Welcome back fellow guesthouse heroes.
In this episode we’re going to take a look at one of the absolute essential core elements of your business: beds and bedding.
Quite simply, this aspect (together with your breakfast offerings) has to be top-notch to make you a hero with your guests.
So let’s break it down into components: beds, toppers, bedding and linen
In our experience, you don’t need to stress over the bed itself. You don’t need to be offering overnight stays on hugely expensive box sprung mattresses with fancy divans. But the bed should provide a solidly comfortable experience ensuring a great night’s sleep.
We’ve lost track of the number of times guests greet us at breakfast saying what a great night’s sleep they’ve had…many even adding that they don’t normally sleep so well first night in a strange bed.
We have a number of different bed base types here at our guest house but mostly we favour the metal type like the Zinus SmartBase . They’re easy to deliver when ordered online. They arrive flat in their own box and are so simple to erect straight out of the box. These frames have stood the test of time and provided a solid base for our guests.
Being metal frames there is opportunity for guests to store some luggage under the bed if they wish. You’ll want to pretty the frame surround with an elasticated bed skirt and we use these ones purchased on Amazon.
Regarding mattresses, we favour the exceptionally well-made mattress-in-a-box type. There are some really excellent quality mattresses that can be purchased online, arrive in their own box and are, as a result, easier to maneuver on flights of steps and into a room. These mattresses come factory compressed into seemingly impossible compressions (considering they’re sprung) and it’s a truly wondrous thing to watch them inflate back into their normal state.
A word of caution though: read the manufacturer’s instructions about unpacking them, firstly because they explode out of their constricting packaging and if not done correctly could knock you off your feet. Secondly, be careful in cutting open the packaging to avoid the explosive recoil and also not cut the actual mattress. The better manufacturers supply a special little cutting tool to ensure you only cut the plastic wrap.
In terms of mattress depth, we wouldn’t look at anything less than 10 inch. A 10 inch deep mattress looks sumptuous on the frame mentioned above and is a great height for all guests making it easy for them to get in and out of bed. In addition they harmonise well with fitted mattress protectors. Depending on the mattress, opting for greater than 10 inch depth can result in a vastly heavier mattress that becomes a beast to lift and tuck base sheets under.
As regards mattress protectors, don’t ever use the types that include some kind of plastic waterproofing layer in them. They sound absolutely awful when in the bed and scream cheapness. We use the IMFAA Quilted Mattress Protectors on all our beds. They provide a nice extra layer of quilted luxury and wash really well. Be sure to wash on very low temperature and don’t tumble dry at too much heat. Use a gentle heat.
Now for the big secret that turns every bed into something special: the mattress topper.
All our beds have a mattress topper…even the new mattresses. And mostly we use one brand: Panda.
They simply provide that extra layer of delicious comfort that guests find irresistible. They also have removable covers that can be easily washed. Plus they have straps at each corner to be tucked under the mattress and keep the topper in place.
Next up is bedding.
From the outset we decided against the sheet and blanket combo and opted for duvets instead. The prime reason was the blanket issue. How do you keep the blanket pristinely clean and, more importantly, have guests feel that it is clean.
More hygienic in our minds is the use of duvets on our beds. As regards duvets, we opt for two types: feather on the one-hand, merino wool on the other.
As regards feather duvets, we choose ones with goose feather and a high concentration of down like those from UK brand Threads for Beds available online from Amazon. All are 10.5 tog which is perfect for chilly nights or summer. (13.5 tog is too heavy for our guest house season.)
These duvets are beautifully plump and luxurious looking making a bed look gorgeous and indulgent.
Now some folks have feather allergies and as a result we also have an alternative…and that is merino wool duvets. They’re more expensive than synthetic filled duvets but feel soooooo good. Another reason guests rate our beds so highly.
We don’t use those combination bed sheet/bed skirt type for the base sheet. Personally, it screams cheap to us but mainly it boils down to ironing. For the same reason, we don’t use fitted sheets. We have a fabulous 100cm-wide ironing press (SpeedyPress 101hd) which makes ironing so much easier at our guest house. In fact, with the level of ironing to be done it would be impossible with a conventional hand-held steam iron.
When guests arrive, they enter their guest room to be presented with a perfectly made-up bed of white linen with beautiful straight ironed crease lines.
Here, at Highlander House, we only use one type of linen. Firstly is has to be bright-white and secondly it has to be long-staple weave. Egyptian cotton doesn’t necessarily impress us. Nor does 800 or even a thousand thread count linen. It has to be long-staple weave. Basically, that means the manufacturer has used particularly long cotton thread in the weave resulting in stronger, finer and more consistent yarns yielding softer, more durable and breathable fabric that is superior in terms of softness and smoothness.
So that is another big secret to our beds and bedding that has guests raving about the comfortableness.
As regards pillows, we use two types depending on feather allergy.
For the feather-type we opt for goose feather and down pillows that are 50% goose down, providing the perfect balance between support with the feathers and softness with the down. We highly recommend the Analin brand that can be purchased online from Amazon.
For the non-feather type we choose those with a select polyester filling but bamboo fibre removable covers that are both breathable and skin-friendly.
Both typed are ensconced in 400 thread long staple weave pillow cases…and to provide that touch of class the pillow cases need to be the Oxford-type with the 5cm border.
Whilst there might be other brands available supplying 400 thread count long staple, the two brands we rely on for all our linen are Pizuna and California Design Den manufactured in India and both available online at Amazon. These brands both have the corner ties inside the duvet covers that make it so much easier to insert the duvet and keep it properly in place within the cover. Other brands we’ve tried lack these important little built-in ties.
As a Guest House Hero you must do two elements exceptionally well: provide a superb bed and offer exceptional breakfasts. We’ll address breakfasts in a later episode. But wow your guests with their bed and you’re well on your way to being a Guest House Hero!
