Ten steps to a hotel bed at home, cheapest first

Everyone has slept better in a hotel than at home and wondered what they were doing wrong. The honest answer is that a hotel bed is a system: the mattress is part of it, but so are the sheets, the topper, the pillows, the way it is made, and the room. Here is the system in the order that gives the biggest change for the least money.

1. Cotton percale sheets (£40 to £120)

Hotels use crisp, cool, matte cotton percale, 200 to 400 thread count, changed constantly and pressed. Most homes sleep on polycotton or brushed cotton. This is the biggest single difference and the cheapest. Two sets, so one is always clean.

2. A heavier duvet, or a duvet plus a top sheet (£30 to £150)

Hotels tuck a flat sheet under a duvet or a blanket, which is why the bed feels snug and finished. At home, a flat sheet between you and the duvet, tucked at the foot, does most of it. A slightly heavier duvet than you think you need adds the weight.

3. Four pillows, two firm, two soft (£60 to £200)

Hotel beds have too many pillows on purpose. Two firm ones at the back for sitting up, two softer ones for sleeping, in crisp cotton cases that match the sheets. Feather and down for the softness; a firmer synthetic or a feather-down mix behind.

4. A mattress topper (£80 to £300)

This is the layer hotels call an enhancer and it is the plush feeling you remember. A 5 cm topper in wool, feather-and-down, latex or soft memory foam, over a mattress that is still supportive underneath. Wool or down for the most hotel-like softness; latex if you sleep hot. If your mattress has a dip, a topper will follow it; that is step ten.

5. A breathable protector (£25 to £50)

Hotels protect every mattress and change the protector often. A cotton or Tencel protector keeps the topper and mattress clean and, unlike a plastic-backed one, does not make you hot.

6. Hospital corners and the tuck (free)

Make the bed properly: fitted sheet tight, flat sheet tucked at the foot with the corners folded, duvet pulled square, pillows stacked. A made bed feels different to get into, and this is the free step everyone skips.

7. The room: dark, cool, quiet (£0 to £150)

Blackout curtains or a blind, 16 to 18 degrees, no phone charger by the bed. Hotels are dark and cool because it works.

8. Bedside lighting (£30 to £100)

Warm, low, switchable from the bed. Overhead lighting is the enemy of the hotel feel.

9. A bed base that does not creak (£0 to £400)

Tighten the frame bolts; replace a broken slat; if it is a tired divan, that is the sag you feel. Hotels use firm platform-top or sprung divans on castors.

10. The mattress (£600 to £1,500)

Last, because it is the most expensive and because steps one to nine change more than most people expect. When you do replace it, the hotel formula is medium-firm pocket springs, a plush top of natural fillings (a pillow-top), and a firm edge, and it is not old: hotels replace mattresses every five to eight years. See what mattress UK hotels use.

What it adds up to

Steps one to eight cost £300 to £700 all in and get you most of the way. Step ten is the rest. Do them in this order and you will know, by the time you get to the mattress, exactly what you are missing.

How we built ours

The Hotel Bed is step ten done the traditional way: a separately stitched pillow-top of British wool, cotton felt and silk-blend fibre, over plush memory foam, Talalay latex, gel memory foam and micro-springs, on 2,000 five-zone springs in a side-stitched border. Plush on top, firm underneath, 38 cm deep, and delivered flat and free by two people. Buy the percale sheets first.

The short version

• Percale sheets, a tucked top sheet, four pillows, a topper: that is most of the hotel feel.
• Protector, made bed, dark cool room, bedside lamps.
• Fix the base.
• Then the mattress: medium-firm springs, plush natural top, firm edge.