Shopping for a new guest mattress isn’t quite as straightforward as purchasing one for yourself. Of course, you want to find a bed that’s comfortable enough for your parents, siblings, cousins, and friends to enjoy. However, you probably don’t want to spend a fortune on something that won’t be used most days of the year.
To help you decide, we’ve put together this list of comfortable guest bed options. We’ve focused on including mattresses that can accommodate the most people — at a fair price point. As such, you’ll notice that most beds on this list are all-foam and below $1,300 for a queen.
Top 6 Mattresses for Guest Room
- Editor’s Choice :Tuft Needle OriginalStarting at $745 Shop Now
- Best Easy-to-Clean Mattress for Guest Rooms :NectarStarting at $399 Shop Now
- Best Hybrid Bed for Guest Rooms :Brooklyn Bedding SignatureStarting at $599 Shop Now
- Best Memory Foam Mattress for Guest Rooms :Leesa Sapira HybridStarting at $1199 Shop Now
- Best Budget Mattress for Guest Rooms :Dreamfoam Bedding Arctic Dreams 10Starting at $219 Shop Now
- Best Natural Mattress for Guest Rooms :EcoSleepStarting at $899 Shop Now
Editor’s Choice
Why Tuft & Needle wins as editor’s choice
Tuft & Needle makes a great budget-friendly mattress, and it’s one of the most popular bed-in-a-box mattresses online. It has a two-layer construction and is ideal for back, stomach, and combination sleepers, but side sleepers should be fine, too. It’s just a hair firmer than the Bowery mattress, but in general, it lands around a medium on our firmness scale.
Tuft & Needle’s best features
- Soft foam construction that won’t make your guests feel like they are “stuck in the mud”
- Good edge support and motion isolation makes it a solid choice for couples
- Excellent value for the money and consistently among our best affordable mattress options
Why we picked this bed
It’s comfortable, accommodating, and affordable. What more could you ask for? We honestly think its simple construction is the best thing going for it because it offers a very classic, neutral feel we think most people will enjoy.
Best Memory Foam Mattress
Why Nectar wins as best easy-to-clean mattress for guest room
Nectar makes a great mattress for people who enjoy memory foam. This bed is very comfortable for people who sleep on their back, stomach, side, or even a combination of the three. One of its major highlights, though, is its machine washable cover. This makes it extremely easy to clean in case of a spill or stain!
Nectar’s best features
- Comfortable memory foam feel that supports many body types and sleeper styles
- Affordable price point and frequent promotions
- Durable bed that’s backed by Nectar’s lifetime warranty
- Removable cover you can take off and throw in the washing machine
Why we picked this bed
Nectar is an all-around quality bed that’s suitable for all sleeper styles and body types, which makes it a top choice for our Best Mattress for Guest Room List. We think it offers a similar viscous memory feel as TempurPedic, without the expensive luxury price tag.
Best Hybrid Bed
Why Brooklyn Bedding Signature Hybrid mattress wins as best hybrid bed for guest room
Brooklyn Signature is a hybrid mattress that your guests can enjoy sleeping on for years and years. But the best part is that it’s not any more expensive than the other mattresses on this list! We were shocked when we saw the retail price of the Signature. Typically, the queen-size bed falls under the $850 mark when it’s all said and done after discounts.
Brooklyn Bedding Signature Hybrid’s best features
- Coils and foam construction make it more comfortable for heavier sleepers
- Earns high scores in the support and pressure relief categories
- Durable construction provides long-term value
- Multiple firmness options for all sleeping positions
Why we picked this bed
The Brooklyn Bedding Signature Hybrid mattress strikes a fantastic balance between comfort and affordability, which is exactly why it’s on our best guest bed list. It’s also one of the more supportive beds on this list because of its hybrid construction for those of you who expect guests that have larger and heavier body types.
Best Memory Foam Mattress for Guest Rooms
Why Leesa Studio wins as best memory foam mattress for guest rooms
Leesa Studio is a budget-friendly version of the popular Leesa mattress. It shares many similarities with the flagship model, including its three-layer, all-foam construction. The Leesa Studio has a definite memory foam feel and provides a good balance of pressure relief and support, which is why we think it works for all sleeping positions.
Leesa Studio’s best features
- Medium firmness profile and memory foam feel make it appealing to a wide variety of people
- Budget-tier pricing so you won’t break the bank when furnishing a spare room
- Made with safe and non-toxic materials, earning CertiPUR-US certification
Why we picked this bed
Overall, it’s a comfortable and accommodating bed that most people will enjoy. Plus, it’s sold at an affordable price point, which we know is a big factor when you’re trying to find the best temporary bed for guests.
Best Budget Mattress for Guest Room
Why DreamFoam Arctic Dreams wins as best budget mattress for guest room
At $549 for a queen (before discounts), we think the DreamFoam Arctic Dreams truly represents fantastic value for the price. First, it’s available in hybrid construction, making it a good option for people of all sizes, including heavier individuals. Plus, it features cooling technology, which will please hot sleepers and anybody with hot flashes or night sweats.
