Best Mattress for Airbnb and Vacation Rental Properties

Shopping for yourself, though not always easy, is relatively straightforward; your personal needs and preferences provide a clear path for choosing the best product. Shopping for others and anticipating their needs and preferences, though, can be much more difficult, and that can be a challenge for people who need a mattress for their vacation rental property.

Platforms like Airbnb and VRBO have made it easier than ever to rent out space for extra income, and that means that more and more owners of homes, condos, cabins, and other properties want to nicely furnish their rentals. Having a great mattress that helps guests feel comfortable, sleep well, and wake up refreshed can make all the difference in earning their satisfaction and five-star reviews.

Hotels have long known that opting for a quality mattress can keep their clients happy, and rental property owners are following that same logic. But for many hosts of Airbnbs and vacation rentals, picking out the ideal mattress can be daunting because of the sheer number of options available.

We’ve made the process simple by listing the best mattresses for rental properties. These options are affordable, well-built, durable, and can suit the support and comfort needs of most guests. After introducing our top picks, our guide explains the ins-and-outs of buying a mattress with a special emphasis on identifying the best bet for a vacation rental.

How to Choose a Mattress for an Airbnb or Vacation Rental Property

What to Look For in a Mattress

Determining your top priorities is a vital first step to choosing a great mattress. While there are certain elements of mattress quality that are the same no matter where you plan to use it, other aspects may be more or less important for owners of rental units.

While mattress marketing can be a lot to wade through, there is a way to refine your focus. Reviewing the following factors and thinking about which matter the most to you and your likely clientele can help you filter out the noise and select the best mattress for your Airbnb or rental.

• Size: It’s essential to know the dimensions of your rental space and the mattress size that will fit best. A full or larger will permit two people to share the bed, increasing the rental’s appeal to couples. At the same time, you don’t want the bedroom to feel cramped, especially if other furniture, like nightstands, are next to the bed.
• Price: Finding a well-priced mattress can increase the return on investment for your rental. While it may be tempting to purchase a cut-rate option, remember that spending a bit more for a quality mattress can mean happier guests, better reviews, and more business in the future.
• Firmness Level: Everyone’s idea of the ideal firmness level is different, which may make it seem tricky to choose a mattress for a rental property that’s likely to have guests with diverging preferences. The way that most hotels deal with this issue is by finding a middle ground that is generally medium (5) or medium firm (6). This is ideal for side sleepers, who make up the majority of sleepers, and usually acceptable to back and stomach sleepers as well.
• Contouring: To accommodate the way the body’s weight is distributed, many mattresses are built with notable contouring. This feeling of hug can improve spinal support, but for some sleepers, deep contouring can be excessive and stifle movement. For a rental property, a compromise — moderate contouring — tends to work best.
• Noise: A loud mattress that is squeaky can be the enemy of both solid sleep and discretion during intimate activities. All-foam beds are usually noiseless, and many hybrids are constructed to minimize noise as well.
• Temperature Regulation: No guests want to wake up in a sweat, and a mattress with above-average temperature regulation can help prevent this. This characteristic is especially important for rental units in warm places. Among popular mattress types, latex and hybrid mattresses tend to retain the least amount of heat.
• Durability: Having to keep replacing a mattress in a rental property is both time-consuming and costly, so picking a robust and durable mattress can mean huge savings. The biggest determinant of durability is the quality of the materials, so look for a bed that’s well-built from top to bottom.
• Pressure Relief: The neck, shoulders, hips, and lower back are parts of the body that often experience excess pressure and pain during sleep. The pressure may come from a hard impact with the mattress or strain created by a person’s sleeping position. A mattress that can cushion the body and tailor that cushioning to match the body’s needs can reduce the chances of an achy morning. Foam beds tend to offer the best pressure relief, but latex and hybrids can also relieve pressure effectively.
• Motion Isolation: For beds in rental units that are full size or larger and intended for use by couples, motion isolation can be a meaningful consideration. A mattress that isolates motion helps keep a person’s movement from disrupting their bed partner. Memory foam is the material with the best reputation for motion isolation.
• Ease of Movement: If a mattress has abundant sink and limited bounce, some sleepers will feel stuck in the bed, and that can be a hindrance to both comfort and sex. A more responsive mattress has a springier feel that is easier to move on. Responsiveness is most easily found in latex and hybrid beds.
• Edge Support: An Airbnb should have a stable and reliable mattress, which includes strong edge support since no property owner wants to hear of guests accidentally rolling out of bed and onto the floor. While almost every mattress will compress more near the perimeter, look for a well-built bed that will stay strong at the edge. Hybrid and latex beds typically deliver the highest level of edge support, but many foam beds are sufficient in this category as well.

