Bringing the Hotel Experience Home

They sucked us in. After two nights back under the sheets of our modest queen at home, The Mister and I are placing an order for the hotel pillows we slept on all weekend at The Venetian Resort. In no time, a new, bigger, better, hotel-quality mattress will follow.

It used to be that all a hotel wanted to do was make you feel like you were in your own home. Today, a stay at a good hotel can make you question some of of the things you once couldn't wait to get back home to- your own mattress, your shower head, your regular cup of coffee.

Image Credit: Katherine Squier

Ever since we returned from our weekend stay, all I can think about are the plush pillows I rumpled under my neck each night, the shower head (with the greatest water pressure ever) that massaged my back each time I set foot in the shower and the gourmet cup of coffee always that was always waiting for me right at the foot of the elevator each morning. How can I get that kind of experience in my own home?

It's a big business now. We can thank Starwood Resorts for that. Back in 2000, we vacationed at The Westin Hotel in Maui and for the first time, I can remember conspiring about ways we could bring that bed home to our "someday" house. Placed right on the nightstand were order forms for the mattress, the pillows, even the sheets and bedskirt. The Heavenly Bed was truly that- heavenly and for the longest time now, it has been my dream to sleep on one - every night. I'm not alone either. By the end of 2011, Westin's parent company Starwood had sold over 60,000 of them, even making it even easier for their guests to purchase back at home from their local Nordstrom or Pottery Barn.

It seems no matter where you stay now, you can rest-assured that the comfortable mattress you had your best night's sleep on, is well within reach even when the vacation is over.

A-la-carte linens and pillows are also sold to complete the hotel-at-home experience. Like the pillow from that smaller hotel you stayed at? There's an online retailer that might even make it easier to source  than through the hotel staff itself.  The Venetian Hotel advertised it's Sealy Posturpedic mattress for purchase, but did not promote the in-room pillows at all. We inquired at the front desk, only to get routed around the hotel before finally getting the information we needed in a seemingly independent lobby gift shop. It took a little perseverance, but I'm looking forward to laying my head down on those magical hotel pillows here very soon.