. If you want a firmer profile and a luxury mattress, Dawn Luxe is worth considering further.
The Helix Dawn Luxe is a coil bed with a pillow top, but it’s not quite that simple. The entire Helix mattress collection is designed to be semi-custom, meaning you can go through a quick sleep quiz on their website to get a model that best fits your personal preferences.
Helix Dawn Luxe’s best features
- We like Helix for one of the best hotel mattresses because of its triple layers design and additional support.
- Overall, the Luxe collection is built to last with high-quality materials and construction.
- We love how they make several different firmness and support options, allowing Helix to have a bed for every type of sleeper.
- All Helix beds feature individual branding and have handles, pillow-top, thick gauge coils, and a breathable cover similar to a luxury hotel mattress.
Best Classic Innerspring Hotel Mattress
Saatva Classic is the original innerspring mattress online. It comes in three firmness options, all of which have coils for support and a fluffy pillow top.
If you’ve done any research online for luxury mattress brands, Saatva has no doubt popped up. The Classic is an innerspring bed that has two layers of coils and a Euro top cover. Not only that, Saatva is available in the following comfort profiles: Plush Soft, Luxury Firm, and Firm. It’s the cheapest bed on the best hotel mattress list. Honestly, we think it’s hard to find a better mattress for the price.
Saatva’s best features
- The Saatva Classic mattress uses innerspring as its base and pocketed coils for an additional layer of support.
- Its main comfort layers are memory foam and a plush pillow top. The variety of comfort profiles means it suits all sleeper positions, and its supportive construction makes it ideal for any body type.
- You can see as well that Saatva has an off-white cover. Interestingly, it is an organic cotton cover that’s one of our favorite materials.
- It also has a combination of premium materials, providing the look and feel of a luxury hotel mattress you’d find in the Four Seasons.
Best Plush Hotel Quality Mattress
Nest Sparrow is a pillow top mattress that comes in multiple firmness options and is backed by a lifetime warranty.
This is one of our favorite hybrid mattresses, especially for side sleepers (even though they do make other firmness levels). It has pocketed coils, various comfort foams, and an ultra-plush cover. You can even split the Nest Alexander vertically to offer two different firmness levels on the same mattress.
Nest Sparrow is the type of bed that people nestle into—it’s a cozy mattress, so to speak. It’s definitely not short on comfort.
Nest Sparrow’s best features
- You can choose from three different firmness profiles of the Alexander Sparrow bed. The “Plush” is a very soft mattress, while the “Medium” is closer to a medium-soft and the “Firm” is more of a medium firm.
- Nest Sparrow offers that plush feel that makes you go “ahhh” when you lay down on it — similar to mattresses furnished inside Sheraton & Westin. If you love that ultra-cozy feel but still want a bed that’ll offer ample support, we think this is a great option.
- The bed has a gel-infused memory foam quilted topper; this adds additional comfort above what you’ll find in the average online mattress.
Best Hotel Mattress for Heavy People
WinkBed is a thick, durable hybrid mattress that includes a comfortable euro pillow top. In our opinion, it’s one of the best mattresses you can purchase online.
WinkBeds have three different beds on their website, but their Classic mattress could be the nicest hotel bed sold online. It’s extra supportive but has a giant fluffy pillow top made in part of a plant-based Tencel fiber. WinkBed has two layers of coils that allow it to support all body types. We even included it as one of the best for heavy people.
WinkBeds Classic’s bed features
- You can try WinkBed in a Softer, Luxury Firm, and Firmer feel profile, which is why we say that they make a bed for all sleeping styles.
- This is one of the thickest mattresses we’ve tested, which should make for a very durable bed.
- The Tencel cover has a OEKO-TEX Standard 100, Class 1 certification, which means it is a safe, non-toxic textile.
- We also love the fluffy pillow-top feel it offers and its accommodating firmness profile options. It’s a thick, and premium mattress that looks and feels like it belongs in a highly luxurious hotel.
Best Pillow Top Hotel Mattress
Side and combo sleepers will love how plush the Nolah Evolution 15 mattress is. You get a plush pillow-top feel when you lay on it, meaning you don’t sink in, but it’s still really comfortable. The quality of the Nolah Evolution is what you would expect to find in a super fancy hotel. Pretty much everyone will like the way it feels, as long as you’re not deadset on having that memory-foam feel.
One of our favorite things about the Nolah Evolution is that you get to pick your firmness option. You have the option to pick between Plush (medium soft on our scale), Luxury Firm (medium), and Firm (medium-firm). We’re suckers for brands that give sleepers the control to choose their firmness level. It ensures that your bed is exactly what suits your sleeping style.
In terms of price, it falls about average for hybrid beds on the market. Hybrid mattresses tend to cost more because of the materials used. But we think Hybrid mattresses are safe choices for most people.
Nolah’s best features
- For every mattress sold, Nolah “adopts” an animal and donates to a wildlife preservation charity. If you’re an environmentally conscious person, this is a big perk.
