Premier Inn mattress review & alternatives: 2023 Bed Buyers Guide

Silent Night Premier Inn Mattress Breakdown

As Premier Inn has now partnered with Silent night it’s interesting to take a look at the changes between the old Hypnos mattress and the new model. So let’s delve under the covers and look at what’s changed and how that may be a benefit for you.

The biggest change with the mattress is the use of a zip-off mattress topper. Hooray! We’ve been complaining about pillowtop mattresses for years and why manufacturers need to move away from permanently glued or stitched-on toppers. The reason being they are the first point of failure and so when they go the whole mattress is ruined.

Hopefully, with this new addition, Premier Inn can start to replace the toppers every year rather than the entire mattress (remembering that sadly most hotel mattresses only last 2-3 years given wear, tear and other heavy-duty activities; like suitcase resting and children jumping on them!)

The other addition is a Geltex layer. We’ve discussed Geltex in depth in this article, but to summarise, it’s a gel-infused heat-retentive Vasco foam, a bit like memory foam. This is what gives the new mattress a different feel to the Hypnos. This layer will help address some of the springs being felt and the hardness issues reported in the reviews (see below for more).

What’s a tad disappointing is the warranty is only 6 years whereas previously it’s been 7. Make sure you read our article here to understand the difference between a warranty (proportional refund) vs a guarantee (repair or replacement for failure) here.

What’s the new construction method of the Silent night bed?

The newer Premier Inn mattress has taken a slightly different approach to how the layers are both labelled and arranged in the mattress. Rather than list the fibres like many high-end retailers do, such as ourselves. Silent night is choosing to use a descriptor instead, such as the ‘Memory’ or ‘Eternity’ layer. We’re not a fan of this as it doesn’t actually give you the GSM or detail you need when comparing to other mattresses. We would prefer this information to be listed in a similar way to Savoir, Vispring or ourselves. It’s more transparent for consumers to compare easily.

The pocket spring system is listed as having ‘zoned support’ to provide stability. But we’re not sure if this is the zoning of different spring tensions, perimeter support with a 1.6 gauge pocket spring or something else.

The new Silent night model does list edge-to-edge support, which should remove the sagging and dipping issue we experienced with the Hypnos model when we trialled it for 2 nights.

How much is the Premier Inn Silent Night Mattress?

This mattress retails at the following price points:

• Single mattress: £549
• Double mattress: £629
• King size mattress: £729
• Super king size mattress: £869

Premier Inns mattress delivery service offers a collection of your old mattress for £30 but doesn’t specify whether this is for it to be recycled (we hope so) or just sent to a landfill.

It takes 21 days for a Premier Inn mattress to be ordered, which feels like quite a long time, given we don’t believe they are being made to order.

What does the Premier Inn Hypnos mattress compare to?

The closest comparative model from our range would be the Origins Pocket 1500. We say closely comparable, but the information on the Hypnos mattress and Silent night new edition is quite scant, so we have had to take an educated guess to this. The comparison is based on the contents, the usage as a potential guest bed and lastly, the price point of around £700 for a king size.

Below is our best Tracy Emin ‘unmade bed‘ view of the mattress, part unmade.

Hypnos/Silent night Mattress Spring unit

Our Origins Pocket 1500 has a 1500 spun-bond spring unit in a medium gauge spring. These are bonded together and we then use an insulator on top of the spring unit which is a 1-inch foam insulator. This keeps the spring unit and upholstery layers separated which reduces sag and is good design practice for handmade mattresses.

The Premier Inn mattress lists the following “king-size Premier Inn bed has over 1,000 pocket springs, providing individual, contoured support throughout the mattress – wherever and whenever it’s needed – for that “floating on a cloud” feeling” Sadly this gives us no idea of the material that covers the pocket springs, whether its stitchbond or another material. It also gives us no idea of tension or gauge.

Comfort layers in the Premier Inn bed

Our model utilises three comfort layers against the unknown quantity of the Hypnos model. The first layer directly above the insulator is a 500 GSM polyester pad, followed by 750 GSM of very soft polyester to give resilience to the mattress without too much compression, which can occur if just wool is used, finished with a 300 GSM wool layer for that soft sinking feeling in the very top later.

The only information about the upholstery layers for the Premier Inn mattress is that it has a pillowtop. We have written warnings of the drawbacks of pillowtop mattresses as they are permanently stitched to the mattress, so you can’t remove them. Due to the fact pillow tops are usually made from exceedingly soft upholstery materials, they degrade very quickly, especially if they can’t be turned, shaken and rotated.

