Westin's Heavenly Bed has been a pure pleasure for 10 years now
— -- The cushy mattress with all-white trimmings that launched a hotel bedding revolution is turning 10.
The Heavenly Bed poufed up Westin's image when unveiled in August 1999 and prompted most every U.S. chain — from upscale to budget — to banish those omnipresent stain-hiding floral coverlets and spruce up pillows, underpinnings and bed accessories.
"It truly transformed the industry," says Bjorn Hanson, veteran hotel analyst and associate professor in New York University's hospitality program. "If there were an award given for one of the greatest announcements by a hotel company in the last 20 years, it would go to the Heavenly Bed. Hotels had been focusing on amenities and in-room entertainment, and this was a back-to-basics move — a good night's sleep — that resonated with travelers."
Sue Brush, now senior vice president of global brand management for Westin Hotels & Resorts, remembers receiving a memo from the boss, then-Starwood Hotels chief Barry Sternlicht, raving about the mattress and pristine bed covers at Starwood's first W Hotel. W had just one outpost in 1998; Westin, 100-plus.
" 'I want you to put in one (style of) bed and call it 'heavenly,' " she recalls him writing. So she and her team tested 50 mattresses and wound up picking a design from Simmons with a special coil system.
"We worked on the sheets and duvet and tested various stains." The hardest to remove: "shoe polish and nail polish," she says.
Since installing the snow-white Heavenly Beds, "our cleanliness scores have gone up," Brush says. "Guests say, 'If they can keep the bed clean, the whole room must be clean, and the whole hotel must be clean.' "
The first week beds went in, more than 30 guests asked if they could buy it. Westin didn't sell Heavenly Beds right away, because factories were busy cranking out the special mattresses and bed accessories for the hotels. But then it began selling the beds online and later at Nordstrom stores.
The 13 pieces in the ensemble — box spring, pillow-top mattress, down blanket, three sheets, five pillows, bed skirt and duvet — currently sell for $2,670 and up.
So far, about 30,000 full Heavenly Beds, 100,000 pillows and 32,000 sheet sets (300-thread-count Egyptian cotton or a sturdier 230-thread-count cotton/poly blend similar to the 250-thread-count linens used at the hotels) have been sold. They're available at Westin.com/store. Nordstrom alone has moved more than $20 million of Heavenly bedding, Westin says.
Thirteen of the Heavenly mattresses belong to Fran Durekas of Los Altos, Calif. "And we just bought another," she says.
Durekas, who helps companies set up onsite pre-schools for employees' children, is on the road every week. After visiting a Westin, she bought Heavenly mattresses for her family. They're "just immensely comfortable," she says.
Party guests end up hanging out on her bed, her kids now hate going to sleepovers where the bedding is uncomfortable and some who sleep on mattresses ordered for her vacation home guestrooms have gone out and bought them, too.
Westin hasn't stopped at beds in its quest for a celestial guest experience. Next came a Heavenly Bath (dual showerhead, curved shower rod, oversized towels), crib, pet bed and spa bed with heated padding and a shelf below the face rest to hold flowers or aromatic oils. It can be trundled around for in-room treatments.
Westin also has been rolling out Heavenly spas (about a dozen so far) to enhance its mission of having guests leave feeling better than when they checked in.
What's next? A Heavenly travel blanket and bath products are due to go on sale in June. And Brush will stop overseeing the Heavenly empire at year's end. The 30-year hotel vet, 59, is moving from New York State to Seattle via a leisurely driving trip with her husand.
It's a good bet they'll rest their road-weary bones in a Heavenly Bed or two along the way.