What Types of Mattresses Are Best for Airbnbs and Vacation Rental Properties?

When shopping for a mattress for an Airbnb or vacation rental, it doesn’t take long to realize that there are an abundance of options. Dozens of brands and models are available, and keeping all the possibilities straight can be a challenge.

One way of organizing all these mattresses is to focus on mattress type. Categorizing beds by their internal construction provides a general rubric for understanding their likely performance and narrowing your options to the types that are most likely to fit your rental property.

There are five main mattress types, and while all the beds within a type will share some characteristics, keep in mind that there can always be variation based on the specific design of any mattress.

Foam

Definition: An all-foam mattress is built entirely with polyfoam, memory foam, and/or latex in its interior layers. The support core is almost always dense polyfoam. There are no innerspring coils anywhere in the mattress.
Affordable Options for Pressure Relief: All-foam mattresses tend to provide quality pressure relief that helps most sleepers avoid waking up with aches and pains. While the exact degree of contouring can vary, overall pressure point relief tends to be a plus, and as an added bonus, there are many all-foam beds available at accessible prices.

Hybrid

Definition: To be considered a hybrid mattress, there must be a support core of innerspring coils and an ample comfort system made with foam, latex, micro-coils, and/or fabrics like wool and cotton.
Stability, Dependability, and Balance: By combining components found in other mattress types, a hybrid can provide reliability and broad appeal to side, back, and stomach sleepers. The coils generate edge support and sturdiness while the thick comfort system adds a balanced feel with increased pressure relief.

Innerspring

Definition: When the main component of a mattress is a coil-based support system, the mattress is categorized as an innerspring. In these mattresses, there is barely any comfort system to speak of; at most, there may be a thin layer of fabric or polyfoam.
Budget-Friendly Price: Innersprings won’t win the praise of most sleepers since they tend to lack in pressure relief, contouring, motion isolation, and overall comfort, but they do make for a wallet-friendly option for rental property owners who need to keep costs down. A low-cost mattress topper can be placed on top of an innerspring to make it softer and more conforming.

Latex

Definition: All of the interior layers of a latex mattress are made with latex rubber. The most common type of latex used in mattresses is natural latex produced from tree sap, but some beds utilize synthetic latex.
Responsive and Durable: As a bouncy material, latex in a mattress keeps sleepers from feeling stuck in place or sinking deeply into the bed. These mattresses have moderate contouring — enough to relieve pressure — while typically holding up extremely well over time.

Airbed

Definition: The support core in an airbed is an air chamber that can be inflated or deflated to make the mattress feel harder or softer. The air level is controlled by a remote or smartphone. The comfort system can be sizable or minimal and may include foam, latex, and/or fabric materials.
Personalized Firmness: Because airbeds are expensive, they are not commonly found in hotels or rental properties. That said, their ability to allow every sleeper to adjust the firmness to their desired level is a huge benefit and a potential selling point for luxury rentals.

Last Things to Consider With a Mattress for a Vacation Rental Property

While we’ve reviewed the most fundamental factors to take into account when shopping for a mattress for your rental property, there are a few other issues to consider in order to get the most out of your new bed.

Ease of Care and Cleaning

It’s natural for any Airbnb host to want to make sure that the mattress is clean and smelling fresh before every guest arrives, but some mattresses are easier to clean. It’s important to follow the manufacturer’s cleaning directions in order to protect the materials and avoid invalidating the warranty.

In most cases, a mattress has to be spot-cleaned, which involves using a non-abrasive cleaner just on the areas that are dirty or stained. For convenience, some models have a removable cover that can be machine-washed.

Owners of rental properties may want to purchase a mattress protector. These products provide a zippered encasement over the whole mattress. Most mattress protectors are waterproof to defend against spills and also serve as a barrier against dust, allergens, and bed bugs.

Long-Term Use

Most quality mattresses should last for at least 5 years of nightly use. If your rental isn’t always occupied, such as during the low season, the mattress may last even longer.

Using a solid bed frame and a mattress protector can improve the longevity of the mattress by offering it a sturdy foundation and defense against most accidental damage. Following the manufacturer’s guidance for upkeep, including occasionally rotating the mattress, can improve its durability as well.

