Pulling out the bedding stops

By Marni Andrews

From ultra-luxe beds that retail up to $50,000 to hyper environmental corporate awareness programs to beds for guests with disabilities, certain hoteliers are pulling out the bedding stops to entice and retain a loyal customer in what is becoming a tougher market with a demanding guest. Many of the rest, unfortunately, are not doing so well and it’s showing in guest surveys. However, in a survey of 10,000 hotels conducted earlier this year by Smith Travel Research for the American Hotel & Lodging Association, 57 per cent of respondents said they had upgraded bedding packages in the past year.

“Even basic highway motels are upgrading to better beds. This is, after all, the biggest and most important piece of furniture and equipment in a hotel room,” exclaims Lorne Priestley, hospitality sales manager, British Columbia for Serta Mattress Co., whose best sellers are the EuroTop and PillowTop mattresses. “We have created a client who demands better bedding in the hotels and motels that he visits.”

Better bedding, of course, is all relative. As of Sept. 1, 2008, for example, the AAA 4-diamond rated Westminster Hotel in Livingston, NJ became the first property in the U.S. to offer a luxury sleep system from Israel-based Hollandia International, whose systems retail for US$6,000 to US$50,000. Linens were also upgraded to custom 300-thread-count quadruple-sheeted beds, duvets and bamboo-based terry products.
 
Every room features the two-sided Morpheus mattress (one side firm, the flip side soft) while the 10 suites will offer the Platinum-Luxe Sleep System, which features a pneumatic hand control and two massage systems with 12 massage programs in a steel frame bed base.

Enhanced bedding, cleanliness

“A good night’s sleep is the fundamental function of a hotel,” says Trevor Newton, director of purchasing, SilverBirch Hotels & Resorts (formerly CHIP Hospitality), which manages 35 hotels and resorts across Canada. “Today’s quality beds have a life cycle of about eight to 10 years, so each year we try to replace our beds based on that criteria.”

Newton spent 28 years with Westin before joining SilverBirch in 1998. He was impressed with the Serta beds Westin was using at the time and he has continued to deal with Serta.
“The bed we purchase most is the Presidential Suite PillowTop. We do receive a number of compliments on them in our guest responses. Sometimes a good barometer of a product is the absence of complaints—we just don’t get any on our Serta beds!” he says.

Sandman Hotel Group’s president and COO Taj Kassam sleeps on the same custom-branded mattress that’s used in the company’s 35 properties. He says the chain replaces on average at least 20 per cent of mattresses every year to ensure a good night’s sleep for his guests.
 
“Guests are far more educated on what is available in the market for bedding. And they expect a good night’s sleep and value for their stay,” he says.

Neil Fowler, hospitality textile consultant, Standard Textile Company Inc., which offers a complete hospitality bedding line at all levels, suggests that a hotel or hotel brand must first understand where they stand in the marketplace or where they want to be before investing in new bedding.

“A four-star property must offer the hotel guest four-star linen and do the market research to define what that rating involves,” says Fowler. “The trend has been toward the White Bed. In order to differentiate themselves, many hotels and brands have reintroduced some colour with decorative products such as accent pillows and bed scarves that coordinate with drapery, carpet and wall coverings.”

At the Holiday Inn Express Hotel & Suites Vaughan Southwest just outside Toronto, general manager John Caneco agrees that guests are happy that colourful floral bedspreads are a thing of the past. He says they are impressed with the triple sheeting, the fluffy duvets and pillow labels indicating either soft or firm as a choice.

Suzanne Allemeier, hotel manager, Holiday Inn & Suites Vancouver Downtown, says that the “fresh, clean, modern white bed with lots of pillows and triple sheeting” and the pillow labels are the most popular items at Holiday Inn.

Fowler adds that another trend has been to higher and higher thread counts and sustainable fibres such as bamboo and hemp, though he cautions that there’s little point of putting these products in place if the hotel laundry cannot process them or there is a high discard rate.




At Delta Hotels, the Sanctuary bed has been in place for the past few years. The key drivers with development of the product were guest comfort combined with operational simplicity and an appealing, competitive design, according to Paul Gardian, executive director, operations. Delta has 42 branded properties across the country.

Gardian says the biggest factors influencing what a hotel looks for in bedding are a blend of design, look and feel followed by durability and quality as well as consideration of operational aspects. Does it make an impression with the guest? How is this new bed going to affect current processes?

“We are seeing the enhanced bedding package appearing as a standard with most brands. It’s not limited to four- and five-star brands. Limited service brands have incorporated this as well, so it’s no longer a brand differentiator but is becoming an industry expectation,” says Gardian.

Steve Ashmole, national sales manager, Guest Supply Canada, which offers a variety of bedding products, says that hotel guests appreciate bedding upgraded from the traditional bedspread because it has a more home-like feel.

Hotel guests are looking for a clean, fashionable look, says Ashmole. Many brands have opted for a basic white bedding package that they can accent with coloured accessories. Hotel operators are also exploring the hygienic and allergy-friendly components of bedding, while the fear of bed bugs has some operators looking for bedding solutions that will protect their guests.

Tony Canevaro, president and chief heating officer for Baked Bed Bugs, says that many hoteliers are throwing out mattresses and box springs due to bed bug infestations. His company’s patented process is called Thermapure Heat, which kills all lifecycles of bed bugs including the eggs. The heat can penetrate mattresses, box springs, hide-a-beds, carpets, upholstered furniture and wall cavities, claims Canevaro.

