8 Hotel Room Ideas You Should Try At Home
Use these hotel room decorating secrets to achieve a staycation-worthy bedroom
If you’ve ever wondered why you get your most restful sleep in hotel rooms, it’s not only because you’re probably on a vacation. Aside from the five-star ratings, hotel rooms are designed to give you a comfortable and pleasant rest, whether you’re staying there for work or for play.
Hospitality designers make sure that hotel guest rooms are designed to be as cozy as your bedroom at home, but better, with comfort and convenience coming first before style (though a great-looking guest room isn’t bad at all). Check out these hotel design secrets that you can copy at home, so you could enjoy your own staycation.
1. Make hospital corners.
Hotel beds are always crisp and freshly made, with bedcovers pulled taut and hospital corners tucked in. Hotel housekeeping staff make hospital corners—or overlapping folds tucked tightly underneath the mattress—to create a snug, neat fit for the bedlinen, if the hotel doesn’t use fitted sheets. To learn how to make your own hotel-like bed, click here.
2. Flip your mattress.
The secret of hotels in maintaining those firm, bouncy mattresses: they flip and rotate their mattresses every three months. “Every time I go to a hotel, I take a peek at their mattress,” admits Dindo Medina, sales director of Uratex. “You’ll see at the corner of the mattress are dates: January to March, April to June, and so on.” He explains that these dates show when you should rotate your mattress or flip it over, so that the same spot won’t be worn out.
3. Install upholstered headboards.
A soft, upholstered headboard is the ultimate luxury and is the hallmark of five-star hotel rooms. An upholstered headboard allows you to sit up and lounge in the bed reading or watching TV in comfort. Don’t have the budget? Get a bed base with a padded headboard, instead. (To see the rest of this home, click here.)
4. Add a chair or bed bench.
Hotels provide bed benches or luggage racks in the room for the guests to plunk their suitcases down on. A bed bench (or even a small slipper chair) can be added to your bedroom at home as a luxe touch and as a comfortable spot to sit on while you dress up or put on your shoes.
5. Use all-white sheets.
The housekeeping staff use all-white sheets and pillowcases to show hotel guests that their rooms are spotless and clean. An all-white hotel also creates a crisp, designer look. Cop this style at home by investing in soft, 300-count Egyptian cotton bed linen (it has a slightly ribbed surface) for the ultimate hotel bed-feel. (To see more of this hotel, click here.)
6. Conveniently locate your outlets.
Most hotels have adapted their design to suit the lifestyle of modern travelers, and this includes locating multiple outlets around the room. Ideally, outlets should be located one on each night table (for the table lamp and mobile chargers), and two to four outlets hidden underneath the desk or vanity table (for plugging laptops, desk lamps, and hair dryers). Ask an electrician to replicate this in your own home, so you won’t have to resort to plugging your mobile devices into potentially dangerous extension cords.
7. Have blackout curtains made.
If the reception desk has to give you a wakeup call, it’s because hotel rooms use blackout curtains that totally block out even a hint of morning sun. You can have blackout drapes made if you don’t want to be woken up by daylight, or if you work the nightshift and sleep during the day. Buy blackout material at Shell Canvas or Seasons at CW Home Depot Ortigas. (To see more of this hotel, click here.)
8. Create ambient lighting.
Hotels aren’t moody or sexy-looking on purpose; the best hotel rooms just have multiple sources of lighting to provide a restful, soothing ambience. They don’t have an overhead light that will keep you awake at night—general lighting is usually located in ceiling coves that are gentler on the eyes. Other sources of ambient lighting come from table and floor lamps and wall sconces on either side of the bed, which can be turned on and off depending on the need.
Main photo: courtesy Hotel Mono Singapore. To read all about Hotel Mono's design, click here.
