Not all hotel pillows are created equal.
Lumpy ones may be fine for some guests, while others would rather sleep on a soft or firm pillow, with down or synthetic filling. Then there are travellers who require a wider range of pillow possibilities, to help ease their stiff necks, sore backs, stress, insomnia or other sleep-depriving maladies.
Always ready to pamper their guests in every way, higher-end lodgings worldwide have upped their game in the slumber department with pillow menus that cater to a variety of pillow preferences.
Caressing the craniums, limbs and joints of their valued patrons has become an important part of some hotels’ wellness programs.
They offer headrests in a variety of shapes, sizes and fillings — natural, synthetic, water-filled and scented — designed to ease pain and stiffness, relieve allergy symptoms and sooth the senses for a comfortable five-star sleep experience.
“Our standard in every room is a down pillow,” said Scott Breen, housekeeping manager with The Ritz-Carlton Toronto.
“If a guest has a feather allergy we will not only replace the pillows but make the entire room feather-free. The feather bed top on the mattress gets removed and a foam top is put on, as is a foam duvet, and the same goes for cushions on the chairs and sofa,” he added.
Most guests who don’t want to sleep on feather pillows specify non-allergenic bedding when they reserve a room, but the switch can be made at a moment’s notice. As Breen puts it, “We make it work.”
The hotel added five pillow options, in addition to down or foam filled, in January 2015, in keeping pace with what has become a popular trend at upscale hotels and resorts around the globe in recent years.
Pillow variations come at no extra charge and they are part of the Ritz-Carlton’s Health and Wellness menu, which also includes items that carry an additional charge, such as in-room massage, healthy specialty snacks and beverages, and body-and-bath creams, gels, oils and lotions.
The Ritz-Carlton Toronto’s pillow types include a gel-filled medium support pillow for back sleepers, a cool-cored memory foam pillow, a full-length body pillow, an anti-allergen side sleeper, and a neck support roll-style pillow.
“These are the little things we need to be on top of because there are a lot of options in the marketplace that guests are interested in, including pillows, and it is expected of us,” Breen says.
The Ivy at Verity, a small luxury boutique hotel in a restored 1850s chocolate factory in downtown Toronto, has also been paying attention to pillows.
“We have down pillows and duvets in the rooms that are hypo-allergenic,” says Cecilia Keller, general manager with The Ivy at Verity. “If somebody is very allergic, we offer pillows and duvets with fibrous fillings. In addition, we offer a variety of softer or firmer pillows, foam pillows, light-weight duvets and neck rolls.
“For our regular guests, there is the option to keep their special pillows here on the premises. We have several guests that take advantage of this and we set up their pillows in advance before they check in,” Keller adds.
Some hotels around the world offer more than a dozen pillow choices, such as the Leela chain of luxury hotels and resorts in India, which prefaces its pillow menu with a quote by the Dalai Lama: “Sleep is the best meditation.”
The Conrad hotel and resort on the Indonesian island of Bali has a choice of 12 kinds of pillows, and while the Conrad in Chicago has fewer pillow variations, its menu includes fragrant stress and relaxation pillows and a cold and flu pillow infused with eucalyptus, tea-tree oil, bergamot and sandalwood.
Manhattan’s The Benjamin Hotel employs a 24-hour “sleep team” trained by a sleep-medicine expert, and offers 10 types of pillows.
Wherever you travel, most budget-priced hotels offer just one kind of pillow, which is usually stuffed with synthetic material, and some provide a choice between firm and soft.
In Toronto, most high-end hotels don’t offer pillow options beyond a down or foam filling. Hotels that do have pillow menus include:
- Shangri-La Toronto, 188 University Ave.
- SoHo Metropolitan, 318 Wellington St. W.
- The Hazelton Hotel, 118 Yorkville Ave.
- Trump Hotel, 325 Bay St.
- The Ivy at Verity, 111 Queen St. E.
- The Ritz-Carlton, 181 Wellington St. W.
Email Henry Stancu at hstancu@thestar.ca
Email Henry Stancu at hstancu@thestar.ca
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