Discover

I wanted to know what makes a great bed, so I turned to a reliable source: upscale hotels.

Why?

• Beds are core to their business. For luxury hotels, they’re part of the brand.

• Their beds have to withstand a range of, um, various activities.

• They have more user data than anyone else.

• They optimize for the average sleeper.

• They test in the real world.

Define

The goal: get a great night’s sleep.

The test: stay in different hotels and notice which beds deliver.

Develop

Testing beds by staying at hotels isn’t cheap. If I tried seven beds at seven hotels, I’d burn a week and potentially a few thousand dollars.

But for me, that’s still a smart investment in 26 years of great sleep.

I tried this out back in 2013. At the time, I was traveling often to workshop with clients and speak at conferences in other cities, so I luckily didn’t have to set aside separate time or money for this experiment.

After a few different hotel stays, a clear winner emerged: I got the best night of sleep at a W Hotel. Many hotel chains sell their bedding, and the W Hotel is no exception.

Deliver

The bed I slept on was a king size Plush Top Mattress.

(This isn’t a sponsored post—not even an affiliate link!—but it might as well be, since I recommend this bed so much to anyone who asks. W Hotels: call me!)

Twelve years later, I still sleep every night like I’m on vacation.

I paid about $3,400 for this bed, which definitely puts it in “luxury purchase” territory.

But amortized over a lifetime of good sleep, it’s about…

• $203.70/year

• $16.98/month

• $3.90/week

• $0.56/day

Which feels to me like a small price to pay for great sleep.