How Often Should Hotels Replace Mattresses? Planning a Refresh

A hotel mattress lasts up to 5 years at most, and often less with heavy use or a lower-spec mattress. Where yours falls in that range comes down to the mattress you choose and how hard each room works. For a hotel, B&B or guest house, that makes replacement something to plan rather than react to. If you wait for guests to mention the bed, you're finding out from your reviews.

The good news is that most of it is in your hands. A mattress built for contract use, protected from its first night and checked on a routine lasts as long as it should, and replacing rooms in phases keeps both the cost and the disruption under control. Our contract mattresses are built for exactly that kind of hard-working room.

What decides how long a hotel mattress lasts?

A mattress in a hotel room has a harder life than one at home. It's slept on by a different guest most nights, sat on, and stripped and remade at every change. Our guide to why hotel mattresses are so comfortable explains what sets a contract mattress apart from a domestic one. Three things decide how well it copes.

Quality comes first. The spring unit, the fillings and the stitched border decide how long a mattress holds its shape under nightly use. Type matters too, because pocket springs, open coil and foam each wear in their own way. Use is the multiplier: a room sold most nights of the year puts far more wear on a mattress than a room that is often empty.

That is why contract build matters. Every HotelContractBeds mattress and divan is made in the UK and is Crib 5 compliant, so it's built for commercial rooms from the start. Our Crib 5 contract mattresses are designed around the demands of hotels and commercial settings, and we can make beds and mattresses to bespoke sizes when a room calls for something outside the standard range. Start with the right mattress and the care and checks that follow have something solid to work with.

What signs show a hotel mattress needs replacing?

Even a well-chosen mattress wears, and a short check on each room tells you which ones are getting close. Build it into your housekeeping or maintenance rounds so it happens room by room, not only when there is a problem.

1. Dips and soft edges

A mattress holds its edge through its spring unit and border, and side stitching on the border adds support and helps prevent sagging. If the edge has softened, or a body-shaped dip stays after the bed is made, that mattress is losing its structure and should go on your list.

2. Lost shape or uneven filling

Run a hand across the surface for lumps, flat patches or tufts that have pulled loose. In a pocket sprung mattress the tufts hold the fillings in place, so loose tufts or shifted filling mean the mattress is losing its shape and belongs on your list.

3. Damage to the cover or handles

Look at the cover, the seams and the handles. A torn cover or split seam lets dirt into the fillings, where it can't be cleaned, so that mattress goes on your list. Handles are there to make turning easier for your team, so a torn one makes every turn harder.

4. Stains or marks on the mattress itself

A protector is your first line of defence. If marks have reached the mattress itself, replace the protector and add the mattress to your replacement list.

5. What your guests tell you

Reviews and comments that mention the bed are worth logging by room number. A pattern in one room points you straight to the mattress to check first.

How can you make each mattress last between replacements?

Checks tell you when a mattress is wearing. Good daily care slows that wear down, so more of your mattresses reach the end of their planned life in good condition.

Protect every mattress from day one

A protector earns its place on every hotel bed. Everyday spills and marks land on something you can wash rather than on the mattress. Most protectors in our range also have antimicrobial protection. And a marked protector is off the bed and replaced in minutes, while the mattress stays in service. Where you want full coverage, our six-sided Omniguard protector zips around the whole mattress and is removable. Our mattress protectors range has options to suit the way your team works; match each one to the depth of the mattress it goes on.

Turn and rotate the right way

Two-sided mattresses are made to be turned over, and their side handles are there to help your team do it. One-sided mattresses, including our memory foam models, are built to stay one way up and need no turning.

Rotating is a separate job, and it applies to every mattress, one-sided or not: rotate it head to foot regularly so wear is spread evenly.

Check the base at the same time

A mattress is only as good as what it sits on. When you check a mattress, check the base under it as well, so you assess the whole bed. Our bed bases include contract divan bases with solid sides, on wooden legs or chrome glides, so a worn base can be replaced to suit the room.

What should you look for in a replacement contract mattress?

Replacement is the moment to match the mattress to the room, not simply to reorder what was there before. Start with how hard the room works.

For your busiest rooms, put the spec where the wear is. Mattresses in these rooms wear out first, so this is where a higher-spec contract mattress pays its way. A pocket sprung mattress such as our Pocket Dream 1000, part of our Crib 5 contract range, is a strong choice: each spring sits in its own pocket and works on its own, so the mattress responds to each guest rather than moving as one unit.

For rooms with lighter use, an open coil mattress does the job well, because these rooms don't need the extra spec your busiest rooms do. Open coil springs are measured by wire gauge: a lower gauge means thicker wire, which typically gives a firmer mattress.

For quick turnarounds, a one-sided mattress keeps housekeeping simple, because there is no turning to schedule.

Whatever you choose, match the depth to your bases and protectors, and the fillings to the feel your guests expect.

Illustrative cross-section of a pocket sprung mattress.

How do you plan a mattress replacement across your rooms?

A planned refresh is easier to budget for and far less disruptive than replacing beds one emergency at a time. Six steps keep it under control.

1. Keep a log by room. Record each mattress's model, when it went in and the result of each check.
2. Group rooms by condition. Use your checks to decide which rooms go first, and put any mattress nearing 5 years in service on the list regardless.
3. Pick a quieter period. Schedule bedroom work for your quieter weeks so rooms aren't lost when demand is high.
4. Phase the work. Replacing a floor or block at a time keeps most rooms open while the work is done, and spreads the cost across more than one budget period.
5. Order mattresses and protectors together. Each new mattress then goes into service with a fresh protector from day one.
6. Replace bases where they're worn. If a check found a worn base, order it with the mattress.

If you're weighing up suppliers for the refresh, our guide to where hotels get their beds shows how other hotels approach buying.

Ready to refresh your rooms?

A mattress refresh doesn't have to mean empty rooms or unexpected costs. Work from your room checks and your quieter weeks, and every room goes back into service ready for the next guest. Mattresses, protectors and bases all come from one place, so a single order can cover the whole job.

Browse our contract mattresses to compare options for every room, and for bespoke sizes or bulk orders, contact our team.