Any savvy traveler knows that hotel beds are one of the most disgusting things you’ll encounter on the road – but it’s best not to think about it. Sometimes, though, it’s hard not to. They’re uncomfortable, they smell, they make you itch and ache – what’s a wanderer to do? Whatever you do, don’t ever let yourself think about what’s happened to and on that mattress before it was your bed for the night. It’s not a pleasant thought experiment. Seriously, don’t go there.

A new product from Simmons could help ease hotel visitors’ minds – if hotels actually buy them. So far, the EverNU zip-off mattress top has made it into a few hotels, like the Harrah’s hotel-casino chain, but more and more hotels are showing interest. At about 14% more expensive than standard issue hotel mattresses, the EverNU product is a major investment for a hotel to consider, and it’s not like these hotels have a lot of extra money to throw around while the economy sucks and no one’s traveling. But in the long run, these mattresses can easily pay for themselves and then some. How?

If the top of a bed is damaged or destroyed (try not to think about how), the hotel can simply zip the mattress top off and replace it with a new one, instead of replacing the whole bed – or heaven forbid, keeping the damaged bed in service. You don’t need a whole maintenance crew for that kind of switch, and the room won’t have to be out of service while waiting for the new bed to be installed. By replacing only the mattress tops, the hotels save money and reduce waste. The EverNU mattress is not billed as a green product, but anything that reduces waste is a step in the green direction. As hotels and consumers grow more eco-conscious, this is the kind of update that could score a hotel more customers.

The mattress tops can also be interchanged to suit the guests’ firmness preferences. It would be nice to have that kind of option on the road! When I get home from a hotel stay, it’s usually a few days before my back is happy again. If I could customize my hotel bed, this wouldn’t be such a problem. But most of all I like the idea that the EverNU beds would be cleaner than the beds in hotels now. One can hope that if it’s so much easier to change out a mattress, that hotels would do it more often – right?

So what do you think – will EverNU mattresses be a selling point for hotels?

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 1st, 2009 at 3:18 pm and is filed under Going Green. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.