Owners of rental properties should try to occasionally check in on the mattress by lying on it for at least 10-15 minutes to make sure that there are no signs of premature sagging or other defects.

A Mattress to Fit Many Preferences

As with many products, it’s easy to think that our personal mattress preferences are shared by most other people, but in reality, there’s a lot of diversity in what people want their mattress to feel like. Try to keep this perspective in mind when mattress shopping and look for an option that can be a crowd-pleaser for all types of people.

Shipping

Almost any mattress that you buy online will come with free shipping. The standard delivery method involves compressing the mattress in plastic and sending it in a box via ground shipping to your door. You then need to bring the box to the bedroom and remove the packaging so that the mattress can decompress to regain its full size. For most mattresses, especially those that are a full or larger, it takes two people to do this safely.

If you want a more hands-off approach, look for a mattress company that offers White Glove delivery. This service includes technicians coming to your home to install the bed. They also usually will remove an old mattress if needed. The cost of White Glove services depends on the mattress company and your location.

Warranties

A warranty provides protection against defects that could arise in a mattress. Although warranties are helpful in some cases, rental property owners should know that a warranty won’t provide coverage for accidental damage (including spills) or normal wear-and-tear, including minor sagging over time.

The best type of warranty for shoppers is a non-prorated warranty because this means that the coverage stays the same over time. If the warranty is prorated, it means that the longer a customer has had the mattress, the larger the share of costs they have to pay to repair or replace the mattress.

In general, we advise owners of rental properties to look closely at the fine print of a mattress warranty. This can shed light on the nature of the coverage and customer costs associated with a warranty claim. In addition, rental property owners should make sure that there are no special terms in the warranty for mattresses used in commercial settings.

Pillows and Bedding

Having a great mattress may go unappreciated by your guests if the pillows and bedding are not up to snuff. Try to make sure that there are at least two pillows on a twin or twin XL bed and four or more pillows on beds that are full or larger. You can consider zippered pillow encasements to protect against damage to the pillows and to reduce the buildup of allergens that could cause problems for guests.

Sheets and blankets are also important to consider. Of course, you’ll want to start by making sure that you choose a size that matches the new mattress. Having multiple bedding sets can make it easier to always provide fresh sheets and blankets and to have a backup in case there’s a spill or stain. If your rental is in a warmer climate, using cooling sheets may bring added comfort to your visitors.

Bedroom Furniture

Along with the mattress, put some thought into the bedroom furniture that will round out the overall decor in your Airbnb or rental property. If there’s space for a nightstand (or two), a dresser, and/or a desk, it can boost the comfort and usability of your space. Try to make sure there are some electrical outlets that are easily accessible since virtually every guest will want a place to plug in their phone, tablet, or other electronics.

Blackout Curtains

Taking extra steps so that guests get a good night’s sleep can help ensure that you get positive reviews and repeat customers. Too much light in the bedroom is an issue that is often overlooked in rental properties. If the bedroom has big windows, consider putting up blackout curtains or heavy drapes so that customers can sleep without being bothered by light streaming in.

Cribs

If you have a rental property that caters to families, including many condos and vacation homes, it is worth considering having a crib mattress in the unit. This added perk can make the difference for potential customers that are parents seeking the ease of traveling without lugging along a travel crib.

Should you decide to furnish your rental with a crib, make sure to choose one that meets all required safety standards in its construction.

Space-Saving Beds

For some rental units, it’s a huge plus to have extra bed capacity. If you’re working with limited space but want to boost the maximum number of guests, there are a few types of space-saving beds to consider:

• Twins that can be combined: Some twin or twin XL mattresses can be put together with a connector that allows them to be used as a king or California king. While this doesn’t expand total capacity, it does provide flexibility to offer guests a higher number of total beds.
• Bunk beds: An ideal option for vacation homes that want extra room for children, bunk beds take advantage of vertical space to double bed capacity.
• Murphy beds: These are mattresses that are stored vertically inside a piece of furniture (like a cabinet) and then pulled down to create an extra “hide-away” bed.
• Sofa beds: There is a range of designs for sofa beds, but most involve a pull-out section that converts the couch into a bed.
• Futons: Like a sofa bed, a futon serves as both a couch and a bed, but the mattress itself doesn’t fold up. Instead, the frame simply adjusts from angled to flat.