When Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Hotels company opened its first property in Chicago last year, there was a lot of fuss over the mod-style bed inside "the chambers" (Virgin-speak for guest rooms). With its flaxen frame and reclined, padded headboard—ideal for leaning back with a laptop or tablet without having to stack a mountain of pillows—it was a seductive place to sleep and work. It even becomes a dining area, with a nook at the front corner of the bed that doubles as a small seat, and a small end table that extends for breakfast. With the help of Rockwell Group Europe, Virgin Hotels' design team had created a futuristic—and honestly, game-changing—hotel bed. Now the proprietary (and recently patented) bed is for sale at the newly launched Virgin Hotels at Home online store. For $4,825 (with free shipping) guests can sleep on a full-sized, custom-made Virgin bed every night. (Queen, king, and California king options are also available, along with custom mattresses with cashmere-blended fiber from $895.)
Want to complete the Virgin look? Check out the cherry red Vespa scooter chair ($2,200) and mini-SMEG fridge ($2,250).“The goal of the chamber from the onset was to create a pied-à-terre –like space that made our guests feel at home,” Doug Carillo, vice president of sales and marketing for Virgin Hotels, told Condé Nast Traveler. But it's not the only hotel chain making that deep night's sleep possible at home. Here are a few of our top picks for this holiday's shopping season:Hotel Beds to Bring HomeThe Four Seasons’ custom bed, launched last year, has a heat-absorbing core to keep guests cool while they sleep. The luxury brand now sells the entire set—mattress, boxspring, and the signature Four Seasons mattress topper, all customizable—manufactured by Simmons Bedding Company. Prices range from $2,199 for a twin bed to $2,999 for a king set. Online ordering is not available but guests can call the nearest Four Seasons resort to purchase.Duxiana’s DUX beds are found in top-tier luxury hotels like the stylish Quin Hotel in New York and the flashy Burj Al Arab Jumeirah in Dubai.
These beds are made using slow-growing pine found in Northern Sweden (not kidding) and are built to keep your spine in alignment as you doze. Buying a Duxiana bed is fairly easy—the Swedish company has stores all over the world—but the starting price for a Dux bed is about $8,000. And that’s just for the mattress.1 Hotels, another new hotel brand like Virgin, doesn’t sell its amenities online yet (an e-commerce site is in works for next year) but it does use Keetsa’s sustainable hemp-blend mattresses, which are in line with the brand’s eco-friendly ethos. Aside from the hemp fabric, Keetsa has replaced a portion of the petroleum oil often found in memory foam with castor bean oil. The eco-friendly mattresses also cut down on chemicals by using unbleached cotton and uncolored cotton fabrics. Best of all, the mattresses are quite affordable: from $471 for a twin mattress to $1,784 for a California king.And then there’s Hästens, a coveted Swedish brand known for its craftsmanship.
Each mattress is handmade in a tiny Swedish factory using premium natural materials like flax, cotton, wool, Swedish pine, and believe it or not, genuine hypoallergenic horsehair. Boutique luxury hotels like c/o The Maidstone Hotel in East Hampton and the Eccleston Square Hotel in London have Hästens beds in their guest rooms, but if you’re not fully ready to commit to the bed, which starts around $5,000, Hästens has a helpful hotel locator on its website so you can do a little more “research” before buying one to bring home.Ritz-Carlton sells its own brand of sheets online, but many Ritz properties use Frette Italian linens. They're the kind that get cooler, smoother, and more luxurious with age—it's almost not fair how great these sheets are. When in doubt, it's also worth checking Sobel Westex, which is a retailer for a variety of hotel linens and pillows. Recommended for YouTravel AwardsEditors' Choice: Our Favorite Beach Resorts in the WorldWhat would you pay to get a good night’s sleep?
How does £15,000 sound? That’s what John Lewis is charging for its latest super-luxurious mattress.It’s a price that could give you nightmares — but experts say more and more sleep-deprived Britons are willing to pay it, with John Lewis noting an increase of 29 per cent in sales of its premium mattresses in the past few weeks. And the store’s £15,000 mattress is a snip compared with some on the market, which can cost as much as £100,000.But can a mattress ever be worth a six-figure sum? , to see if the most luxurious new beds were fit for a princess or just a waste of moneyPersonally, I couldn’t wait to find out. For ten years, my husband James Cracknell and I have sweltered our nights away on a Tempur foam mattress. It was relatively expensive when we bought it — almost £2,000 — and an extremely comfortable super-kingsize: one of us could perform somersaults and the other wouldn’t feel a thing. But we soon realised the ‘spongy’ fabric seems to soak up body heat.
