Cleaning Tips

How to Achieve a Luxurious Hotel-Feel at Home

September 19, 2016

Staying at a hotel isn’t just about finding a place to keep your stuff while on vacation, it’s about the experience. If it were in the budget, most travelers would pick a five-star resort for any trip they took. After all, you enjoy fresh linens daily, a fluffy bed, a clutter-free living area, fancy décor and fixtures, a spotless bathroom, and soft, relaxed lighting. Aside from the appealing accommodations, high-end hotels also make you feel like a VIP. The personal service and resources at your disposal make everything you do easier and more satisfying.

While you don’t have an entire staff of people waiting on your every need at home, you can give your home a little makeover to add some hotel-like amenities. Let’s start with your bedroom.

How to Make a Hotel Bed at Home

The crisp white sheets, mountain of fluffy pillows, and cozy feathery comforter – sleeping in a hotel bed is like sleeping in the clouds. Want that indulgence every night at home? By making a few simple changes, you can create a bed worthy of a daily mint on the pillow.

Go white: Half of the appeal of a freshly made bed is the appearance. When you stay at upscale hotels, the all-white look is fairly common. That’s because it gives off a feeling of clean luxury, which makes the bed seem more inviting. If possible, go for Egyptian cotton and get the highest thread count you can afford – 300 or higher is ideal.
Pile-on the pillows: There’s nothing like jumping onto a fluffy mound of pillows after a long day. Try to have three to five pillows, ideally of different levels of firmness. This allows sleepers to create the exact head support they want, whether minimal or ultra plush. Having multiple pillow options will also allow you to use them around your body if desired, creating luxurious comfort on every level.
Make the investment: Perhaps the most important factor in how you sleep is whether your mattress is comfortable. Don’t go for the cheapest one you find because it feels all right or even pretty good when you test it out. Lower quality mattresses may start out OK, but after a little while, you can tell it was a bargain purchase, and may have to spend more on a new one anyway. If you are going for that extra lush feel, get a mattress with a pillow-top or even featherbed, which some hotels use to achieve that unbeatable layer of softness.
Do it with down: For the ultimate in luxury, stick with a down comforter and pillows. The goose or duck feather stuffing creates a light level of support that feels like laying on a fluffy cloud. Down comforters offer great insulation without being too heavy, which means you get to be warm and cozy all night without feeling weighed down.

In addition to these tips, you can employ the triple-sheet method. The standard setup when making a bed is one fitted sheet wrapped on the mattress and a straight sheet on top, tucked in at the foot of the bed. The three-sheet method is used commonly in hotels and is becoming more popular in homes. To make your bed in this way, perform the following steps:

Wrap your mattress with a fitted sheet.
Put a flat sheet over the fitted sheet to cover the entire mattress, with the top hem lining up with the head of the mattress.
Place a blanket or lightweight duvet on top of the flat sheet and make sure it lines up so it is approximately six to eight inches from the head of the mattress.
Put another flat sheet on top of the blanket and tuck all three layers in at the bottom corners.
Pull back the two flat sheets a few inches so the fold sits just above the top of the blanket.
Fold sheets over again, this time including the blanket layer.

The result of employing this technique is a neat and smooth bed surface that looks clean and comforting.

Capturing that Hotel Feeling

The bed is a key element of the hotel-like ambiance, but there are other things you can do to give your home a luxurious feel. Creating a calm and relaxing environment can make your home feel more like a retreat than a standard living space. Use the ideas below to start your transformation:

Lighting: Keep your home well-lit with natural light, but include options for mood lighting as well. Ensure lighting is sufficient when it’s dark outside with matching lamps and wall sconces.
Curtains: Choose window coverings that coordinate with your bedding and overall design theme. Include black-out curtains in bedrooms, as every hotel has them for those wanting to sleep in a little later.
Colors: Hotels are designed to appeal to the masses, so they usually have very neutral color palettes. Stick to these shades for paint, flooring and bedding, but add a pop of color to the room with pillows, curtains or artwork.
Clutter: When you walk in to a hotel room, you generally find very little clutter. This makes you instantly feel at ease, knowing the place is clean and open. Keep tabletops clear, shelves organized and furniture minimal in every room of your house.

Recreating a Hotel Bathroom at Home

Bathrooms at fancy hotels convey a spa-like appeal to guests. They are usually spacious, spotless and serene. To create your own bathroom paradise, stick to the following three staples.

Quality Towels and Products

Investing in high-quality towels is one of the biggest bathroom luxuries in a hotel. Go top-of-the-line when it comes to textiles by purchasing oversized options made of superior cotton with a high thread count. Spring for ones that are thick and super soft.

In addition to great towels, five-star hotels often have an assortment of premier bath products available for use during your stay. At home, place samples of fine soaps, shampoos and other toiletries on an amenity tray. This keeps things tidy while creating a stylish display on your counter. Some high-quality products are available in sample kits, which provides you matching labels to set out.

High-End Details

Having the right accents and designer looks throughout the bathroom set the tone for elegance and indulgence. Set the room up with aromatic candles, subtle artwork and a fashionable shower curtain. Keep the clutter to a minimum and the lighting soft. If it’s in the budget, get a dual-head or rainfall shower fixture and a heated towel rack.

A Maximum Clean

Have you ever stayed at a budget hotel where you walked in to the bathroom and could tell it had been used over and over without proper cleaning and maintenance? The tile grout is dark and dirty, the lighting is too intense, and there are rings in the toilet. Your bathroom may not be like this, but to sustain the sleek, spotless look you think of when you picture a quality resort, you must be willing to clean often. Sanitize where necessary and minimize your collection of clutter. If scrubbing tiles and tubs is not your thing, hiring a weekly cleaning service can help you stay on top of dirt and grime without having to put in all of the work yourself.

It may not be possible to create an exact hotel experience in your own home – normal daily life is not a vacation with people providing hospitality services – but that doesn’t mean you can’t spruce up your living space. Start with the bedroom and bathroom, minimize clutter around the house, and get professional cleaning services to help you keep the place spotless. Just a few small changes and upgrades will have your house feeling like your own personal oasis in no time.