4 Mattress and Bedding Tips for a Five-Star Hotel Sleep Experience at Home

From the pile of ultra-soft pillows to the smooth, flawlessly clean sheets, there’s no experience quite as luxurious as spending the night in a five-star hotel.

Add a breakfast buffet, luxurious facilities and an exotic destination into the equation and it’s no wonder so many people opt to splurge a little — even if only rarely — when they choose where to stay during their holidays.

While some aspects of the five-star hotel magic depend on the hotel itself, others are quite easy to replicate at home. With a few smart purchases and simple tricks, it’s surprisingly simple to get the experience of sleeping in a five-star hotel bed while you’re at home.

From mattress tips to sheet recommendations, we’ve listed four of our favourite tips for creating a five-star hotel sleep experience at home below. Try one, two or all four for a better night’s sleep, along with a luxurious feeling that makes sliding into bed an unforgettable experience.

Choose the right mattress

The average person spends about a third of their life asleep, making a comfortable, supportive mattress an essential part of any bedroom.

When luxury hotel companies shop for best mattresses, rarely do they spend time to check the price tag. Instead, they look at the key factors that make a mattress perfect for a great night’s sleep — size, comfort and support.

As a consumer shopping for a mattress for your home, you have an advantage over the people furnishing your favourite hotels: the ability to customise your mattress.

Our custom mattresses allow you to choose the optimal size, shape and support level for your sleep habits. For the five-star hotel experience, you’ll want to prioritise size (after all, there’s no feeling quite as good as stretching out) and luxury features such as deep comfort design.

Double your pillow count

A key aspect of the five-star hotel experience is pillow count — the total number of pillows that are provided on your bed, waiting for you to fall backwards onto them a few minutes after you check in.

To replicate the five-star experience at home, try increasing your pillow count. For a queen or king mattress, aim to have two classic pillows on each side (classic feather and down pillows, for the true five-star feel), as well as a selection of small throw pillows.

Switch out your fitted bottom sheet

The next time you stay in a five-star hotel, take a look at your bed’s bottom sheet. Instead of a conventional fitted bottom sheet, the majority of high-end hotels instead use a flat sheet, folded perfectly to the curves of the mattress with hospital corners.

It’s also perfectly flat and free of creases — something hotels achieve by moistening the sheets using a spray bottle while making the bed.

By using a flat sheet, you gain a slightly higher level of movement and comfort in bed, allowing you to move, roll over and sleep freely. Paired with a soft, supportive mattress, this simple trick is a surprisingly effective way to replicate the five-star experience in your bedroom.  

Up your thread count

One of the most common at-home bedding mistakes is choosing sheets based on their price, rather than their comfort factor.

Just like your choice of mattress, the sheets you sleep on have a huge impact on your comfort and sleep quality. In a five-star hotel, you’ll almost always find sheets with a thread count of at least 300, a factor that plays a major role in the undeniable comfort of luxury hotel beds.

If you never feel quite 100% comfortable when you slip into bed at home, upping your bedding’s thread count is a simple but effective solution. Like with everything, there’s a point of diminishing returns when it comes to thread count — in general, anything above 300 is more than enough.

Beyond an increased thread count, other factors to look for when comparing sheets include the type of cotton used (organic is almost always softer than conventionally-grown) and the size of the yarn (60 to 100 is usually the sweet spot).