In summer, one of us has to escape to the spare room at 3am in search of a cool place to sleep., to see if the most luxurious new beds were fit for a princess or just a waste of money ... Spink and Edgar, the brains behind the bed, started out in 1840 and are the recipients of two awards from the Queen. The ‘Zip Link’ means it’s actually two mattresses connected together, so you won’t be disturbed by the rolling and twitching of your other half.There is a faint but luxurious bounce and it feels rather like reclining on a luxury yacht, although I’m really in Peter Jones’s light and airy bed department. Sighing, I force myself up. People are starting to stare. Many mattresses rely on springs for their bounce — and with sprung mattresses, the more you pay, the better you tend to sleep.A cheap model will have what is known as an open coil system — which is effectively one enormous spring, so if your partner moves around, you feel it! A luxury mattress will probably have between 1,000 and 3,000 separate springs in pockets, which is far more comfortable.
But this mattress uses more than 32,000 innovative ‘mini springs’, which puts it streets ahead. Movement is absorbed better and pressure is distributed more evenly. Yes, it’s expensive, but over 15 years it works out at just £3 a night. This is softer than I’d normally go for, so it takes some getting used to. But couples can choose different tensions which are then sewn together. That would be perfect for James and me, since I’m slight and he’s tall.It feels encompassing and not at all ‘springy’. As the manager explains, you should feel ‘as though you’re lying in the bed rather than on it’. And I certainly do. The springs are contained in layers of horsehair and cashmere, which makes for excellent moisture and temperature control. It may sound excessively luxurious but it will perform far better than a foam mattress or one with man-made padding.A frame with two different types of spring gives added support and structure. 'Like most people, I’m conditioned to believe that a firm bed is better for preventing backache,' said Beverley Now I understand the appeal of a truly luxurious mattress.
Store manager James Harper explains that this bed will create more hours in my day, as I won’t need as much sleep. It feels utterly gorgeous and very soft.The natural fibres mean this mattress will regulate temperature well, especially compared with cheap polyester, which gets hot and sticky. They feel nicer, too. The springs each sit in their own pocket, meaning movement is absorbed well, but it has plenty of bounce — pocket spring mattresses are a reliable bet. The horsehair, cotton and wool add softness and the layers of hand-stitching at the side make it stronger. This one has an exhaustive list of luxury fibres: silk, horse tail, mohair, lambswool, cotton and viscose stretch, as well as 4,800 pocket springs. Like most people, I’m conditioned to believe that a firm bed is better for preventing backache. But after today, I have realised that a bed which is too hard does not allow you to ‘float’.This is too hard for me. There is a little bounce to it as you get on and off, which is fun.
But although it’s very pleasant, the expert staff tell me that a softer tension suits my physique. Simon Horn make wonderful beds but they are not mattress experts. The Fairmont contains 4,800 springs and you can choose medium or firm tension. It’s fine but nothing particularly special. If I were buying one of their beds, I’d get a different mattress to go with it. This Devon-based specialist supplies the Dorchester and the Goring hotels — the latter received a brand new Vispring mattress for Kate Middleton to sleep on the night before the Royal Wedding. The Magnificence contains long-stranded horse tail from a family farm in Austria, where the horses are fed to grow extra springy tail-hair.The wool is from Shetland where the sheep eat seaweed and are said to produce especially warm and breathable yarn as a result. You can also request vicuna hair — it comes from a South American animal related to the alpaca. It’s a protected species, though, so to gather the hair the vicuna is carefully restrained and its chest is gently brushed.
This has a bounce that makes you want to go trampolining. I like the firmness, too — it feels as if I’m lying straight and supported all over. It’s a heavy, dense mattress with an old-fashioned quality: your granny would give it an approving pat.It gives the impression that it would prove dependable and also last a lifetime. Vispring has an excellent reputation as a brand, though you pay in part for the name. Their products haven’t changed in 50 years and although it’s a lovely story, I’m not convinced you’re going to feel much difference with specially bred horsehair or vicuna wool.There is certainly something to be said for using breathable yarn, though, as it will reduce the chance of overheating. A bed so eye-wateringly expensive, it jolly well better last a lifetime! Swedish company Hästens is loved by celebrities including Angelina Jolie, as well as footballers local to their Chelsea store.It takes six men 320 hours to create each bed and mattress using 200 kilos of material.
Microsprings make the mattress soft and it takes three men two days to tease the horsehair into the correct fluffiness before it is hand-sewn. The divan base, mattress and topper are only available as a whole. The saleswoman tucks me in under a heavenly duvet and asks me to wait while the bed takes effect. I can’t quite sense the magic. Yes, it’s comfortable, but is it £100,000 comfortable? I don’t think so. I can’t help wondering if this has an element of emperor’s new clothes about it. Hästens have excellent marketing and spend a great deal on advertising. I don’t think toppers are necessary, though, as a good mattress ought to be comfortable enough. But they do use microsprings, which are a real bonus. Duxiana 3003 (divan base, mattress and top pad come together — these can be slotted into a bed frame) for super king, duxiana.co.ukEach mattress unzips to reveal three changeable pads that you can choose to suit your body’s needs: for example, a softer pad around the hips, slightly elevated foot pad to aid circulation, and proper support for the hollow of the back.