Most frequent travelers would probably say they are, citing the remarkable evolution of hotel beds from the no-nonsense affairs of the late 1990's - just mattresses, sheets and bedspreads - to the superpremium sleep 'experiences' of today.
Most hotel executives concede that the war is now over. That is to say, every hotel chain that believed it could benefit from upgrading its bedding has probably done so.
The question now is, Have their most frequent customers also benefited?
Mr. Myler does not think so. He sent a letter shortly after his stay in Tucson to that Marriott hotel's general manager, Joe Armbrust, complaining about the surplus pillows. Mr. Armbrust agreed that the pillows "seem to be overkill," but he said that customers had "expressed a desire to have the room similar to what they have at home." In other words, the guests made Marriott do it.
But Mr. Myler maintains he never asked for the beds, and Westin, which started the bed wars, says its customers didn't, either.
"We wanted to differentiate ourselves from the competition," said Sue A. Brush, Westin's senior vice president, who was the vice president of marketing when the Heavenly Bed was introduced. "It wasn't anything that came through in the research."
Roger G. Hill II, the chief executive of the Gettys Group, an interior design company specializing in the hospitality industry, agreed that customers had not clamored for new beds, nor had they asked for some of the more frivolous amenities that many properties now offer. "I've never seen a survey where guests said, 'I want four pillows instead of two,' " he said, adding that some of the recent bedding packages were, in his opinion, "over the top."
The argument that hotel guests, in general, and business travelers, in particular, demanded bigger and more luxurious beds is difficult to sustain. A much easier argument to make is that the hotel marketing departments were eager to join the bed wars, and that once they did, many of their customers approved of the changes.
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Source - New York Times
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