6 Things to Know About the Life and Maintainence of a Hotel Mattress

All this week, we'll be talking about Hotel Beds--where to buy 'em, how to make 'em, how to trust 'em (see story below!) and what to do when the bed isn't enough to send you to Sleepy land. Got a hotel bed question or comment? send it to us  We're not sure about you, but we like to know a little bit about the different beds in which we sleep. At the end of the day, hotels are simply community beds, a concept that brings up a few questions: How often is the mattress replaced? Or worse... what about those spills and stains? We caught up with Philip Ridgway, Director of Housekeeping at the Four Seasons San Francisco, to get some answers.

 Here are 6 things to know about the life of a hotel mattress:

1. All the mattresses in the Four Seasons San Fran are the same, and they are made specifically for the brand. They are usually ordered on a large-scale by the corporate office and delivered directly to the individual hotel. They typically try to replace the whole hotel at once about every ten years, unless there’s an incident where one has to be switched out.

2. Speaking of incidents, don’t worry about spilling that glass of wine. Just don’t set the room on fire. Four Seasons will only charge in the case of gross negligence, like if you had a huge party and literally (not figuratively) set the sheets on fire. They won’t charge you for a small spill or if your kid wets the bed. Those things happen. The best thing to do is just be honest and let housekeeping know.

3. But don't worry about what's underneath you from previous evenings. Most hotels use what is the equivalent of a carpet extraction machine to remove spills and stains. More importantly, they use mattresses protectors that prevent liquids from being absorbed by the mattress, so as long as the bed has been stripped and the sheets changed, you won't get any residual surprises.

4. New mattresses used by the Four Seasons now are only one-sided, or pillow-tops, and they are rotated twice a year, or every six months, to promote even wear and tear. The old mattresses used to be flipped/rotated quarterly, but the new mattresses can't be flipped, so they are only rotated.

5. Mattress comfort in general has improved a lot, but ironically enough most of the complaints Ridgway gets are because guests find the mattress too soft. The new ones are going to be made with removable pillow tops, though, so that guests of the Four Seasons can request it to be removed for their stay. In the case of older mattresses whose pillow tops are not removable, the Four Seasons keeps spare, non-pillow top mattresses on hand, so feel free to let them know if you prefer a firm mattress. Sounds to us like a "be careful what you wish for" situation, but by all means, feel free!

6. At the end of the ten years, the hotel closes off one floor at a time to switch out the mattresses for new ones.