I wonder if some of it also has to do with allowing sleepers to adjust their comfort level in a bed that might otherwise be too hard/soft/otherwise ‘foreign’. I’ve found hotel beds to be really hard, and since I’m not one of those “gimme a wooden board and a sheet and I’m happy” type of gals, I like having extra pillows around to cushion the blow, so to speak. One beneath my neck/head, one under my knees, one to hug, etc. So having the pillows could avoid my having a lousy night’s sleep, OR annoying the desk clerk in looking for softer mattresses. (I’d never choose the latter option, personally. But I bet some people would.)
Plus the luxury thing, of course. I mean … pillows! They’re awesome!
I don’t normally pay a huge amount of attention, but generally I find that there will be at least one skinny and one big fluffy pillow, and often a whole lot more in different materials and thicknesses. I was under the impression that hotels were giving the guest a selection to let them choose their preferred pillow style in order to save housekeeping having to run back and forth with pillows all night long.
There’s some ad in London about some luxury business hotel that implies it has a pillow library, with your own personalised pillow in it if you’re a regular. I suspect it’s hyperbole, but maybe they keep your pillow preference in their database and put your fave pillow type/s in your room before you arrive.
I probably shouldn’t really post in this thread (being a guy and all) but I only have three pillows. One quite firm, one less firm, and one of those tall things with arms that I use in place of a headboard. And I don’t really care where my head is or what’s under it.
Seriously, what the heck do people need all those pillows for?
The guest guide at W hotels indicate that they’ll do this, as well. You can call down and request a body pillow or any of several other types of pillows, and then the next time you stay there, they should have it in your room waiting for you.
I haven’t tried it–or rather, I did call and request a body pillow, but haven’t since been back because their customer service was so ridiculously terrible when the door lock on my room wasn’t working.
Well, I now see that some people can actually find uses for vast numbers of pillows. Consider my ignorance fought.
It strikes me that it might be a questionable strategy to develop a dependence on many pillows. What then happens when you find yourself required to sleep in a bed that has no more than three or four?
In a double queen room, I routinely toss all but two pillows onto the unused bed. So out of 14 to 16 pillows, I only use 2. I’ve always wondered if housekeeping actually changes the pillow cases for the dozen or more unused ones. OK, let’s not include the 6 or so decorative pillows. That still leaves 6 or so unused pillows with clean pillow cases. What a waste of time and energy to remove. replace, and launder these clean pillows. I assume that’s what happens since I don’t see how housekeeping can assume that any of the unused pillows are clean.
I love my sister, but is she ever in the more pillows == better camp.
The worst thing is that she stores stuff in her guest bedroom…so that the closet is full, and the only available horizontal surfaces are the bed and the floor.
This means I need to place the 12 or so redudant pillows, the bedspread, and the comforter (which cover the blanket and the sheet) onto the floor in order to sleep in the bed. THEN she gets annoyed with me for putting her stuff on the floor.
Seriously. Do any of you ever go camping? My favorite so far is the alert-5 hugging pillow pre-staged to the rear in case of a mid-sleep position reversal.
I guess that I must be particular about something that would make you all nuts, but still. Ten pillows?
I once wondered about the purpose of all those pillows, so I tried it myself. I think I had a maximum of four at one time. No matter how comfortably I arranged those blasted pillows before I went to sleep, I ended up chucking all but one on the floor by morning. In my dreams I thought I was being smothered. I felt like my bed was all cluttered and I had to fight for flat space. I’d get cramps if I tried to prop up body parts with them, and the bedding would get all tangled up.
I now have only two pillows on my bed. (Not including the dog, who should count as a pillow, but who won’t permit me to chuck him on the floor in my sleep.) If I don’t have an overnight guest, the one “spare” that I keep there is used to prop up my book while I’m reading on my side, and it usually finds its way into the crack between the bed and the wall sometime during the night.
I find that slightly odd, too. I use whatever I’m given, or a rolled-up t-shirt if nothing else is forthcoming. (Thinks: perhaps this is why American tourists have such big suitcases…)
When I was at college I used to make a very comfy pillow out of my shoes too - but it took vast quantities of marijuana and alcohol to achieve the effect.
I’m obviously staying in the wrong hotels. When Mr. Neville and I stay in a hotel, we usually get a room with one king bed, and there are three pillows. Since we both like to sleep on two pillows, the first thing we do in a hotel room is look for an extra pillow, and call down to the desk if there isn’t one.
Camping? No, not since I turned 40. My idea of camping is no room service.
I can do without that many pillows - if I am staying at a friend or relative’s house I don’t demand they supply me with a metric buttload of pillows. But hey - it’s my house, it’s my bed, and I can sleep however I want without bothering anyone. I do the laundry.
When I go on hockey road trips, I take a pillow. So do most of my traveling companions.
I have five pillows on my bed. As I’m getting older, I’m finding they come in handy when I hurt myself doing sporty stuff.
For example, when I was mountain biking and I ended up at the bottom of the hill, while my bike was still up at the top, I used one for my head, two under my knees, and two on either side of me to prevent me from rolling over and making my back scream.
I don’t ALWAYS carry it, mind you, but if I don’t get a pretty firm pillow I get insanely painful neck cramps. Granted, I also only pack one pair of pants for a week long trip, so MY suitcase isn’t all that huge–I only ever use the “fits under an airplane seat” size and even that’s too big.
I appreciate three or four pillows in a hotel because I lounge on them to watch TV. At home, two pillows under my head is sufficient.
I think it was a Comfort Inn where I stayed last, and they had decorative pillows, including bolster-style, in addition to utilitarian ones. They just get tossed onto the extra bed.
Well, yes, we try to spend as much lounging and cuddling time on the bed as possible. The fringed pillows tend to tickle my nose when I sleep, so those are removed. The round pillow isn’t comfortable for anyone but the toddler, so we remove that, also, to discourage him from climbing into bed with us.
My husband finds it a slight nuisance, but he also enjoys finding the bed made everyday. He can just deal with the superfluous pillows, or make the bed himself.