With the new Silent Night version, you get the Geltex layer, but again there’s not enough detail to adequately compare. We do love that they now have a removable topper, which is a real bonus.

Problems with the Premier Inn Mattress

The biggest flaw with the Hypnos model is the very top pillowtop comfort layer.

The pillowtop is described as “a super-comfortable, thick wool mattress topper, creating a luxurious, extra-cosy layer. It also helps to regulate body temperature for a truly serene sleep“. Wool is a highly breathable natural material which is one thing we agree on with Hypnos. However, the rest of the description is too vague to give any detailed analysis. The fact it is a pillowtop mattress should cause you concern, given our explanation of the drawbacks of this construction style. The photo below shows how it is attached.

Reviews of the Premier Inn Mattress

• 5 star reviews x 4
• 2 Star reviews x 1
• 1 star reviews x 9

The Premier Inn mattress receives an overall score of 2.0 out of 5 stars.

Mattress detailing and covers in the Premier Inn

Sadly the Premier Inn Hypnos mattress seems to feature mattress perimeter support which in our trial was shown by mattress bulging. Meaning when we got closer to the edge of the bed, the internal contents bulged out. Showing it doesn’t have adequate side support or side stitching.

We use butterfly perimeter clips along with machine-stitched stretch sides to stop the mattress from what’s known as ‘bulging‘. This is when you compress near the edge of the bed, say you sit or lean on it, and the cover and side panels bulge out, separating from the internal components and spring unit.

Higher quality hand-made mattresses always have either hand stitching, which attaches the spring unit to the mattress side via hand stitching, or entry-level mattresses should use butterfly clips to ensure this does not happen. The image below shows a clear example of bulging on the Premier Inn mattress. This could be due to overuse or damage caused by a previous guest but is a good example of what to watch out for when buying a new mattress.

On the new 2023 Silent Night model the cover is a polyester microfibre cover which is part of the zip of topper. The niggle we have is that it doesn’t seem to be available for sale as a standalone product if you needed to replace it in the future. May be this will happen in the next couple of months as the product gets fully rolled out across the 80,000 hotel rooms.

We use a stretch knit fabric for the top mattress cover and a stretch knit machine-stitched side panel with handles. We also traditionally hand tuft our mattresses and the mattress side panels are 9″ deep though with the undulations the overall depth is 13″. The pillow top seems to be tufted but it does not state which method, ie by hand or machine tufted, this mattress uses.

The Premier Inn lists cover states that “the hypoallergenic mattress fabric means that allergy sufferers can enjoy a great night’s rest too”. We have written on the issues around allergies and the use of hypoallergenic materials in detail which is an entirely different post in itself! It would be nice to see the GSM or the material type used as well, as this though.

The new Silent night model has a microfibre woven quilted cover which removes the need for tufts. This is great if you’re one of those sleepers who feel tufts. The only niggles are that tufting is the best way to ensure the mattress components don’t move and shift around inside. So we’re keen to see how this mattress avoids this with the heavy-duty hotel usage over time. We’ll let you know as soon as we find out more!

What other Premier Inn bed products do they sell?

Along with their mattress offering the following Premier Inn products are available on their website:

• Premier Inn duvet: A hypoallergenic microfibre (manmade) duvet is available in a 4.5 or 10.5 tog. This relates to the depth of the fibre which means the higher the top the warmer or thicker the duvet. f
• Premier Inn pillows: These are made with microfibre hypoallergenic fillings and are machine-washable. Available in a soft or firm option. Care must be taken when washing pillows so that they are fully sealed to avoid machine damage from leaking polyester fillings.
• Premier Inn mattress protectors: These mattress protectors are fully waterproof as you would expect from a hotel. Though beware waterproof often means non-breathable which can lead to heat issues.

Need help choosing a new suitable mattress?

Summary

Having slept on this mattress we can testify that it is quite a soft tension, especially given the wool pillowtop. However, sleeping on this full time may prove too soft for most peoples bodyweights. We would ask you to carefully consider buying a pillowtop mattress, given it’s one-sided. We advise a mattress and separate topper is a better longer lasting alternative to this.

If you want to view our Origins Pocket 1500 please visit our shop or get in touch for more tailored recommendations from our expert team.