Heather's Creative Life

Here's another little handy-dandy product review, courtesy of my weekend at the Radisson LaCrosse: Sleep Number Beds.

I abhor these things.
Detest.
Might avoid Radissons for this sole reason.

Don't get me wrong, our hotel was LOVELY. It was in a GREAT location, had plenty of free parking, nice rooms, and great staff. But these beds are way more trouble than they are worth, and Radisson seems to be using them exclusively now.

Our first night we arrived home late from Groom's Dinner festivities and the bed felt a little funny. My side was stuck on 100 (ROCK HARD) and hubby's side wasn't registering at all - the remote just showed "--" over and over. Hmmm. That's probably not good. But we were tired and the prospect of packing everything up again and moving to another room was daunting, so we decided to just live with it.

Never decide to just live with it.

Hubby slept in a trench. Seriously. His side of the bed completely deflated so that there was a concave tube with zero cushion. At some point he stole all of the pillows and laid them in the trench to try and cope - but we both slept awfully. Around 7am when my day started, I was torn about what to do - I had to run around doing wedding stuff all day, and wouldn't be able to come back and re-pack/move stuff, so hubby would just have to deal. Hubby who could barely stand up straight after a night of twisted sleep. Sigh.

At 7ish I went downstairs to explain our problem, and was told there were no managers on duty (apparently managers are the only ones who can take action on broken beds?). I told them I had to leave and they said they'd pass it along.

Ugh.

At 10am I stopped back (to pick up the hair accessories I had forgotten)and hubby hadn't heard anything from the hotel, but had at least moved to the flat (if rock hard) side of the bed.

Sometime between 11 and 12:30 housekeeping came and said someone was on their way, hubby went to lunch and when he returned there was a note of apology. Apparently a "hose had become unattached" so the bed deflated.

We had hardly SAT on the bed, it wasn't like we were jumping like monkeys or anything. Just so you know.

Can you imagine what a pain that must be for a whole hotel to have those beds? It must happen all the time! And if so, why on earth would we have to wait for a MANAGER to dispatch the repair? UGH!

So sleep number beds get a huge thumbs down, if only for the annoyance factor. I know beds are a pretty personal choice and some people prefer softer, some harder, but I'm pretty sure everyone prefers a functional, semi-padded bed. Not a hard trench. And sleep number beds are hella expensive!

To the hotel's credit, once I expressed my dissatisfaction we came to a mutually agreeable discount on the bill, and they were fair about it. But they wouldn't have done anything if I hadn't pushed for it. There's another lesson - corporate America won't give you anything if you don't ask for it - but if you do, they generally want to come to an arrangement that makes you happy and likely to return, or at least not to tell your friends not to patronize them.

The hotel overall (and aside from the bed) was LOVELY and we're considering going back again for a little weekend trip - we didn't get to see much of the cute little downtown area and there appears to be a lot of shops and restaurants. I just don't know that I'd be excited for those beds again...

Now the Sheraton "sweet sleeper" beds on the other hand, are HEAVENLY...