Today’s obsession with cleanliness was the motivating force behind the washable synthetic down StaminaFibre collection, according to John Lungul, vice-president of sales, FR Systems, which manufactures the line.

“Unlike feather, down and polyester products, StaminaFibre pillows and duvets remain fluffy and resilient even after repeated wash cycles. Feedback from our clients is very positive. Initially they are skeptical about the claims we make. For the most part, buyers want value. Unfortunately, they seldom think about the durability of comfort and look. If a bedding product cannot be laundered, its life cycle will not be great,” says Lungul.

At Londèn Inc., which has manufactured retail bedding for 25 years and just last year entered the hospitality market, the key selling feature is custom service, according to Andi Monopoli, hospitality sales.

“I often joke with The Couples Resort that they were awarded their five-star status after converting all their towels to our Christy Organic [line]. The feedback has been tremendous,” says Monopoli. “Another success story, one of Canada’s premier spas, Ste. Anne’s Spa, converted all their sheets to our 400-thread-count, 100 per cent cotton sheet, again with rave reviews. We really like to look at ourselves as a specialty supplier; we say, ‘We are small enough to know you but large enough to serve you!’”

Too often the focus is just on thread count and not on the quality of the cotton, says John Groscki, president, RYT Products, which offers a complete line of hospitality linens. The ideal, he says, should be to achieve comfort and durability.

“We believe that consumers will continue to demand higher standards. They are going to demand better mattress and pillow protection. We have found that the mattress pads in over 99 per cent of the hotels we have surveyed do not even reach the outside edge of the mattress,” he says. “Over sizing is big as all pads shrink with washing. People are also heavier and mattresses softer, so you need a bigger pad to compensate.”

Environmental awareness

With scarcely a day going by without a reference to either global warming or the need to treat the planet more conscientiously, being environmentally responsible has become a top trend in the hotel industry. Many properties have introduced “green” programs such as changing bedding and towels only on request and installing water-conserving faucets and toilets.
 
Still, according to the J.D. Power and Associates’ 2007 North America Hotel Guest Satisfaction Study, while nearly three-fourths of hotel guests willingly participate in environmentally friendly programs offered by their hotels, many guests are unaware of whether these programs are offered at the hotel property. The study surveyed approximately 50,000 guests over the previous 12 months.

According to Tom Eales, senior vice-president, Hilden America, which offers a variety of bedding products, while the industry trends are leaning toward eco-friendly linens such as organic cotton and bamboo, there is still not a product that satisfies the customer while offering longevity and cost effectiveness. He notes that Hilden’s T300 Plain Sateen linens have traditionally been most popular but lately the 60/40 Cotton Rich products have taken the spotlight because of their great feel, increased durability and wrinkle resistance.
 
Eden Textile, which offers luxury products from beds to bedding to bathroom linens, window coverings and soft furnishings, has instituted a recycling program that targets impoverished families in Africa. Through a non-profit partnership with Africa We Care, Eden customers can divert post-consumer textiles from landfill and donate them to a worthy cause, according to Mike Wilson, president, Eden Textile.

Eden also practices eco-conscious manufacturing with the use of non-toxic, non-carcinogenic chemicals. Wilson says that reverse osmosis is used as well, meaning that recycled water is used to process sheets in order to minimize waste and avoid machine erosion.

Gardian of Delta Hotels says that his properties wash sheets every other day rather than daily for the duration of a guest’s stay as a green initiative.
“Washing sheets every other day not only saves water and detergent but also prolongs the lifespan of the linens,” he comments.

Les Krzywy, vice-president sales for Image Distributors (Canada) Ltd., says that his most popular washer/extractor offers much shorter drying times for cotton items, which translates to less labour, less gas, less lint and longer linen life. He is seeing problems with some on-premise laundries from the use of larger sheets with higher thread count, and more sheets and more duvets being used in enhanced bedding packages.

“As a hotel upgrades their linen to a much higher standard, they should consider the resulting effect on the laundry operation, especially if in house,” says Krzywy. “Even the simple decision to triple sheet has a direct impact on laundry production since in most locations laundries were sized using a proven formula of pounds per room.”

Ashmole of Guest Supply Canada says that some bedding manufacturers are responding to environmental concerns by producing fabrics manufactured from “things like recycled plastic bottles.”

For some companies, environmental awareness goes all the way back to the factory. Priestley of Serta says the company’s new Eco-Senset model contains “latex foam and other ‘green’ products.” Plus all Serta factories have a program to recycle anything that can be recycled.

Accessible rooms

The Stockholm, Sweden-based Scandic hotel chain, which since 2003 has been working to make its hotels accessible to guests with disabilities, is stepping up the pace of the conversion. In 2008, Scandic will add more than 100 accessible rooms, as well as raise the standard of accommodation by providing height-adjustable beds to meet increased demand. Approximately 50 million people in Europe currently have some form of disability and the number is growing.

“We currently have difficulty satisfying all the room requests we receive from individual disabled guests, from various organizations, and from older people who find our accessibility aids a great help,” says Magnus Berglund, Scandic’s disability ambassador. “Scandic has won a number of awards for its accessibility program in recent years, which has probably added to the demand.

“Scandic sees investing in accessibility as a step towards a better society and, equally importantly, as a competitive advantage in the market,” continues Berglund. “Many people probably think of accessible rooms as sterile and dull, but guests who have experienced our rooms prefer them because we have focused on functionality, size and design,” he ends.

At the Scandic Asker hotel in Norway demand for the rooms is so high that the chain is adding an entire wing with 33 accessible rooms.