- Nolah is a super soft mattress that offers plenty of pressure relief but doesn’t lack support.
- You get the option to choose between a Plush, Luxury Firm, and Firm model. We cannot say enough how big of a deal this is. It gives you the option to pick the model that best suits your body type and sleeper style.
Best Eco-Conscious Hotel Mattress
We like to think of Brentwood Home as kind of an underdog off the mattress industry. Sure, it’s not as widely known as big names like Casper or Nectar, but the Brentwood Home Oceano mattress is one of the best hybrid beds for side sleepers.
On our scale, the Brentwood Oceano mattress falls at around a medium to medium-soft. Which means it’s not an essentially firm mattress. The two coil layers make this a super supportive bed for all body types. That said, pressure relief is definitely prioritized in the Oceano design, which is great news for side sleepers. The top layers of gel memory foam give it a really nice, soft feel that lightly cradles you when you lay on it.
Overall, it’s a very nice, comfortable mattress that most people can enjoy. This is why it’s a great choice for hotel rooms. However, we wouldn’t say it is the best option for people who strictly sleep on their back or stomach because of its firmness.
Brentwood’s best features
- With a Brentwood mattress, you have a year-long trial to decide if it’s the right mattress for you. A lot of companies only offer three to six-month trials.
- The Brentwood Oceano bed has two layers of coils – one layer of pocketed and one layer of micro coils.
- Brentwood is made with natural and sustainable materials, meaning it is eco-friendly and doesn’t off-gas like other mattresses. That does mean it’s a tad more expensive than other mattresses, but we think Brentwood beds are worth the money.
Best Hotel Quality Mattress for Side Sleepers
The DreamCloud Premier mattress is one of the luxury beds offered by DreamCloud, meaning it’s well-placed in a fancy hotel room. The Premier bed from DreamCloud is a hybrid bed that is made with coils, memory foam, and polyfoam. At 14” tall, it’s a thick mattress that’s super supportive with 8.5” of pocketed coils.
Despite the coils being such an important part of the mattress, the layers of memory foam give the DreamCloud Premier contribute to how to feels. We wouldn’t say it is an overwhelming memory foam feel like a TempurPedic. It has a Euro-top, which balances it out nicely. We would categorize it as a pillow-top feel with a twist of memory foam. We think it falls right in the middle of our scale, from a medium to a medium-firm.
Its firmness level gives it a super versatile appeal. Pretty much anyone can sleep on it – side sleepers, back sleepers, people who flip around like a fish when they sleep. And because of the supportive coils, it’s a good choice for heavier folks who need a good amount of support from their mattress.
DreamCloud Premier’s best features
- The DreamCloud Premier has a medium to medium-firm firmness level, which means everyone will like it.
- It has thick, pocketed coils that make it a great choice for heavier folks.
- DreamCloud mattresses aren’t what we would consider budget mattresses, but it is well worth the money with their quality and durability.
How We Test The Mattresses
The Slumber Yard has been around since the beginning of the bed-in-a-box craze. Our team has personally tested over 175 mattresses so far, and we keep more than 150 beds in our office so we can compare them (and take afternoon naps).
When testing mattresses, we evaluate the following factors:
- Construction: We cut mattresses open to see what’s inside and how it’s made.
- Feel: We check if it has a stuck-in-the-mud memory foam feel, or if it’s more of a neutral foam or a plush pillow top, etc.
- Firmness: We have our own firmness scale and evaluate how that may vary depending on your body and sleeper type.
- Pressure relief: We test what’s the sweet spot for different body and sleeper types.
- Support: and how that changes by body/sleeper type
- Edge Support: This is important for couples who share a bed. Would you roll-out of the bed or can you sleep confidently close to the edges?
- Motion Isolation: We use the water glass test to see how the bed fares with motion transfer. This is another important factor for couples that don’t want to wake up one another when they move.
- Temperature Regulation: We use a temperature gun to evaluate if the bed warms up, stays neutral or actively cools while you are sleeping.
- Noise: This could be an issue in beds with coils or innerspring.
- Off-Gassing: Some beds could have a smell for a few weeks after unpacking, and we try to warn you about it.
- Company policies: We also take into account policies such as shipping, returns, trial period and warranty.
- Value: We look at a bed’s price in the context of what it offers in terms of features and quality of materials and construction.
Comparing Price on Hotel Beds
| Mattress | Twin | Twin XL | Full | Queen | King/Cal King |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Helix Dawn Luxe | $1,099 | $1,299 | $1,599 | $1,899 | $2,299 |
| Saatva | $995 | $1,220 | $1,706 | $1,796 | $2,201 |
| WinkBeds | $849 | $949 | $1,199 | $1,499 | $1,699 |
| Nest Sparrow | $1,103 | $1,198 | $1,583 | $1,918 | $2,206 |
| Nolah Evolution | $1,199 | $1,279 | $1,839 | $1,999 | $2,159 |
| Brentwood Oceano | $1,269 | $1,499 | $1,599 | $1,839 | $2,399 |
| DreamCloud Premier | $749 | $974 | $1,124 | $1,199 | $1,424 |
Best Hotel Mattress Brands
Most of this post focuses on beds that we highly respect and consider nice enough for a luxury hotel operator. In this section, however, we assembled a non-exhaustive list of the best hotel mattress brands:
The largest suppliers of hotel mattresses seem to be Serta-Simmons (owns Beautyrest) and TempurPedic-Sealy International. We noticed they have beds in Fairmont Hotels, Wyndham Hotels, and plenty of others. Typically the hotel chains are purchasing directly from the brand or a distributor, not a retail store.
