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Pillow Talk

21 Jul 2004 by Jason Fried

At Hotel Lucia in Portland they have a “pillow menu” where you can select from soft, firm, firmer, and hypoallergenic. At the Sheraton in Seattle they have 7 pillows on a queen sized bed. What’s with the new infatuation with pillow options? I suppose it’s probably a good idea, but I just find a little humor in a “pillow menu” and 7 pillows on a single queen bed. One thing I have noticed, however, is that the quality of beds at hotels is improving.

Update: I guess pillow menus are pretty popular.

9 comments so far (Post a Comment)

21 Jul 2004 | Anil said...

My bigger problem was that they didn't specify what firmness I had to begin with. I might have wanted a different pillow, but I didn't know where I was residing on the firmness continuum.

Nothing intereferes more with a good night's sleep than uncertainty regarding one's plcae on the firmness continuum.

21 Jul 2004 | Dan Benjamin said...

Nothing can just as easily enhance or destroy a night's sleep as a pillow. We often suffer the nuisance of travelling with our own due to the all-too-frequent lack of a pillow menu at less discriminating establishments. Kudos to Hotel Lucia (and their counterparts) providing guests with this remarkable service.

21 Jul 2004 | Naz "Soft is better" H. said...

I agree with Dan, this is a good thing. Throughout my entire life, I have yet to come across a good pillow at a hotel. I like my pillows soft, slim and with a feeling of having been used (which is why I love my own). At hotels I've encountered nothing but the firmest pillows that resist pressure and make my neck utterly sore the next day. In the last few years I've opted not to use pillows at hotels entirely. Which is fine for me, since I can sleep without them quite dandily.

21 Jul 2004 | One of several Steves said...

Naz's pillow preference and mine - which are pretty much 100 percent opposite - provide a good case why pillow menus are a good thing. I loathe soft, flismy, slim pillows. I want thick, almost unwielding pillows. And I almost always get the flimsy ones. Clearly Naz needs to stay at my hotels and vice versa. Or, just stay at hotels that offer options.

Now, if a hotel could find a way to guarantee that my pillow is always cold, they have me as a customer for life. There is nothing worse than a warm pillow.

21 Jul 2004 | Don Schenck said...

One of sev --

You obviously need to take a Chillow along with you!

21 Jul 2004 | One of several Steves said...

Damn, I definitely could have used one of those Chillows last August when I was staying in non air conditioned hotel rooms in the UK when it was 100 degrees farenheit.

22 Jul 2004 | beto said...

Good to hear they are finally paying attention to the hotel bed issue - I do have very specific pillow preferences, as I lean towards the harder side. Plus, besides bad pillows nothing can ruin your travel more than a sagged, stained, "sproingy" bed that probably was place of happenings better left unsaid.

22 Jul 2004 | lisa said...

i bring my own.
no one can match (okay, maybe the medusa hotel in sydney) my pillow from home. goose down, pottery barn. i can't sleep on anything else.

06 Aug 2004 | angela said...

I want to order one of those square "S" pillows from Sheraton... how can I order? they are so wonderful!

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