DreamFoam Arctic Dreams’ best features
- Comfortable neutral-foam feel that a majority of sleepers will enjoy
- Suitable for all sleeping styles, including back, side, stomach, and combination sleepers
- Hybrid option provides more long-term durability and support for larger guests
Why we picked this bed
Overall, DreamFoam offers a solid selection of cheap guest beds. However, we chose Arctic Dreams as the best budget mattress for a guest room because it’s universally accommodating and isn’t polarizing. In other words, pretty much everyone will like it.
Best Natural Mattress for Guest Room
Why EcoSleep wins as best natural mattress for guest room
If you’re in the market for a natural or organic guest mattress, we’d recommend EcoSleep as our top pick. It’s built with latex foam, Joma Wool, and GOTS-certified organic cotton, giving it a luxurious feeling that your guests will appreciate. At the same time, its hybrid construction means that it will last longer than many all-foam beds — giving you a better return on your investment.
EcoSleep’s best features
- Double-sided, flippable mattress with two different firmness levels
- More affordable than most other latex hybrid beds
- Comfortable, supportive, and responsive feeling that most guests will appreciate
Why we picked this bed
As a host, you want to make your guests feel as comfortable as possible in your home. With EcoSleep, not only will you provide a natural and organic sleep experience, but you’ll also give your loved ones multiple mattress firmness options to cater to their preferences.
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 150 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.
The Review Team
What Type of Mattress Is Best for the Guest Room?
Choosing the best mattress for a guest room can be complicated since people tend to have quite specific (and varying) preferences when it comes to their mattresses. While some of your guests might like the feel of memory foam, others might prefer a traditional innerspring bed.
As a result, we recommend picking a mattress that can accommodate the largest cross-section of people but doesn’t break the bank for you. In most cases, this will mean that you’re looking at all-foam beds or cheaper hybrid beds. In the next section, we’ll explore the different types of foam that make for comfortable guest bed options.
Considerations When Purchasing a Guest Bed
We’ve given our list of the best beds for your guest room, but if you’re having trouble choosing one or if none of them seem just right and you want to look into some other options, we thought we’d break down by category just what it is we look for in a guest room mattress. After all, when you’re looking for a bed that’s only going to be used a few times a year, there are some additional considerations that you normally wouldn’t think about when mattress shopping.
Price
As we said before, mattresses can get expensive and that’s really not ideal for a guest bed. We think it’s perfectly reasonable to keep the cost below $1,000 for a queen-size mattress. You don’t need to splurge on a fancy, luxury mattress for a room that only gets used sometimes. Especially because mattresses that come with extravagant price tags are usually priced as such because of their niche features that are intended to cater to one specific person or couple.
You can check out our Mattress Deals & Coupons page for daily discounts. Especially in the case of a guest bed — you’ve already furnished a whole house and you don’t want to break the bank on a mattress that only gets used now and then.
Size
Ultimately, the size of your new guest mattress depends on the size of your guest room. And in many cases, guest rooms come together based on whatever furniture was left behind when the kids went to college. You might have two twin beds, or a bunk set, or a full. There’s no wrong way — it’s a guest room. Just make sure to check what mattress sizes are available before getting your heart set on a certain mattress model. Some companies don’t make the full range of twin through Cal king. Some common omissions are twin, twin XL, and full, which are also pretty common guest bed sizes.
If you don’t already have a bed frame, you’re starting from scratch, and you’re looking for a suggestion on a good guest bed size, we’d say a full or a queen. That gives your guests enough space to fit two people in the bed, but unlike a set of twins or a bunk set-up, you only need one set of bedding. Hooray for practicality and convenience!
Lightweight
Most bed-in-a-box mattresses that you’ll find online are a manageable weight. You want to consider the weight of the mattress for the basic reason of making the bed. An overly heavy mattress is a pain to make. Plus, if the mattress is super heavy, that’s also an indication that it’s not the right construction for a guest bed (we’ll talk more about that later).
Thickness
In terms of thickness, mattresses come in a pretty wide range. When you’re shopping for a guest mattress, you want something that offers enough support for whoever may be sleeping on it, but you don’t want something too heavy or something that requires specially-sized sheets. With that in mind, look for a bed that’s somewhere between 10″ and 12″. That will provide support to prevent even your heavier guests from bottoming out, but it’s also a really normal size that is easy to buy sheets for. It will also ensure that the mattress isn’t so heavy that it’s difficult to make. Most online mattresses are in that 10-12” range.
Construction
Because you want to keep the cost down, but also want to accommodate the possibility of a heavier guest (like your bodybuilder friend), you’re probably looking for a dense all-foam bed, as opposed to a hybrid bed that uses both foam and coils (those can get pricey). Usually, an all-foam bed raises the concern of longevity and durability, but a guest bed isn’t going to be slept on every night, so that’s not an issue in this situation.