Shopping Online vs. In-Store
Of course, shopping for a mattress in a store is great because you can lay on the mattress and get a real feel for it before bringing it home. However, mattress shopping online has never been easier. Mattress brands largely offer a generous trial period and return policy, giving you the peace of mind to go ahead and order a mattress online without being completely committed to buying it. You’ll also pretty much always get free shipping and free returns, and most brands make the process of ordering (or returning) as easy as possible.
What Kind Of Mattress Do Hotels Use?
Construction
The construction of a mattress is quite literally how it’s made. You can find all-foam mattresses or hybrid mattresses, which will include foam and coils. While an all-foam mattress can provide pressure relief, not everyone likes these mattresses because they don’t offer as much support as a hybrid bed made with a durable innerspring base.
Price
Many hotel beds are luxury mattresses, which means they come at a higher price point. However, you can find some of these mattresses at a more budget-friendly cost. If you’re looking to replicate your favorite hotel, though, look to spend at least $1,000.
Firmness
Hotels often go with a medium firmness because it’s the most likely to suit the most people. You’ll find that most of our selections are the same way (or come in various firmness levels). A mattress with a soft profile is best for those who sleep on their side, and a firmer bed is ideal for those who sleep on their backs and stomachs.
Temperature
Sleeping hot is never fun, so hotels will usually seek out beds with innersprings to provide increased airflow or ones that don’t retain heat as badly as traditional memory foam.
Durability
Obviously, hotels have a ton of guests, so choosing a durable mattress is essential. They’ll want a mattress that is long-lasting and made well so that it will hold up for a few years and plenty of guests of all shapes and sizes. This often comes with a higher price point, but it’s worth it.
Edge Support
A mattress’s edge support is how firm the edge of the mattress is, something important for anyone who shares a bed and finds themselves off to the side while sleeping. Hotel mattresses tend to have good edge support, so this is a factor you’ll want to keep in mind.
Motion Isolation
Motion isolation is another factor that comes up when sharing a bed. If you sleep with a partner who moves a lot, you want a mattress that’s good at deadening movement. Mattresses with more foam tend to isolate movement better because it absorbs the motion. Because hotel mattresses are often hybrids, they’ll have better motion isolation than standard innerspring mattresses.
Best Mattress Materials
Hybrid mattress
Hybrid mattresses will include a combination of two or more materials, like foam and pocketed coils, for example.
Innerspring mattress
Mattresses with an innerspring or coil system inside provide a lot of bounce and airflow. But because of that, they can be tough for anyone who is a light sleeper or shares a bed with someone who moves a lot.
- Memory Foam –– Memory foam is a viscous and contouring type of foam that you’ll feel like you’re sinking into while you sleep. It tends to be pressure relieving but can also retain heat unless it has some temperature regulating tech.
- Latex Foam –– This foam has a spongy feel and has a lot of bounce to it. You won’t sink into latex foam as much as you will in memory foam, and it’s also generally cooler to sleep on because it’s aerated.
- Polyurethane Foam –– This foam can either act as a dense support layer, or a light and comfy top layer. Overall, it has a classic neutral-feel that isn’t as slow responding as memory foam, but more contouring than latex foam.
A hotel mattress is a specially designed bed for a hotel or that looks like it belongs in a hotel. Typically, these are innerspring mattresses. Some will have a pillow top, and others will feature coils and a layer of foam.
There are only a handful of brands that actually makes mattresses featured at hotels. These include Sealy, Serta-Simmons, and Beautyrest. That said, there are plenty of online mattress brands that make beds really similar to those featured in hotels, including Saatva, WinkBed, Bear Mattress, Nest Bedding, etc.
Most hotel beds are pretty expensive ($2,000 or more), especially if you buy them through the hotel’s online shop.
Most of the time, this has to do with the fact that the hotel mattress is designed for longevity. They are extra supportive and typically firm. Your mattress at home is probably old and softer. If you’re dealing with back pain, you might consider purchasing a firmer, more supportive mattress.
In most cases, you’ll find a medium to a medium-firm mattress in your hotel room. And for a good reason. Medium-firm mattresses are generally good for any type of sleeper or any body type.
Why Trust Us
Get the kind of sleep you’ve only dreamed of with some help from our team of mattress experts. We personally test more than 175 of the best sleep solutions from over 60 leading brands on site, so you can be sure you’re getting unbiased reviews, fair comparisons and personalized recommendations.
