The Benjamin, a hotel in Manhattan that caters to the stylish business traveler, has introduced its latest amenity: new clothes for the beds.
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Julien Jourdes for The New York Times
Out went the Frette sheets and old bedspreads, and in came a sumptuous ensemble in ivory Egyptian cotton from Anichini with matelassé pillow shams, sateen duvet covers and 400-thread-count sheets.
Besides a choice of 12 pillow types — overseen by a sleep concierge who says she often feels like a psychiatrist — the bed comes with a money-back guarantee: if you don’t sleep as well as you do at home, you get a refund for the night. One guest has asked for his money back, but not because of the bed, said Andy Labetti, the hotel’s general manager. “It was noisy outside, and he was on a low floor.”
Like many hotels these days, from moderate to luxury, the Benjamin is engaged in bed obsession, a trend that is, oddly, relatively recent for an industry that is, after all, in the sleep business. Ever since 1999, when Westin introduced, with much fanfare, its all-white Heavenly Bed, hotels have gone to the mattresses — and pillows and sheets — to please the traveler well versed in once-arcane details like mattress height and thread counts.
Yet another wave of bed amenities is here, with lighter, softer sheets that keep you cool, and thicker mattresses that can feel better than the one you have at home. As for bedspreads, they are disappearing as rapidly as lobby pay phones, making way for washable duvet covers that are changed for each guest and are usually white to signal cleanliness.
“You don’t get the oogie factor, where you worry about who was there before you,” said Steven Samson, the vice president for room operations at Marriott International, which installed new bedding in 628,000 rooms last year.
Frequent business travelers like Elliott Grosovsky, the president and chief executive of Elliott Lauren, a women’s clothing company in New York, now expect the best in bedding. He considers great sheets “totally standard,” like 24-hour room service. “When I notice something, it’s either because it’s not up to my expectations or because it’s something extra, like a pillow menu,” he said. On a trip to India, two details caught his attention: the “amazing” duck-down pillows at the Imperial in New Delhi, and a coil that poked through the mattress at a Taj hotel in Mumbai.
Mattresses are an important way for a property or chain to set itself apart, hoteliers say. Thicker hotel mattresses are a response to residential box-spring-mattress combinations that are typically 26 to 30 inches high. (“But hotels have to make sure the height is comfortable for a shorter person,” said Mr. Samson of Marriott’s new 27-inch-thick beds.) Pillow-top mattresses, which have a cushioned layer, are a costly investment since they cannot be turned over. These are common at luxury hotels like Four Seasons, which has upgraded the mattress that Sealy designed for the company more than a decade ago.
As sales of hotel mattresses to guests have become commonplace, mattress companies are eager to link with hotels to promote their products. “Spending a night at a hotel is a great way to try out a bed,” said Debbie C. Howath, an assistant professor at Johnson & Wales University International Hotel School in Providence, R.I.
The same applies to sheets, which is one reason high-end linen manufacturers like Sferra, Anichini and Bagni Volpi Noemi are courting luxury and boutique hotels, a domain long dominated by Frette. Indeed, the Benjamin recently replaced its Frette sheets with Anichini for “something luxurious but different,” said Anya Olanska, the sleep concierge at the hotel.
“Sheets can be a deal breaker,” said D’Arcy Achziger, a merchandise director for a New York clothing company who travels for business more than three months a year. “Now the best hotel sheets are impossibly soft and cool, and go swoosh when you get in the bed.” A fan of the sheets at the Four Seasons, Ms. Achziger said, “I give hotels a B or B+ when the sheets feel like the ones I have at home.”
Thread counts indicate quality up to a point, said Lisa Rosenberg, the owner of Arrelle Fine Linens in Chicago. To achieve thread counts over 300 a square inch, manufacturers usually twist each thread “then multiply by two,” she said, turning a 200-count thread sheet into a 400-count.
“A 200-count Frette hotel sheet is a good sheet,” she added. And 100 percent cotton is ideal because it breathes.
Such sheets are not practical at large chain hotels, where cotton-polyester is the norm, said Sue A. Brush, a senior vice president at Westin Hotels and Resorts. “The bed needs a wrinkle-free appearance.” But hotels like Westin have increased the thread count and softness ante, replacing the standard T-180, a 180-count cotton-polyester warhorse, with costlier higher counts and blends favoring cotton over polyester.
As for pillows, choice rules. Chains like Westin, W, Marriott and Hyatt continue to raise quality, size and number, making watching TV or checking e-mail on a laptop a luxurious experience.
Extensive pillow menus continue to expand, mainly at high-end hotels that can sustain the cost and have the space to stockpile varieties. At the Benjamin — where the selection includes memory foam, buckwheat and the Snore-No-More, which holds the chin up to open nasal passages — 75 percent of guests try a special pillow, Ms. Olanska said.
The water pillow does not have many takers, she said, adding that it was, perhaps, too 70s. But the new music pillow that attaches to an iPod and turns into a fluff-filled speaker? A hit.
Source: New York Times, 9/17/07
