Luxury Vacation Rentals Must Meet the Rising Expections for Luxury Bedding
Sept. 5, 2006. If September is an off-peak period time in your luxury vacation rental it might be a good idea to check your bedding. In our own vacation rental development, we have found that mattresses wear out a lot quicker in vacation rentals than in your own home. Moreover, Westin’s advertising campaign built around its “Heavenly Bed� changed forever the expectations of lodging guests as to the comfort of their bedding.
An article by James Gilden in the LA Times confirms something that we have predicted in earlier editions of our vacation rentals newsletter—the competition among the elite hotels for the claim to have the best bedding has trickled own to less expensive hotels. Gilden reports that these days, beds are on the minds of guests as well as hotel chain marketers. According to Linda Hirneise, executive director of global travel practice for J.D. Power, in the last three years, "comfort of bed" has moved into the top two criteria of guest satisfaction, beating onetime front-runner "cleanliness�. Bed comfort competes with "quietness" or "quality of bathroom" for the top spot, depending on the level of the hotel.
Gilden points out that a number of mid-priced hotels are touting their own luxury beds. If vacationers are accustomed to getting this kind of bedding at their hotels, they will certainly expect it when they pay the price for luxury vacation rentals. We took a cue from Westin years ago when their first started the “bedding wars�. All owners of a luxury vacation rental should carefully judge whether their bedding measures up.
