This edition of Dear Airby is based on innovative Improvements, one of the 10 Steps found in
Master of Vacation Rentals.
“Dear Airby,
I have a fabulous vacation rental in beautiful Napa wine country that rents out very well and get stellar review for the most part and I bend over backwards for each guest to earn them. However, occasionally I get varying negative comments about the mattresses. In the course of 1 month this Summer, I had folks tell me they were too hard and then too soft. I don’t know what to do? Is there a such thing as a perfect mattress?”
– Stumped in Napa
Dear Stumped,
It reminds me of Miller beer ads – Great taste or Less filing except this time it’s Soft versus Hard. I had a similar situation in Paso Robles wine country but then added medium hardness pillow top mattresses – and again some guests said THOSE were uncomfortable – and they didn’t give a clue about whether they were too soft or too hard just the dreaded UNCOMFORTABLE. Yikes!
Well, I found hidden in some past ‘suggestions’ was a mention of the pillow quality. What we did, was upgrade to VERY high (cost) quality pillows and also we have big fluffy ones and a bit thinner more squishy ones in each bedroom – giving choices to the guests. This seems to have solved the mattress or sleeping problem items. Or maybe we have had more guests who are ‘tasting’ a larger sampling of wines from the area and just pass out (like a good relaxed guest should).
In short, if you have a medium firmness mattress (I happen to prefer a rock hard mattress – but I don’t count, I’m only the host) – you should be fine to find a balance in the spectrum of soft versus hard preference. Focus on pillow quality and choice and see if that helps guests’ mattress dissatisfaction diminish.
Prosper,
Airby
P.S. I would not invest in some type of computerized sleep adjustment type of mattress or other fancy system because: 1) they are expensive 2) complicated 3) probably prone to break and 4) most guests are not used to them -many guests can’t get the cable TV to work and I have both a cable box (for my generation and older) and the Roku app available (for those blessed to be younger). It’s like cars from yesteryear and today. In the past, you changed the oil and belts on a regular schedule and everything hummed as it should for years and years. Today, the complicated computer and electrical systems are delicate and fault often. Get a normal nice mattress.
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