Compared to coil beds, all-foam beds also come with the added benefit of leaving less space for dust mites. Dust mites are like guests — if there’s no space, they won’t come. Like, no one wants to spend a week with you in your basement 90-square-foot studio apartment.
Materials
We mentioned that you’ll probably want to look at all-foam constructions, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you have no material options. With these bed-in-a-box mattresses, you’ll be looking at memory foam, latex foam, and poly foam, and often a bed will have more than one. Here’s how the three materials differ.
- Memory foam — Memory foam tends to be denser, though it softens over time and when exposed to heat (including body heat). Traditional memory foam actually has a reputation of retaining body heat. However, gel memory foam and other temperature regulating technologies help new-age memory foams sleep cooler and more comfortably at night.
- Latex foam — Latex foam has a bouncier, sort of spongy feel, and allows for more airflow. We suggest more latex foam for people who sleep hot because that extra airflow helps to keep you cool. And since some of your guests may be sweaty sleepers, you might want to consider latex foam in your guest mattress. Especially if you live in a warm region.
- Poly foam — Poly foam is what we like to call neutral-foam and is usually very affordable and comes in various densities, all with a very classic, accommodating feel. It’s not as bouncy as latex foam, but it’s not as viscous as memory foam either. It’s a very general, pressure-relieving type of foam used in many online mattresses.
- Coils — These could be in the form of innersprings, pocketed coils, or microcoils. Innerspring mattresses tend to be very bouncy and are more traditional — think the mattress in your grandma’s guest bedroom. Pocketed coils, on the other hand, are individually wrapped and work independently from one another to help with motion isolation and localized support. Coils allow for more airflow, and make a mattress a little more breathable.
Comfort
In terms of comfort and feel, you want something that’s going to be accommodating for various body types and sleeper types. That means you don’t want to go too soft or too firm — it’s gotta be somewhere in the middle so that heavier individuals, and back and stomach sleepers get the support they need, while your lighter guests, and those who sleep on their side, still have some give and pressure relief.
When you’re shopping for a mattress, look for the ILD (indentation load deflection) rating. You want it to be somewhere between 25 and 30 lbs. ILD, which translates to somewhere between medium-soft and medium-firm, depending on the weight of the sleeper.
Edge Support for Couples
When buying a mattress for your guest bedroom, you should also evaluate its edge support. This is especially important if more than one person will be sleeping in your guest bed.
Edge support surrounds your mattress, creating a firm boundary that goes all the way around the bed. Without proper edge support, your bed is more likely to sag around the sides. As a result, guests might fall off or be unable to sit on the edge of the bed.
For more information about edge support and how we test it, check out our helpful blog post.
What Is Temperature Regulation?
As a host, you want to make sure that your guests are comfortable while they sleep. That’s why you might consider a mattress with cooling technology (or at least one that tends to sleep temperature neutral, rather than warmer).
Memory foam tends to absorb heat, which can make you heat up during the night, whereas latex foam or coils provide better airflow, as we mentioned earlier. Some mattresses even have layers that are designed to cool down the bed like the laminated cooling gel layer in Loom and Leaf.
Another incentive for buying a mattress with temperature regulation technology? It’s not easy (or fun) to clean sweat stains and smells from a mattress — so keep your guests cool and minimize the mess you have to clean up after they leave.
Company Policies
All six of the mattress companies we’ve highlighted are popular in the mail-order mattress space, so it’s not surprising that they all offer free shipping and returns (in line with the industry standard).
However, risk-free trial periods and warranty policies vary from company to company. For example, you’ll get a 100-night trial with Tuft & Needle and Leesa, a 120-night trial with DreamFoam, EcoSleep, and Brooklyn Bedding, and a whopping 365-night trial with Nectar.
For warranties, Tuft & Needle, Brooklyn Bedding, EcoSleep, Leesa, and DreamFoam offer the standard 10-year warranty and Nectar steals the show once again with a lifetime warranty.
It’s great to make your guests feel at home. But in most cases, your guest bed won’t be occupied most of the time. That’s why the best mattress for your guest room is an affordable mattress with medium firmness profiles.
Again, your guest bed probably won’t get used regularly. The five mattresses we’ve included on this list cost between $550-$1,300 for a queen, and they’re all excellent options. We recommend sticking somewhere in that budget range.
All of the mattress companies we’ve discussed in this article offer free returns. If you decide you don’t like your mattress, the company will generally send someone to come pick up your mattress and refund your money within a few weeks.
It depends on a few different factors, such as how often it’s used and the condition it’s in. On average, the lifespan of a mattress is between seven to 10 years, but you can get more mileage out of your guest mattress if it’s only used a few times per year. However, if you’re using your old mattress in your spare bedroom, you’ll have to replace it sooner than if you purchased a brand new one specifically for your guest room.