Going undercover with Millbrook Contract Beds
Yes, that’s right, Millbrook Contract Beds is going undercover!
Beds would hardly be beds without their pillows, blankets, duvets and sheets. It is important to consider your new bed carefully, but once you have it, don’t then rush the buying of your creature comfort essentials.
Bedding consists of the following interchangeable elements –
- · –Duvets
- · –Quilts
- · –Sheets
- · –Blankets
- · –Pillows
- · –Cushions
So let’s start at the head of the bed and work our way down…
Pillows
The pillow determines quality of sleep just as much as the mattress and the bed. They should actually be replaced regularly. The recommended time limit on pillows is that they should be replaced every two to three years. The best test to figure out whether or not your pillow is past it, is to test its bounce. If the bounce has gone so have the pillow’s benefits.
Soft, flat pillows can cause neck pain while firm, stiff pillows can lead to back pain. You need the right size and the right firmness. It all depends on your own personal needs and the way in which you sleep. Some people sleep on their sides, others on their backs and some sleep on the stomachs. Most of us toss and turn in the night anyway, going to sleep in one position and waking up in another. You might share a bed with a loved one, in which case, your pillow choices might be different. Pillow combinations can sometimes be an option for couples.
Back and side sleepers need the most support and will benefit greatly from higher, firmer pillows. Stomach sleepers are better served to use softer, fluffier pillows. It is not recommended sleeping on your front anyway, as it can cause muscular problems. Pillow fillings vary between natural and synthetic materials. Memory foam is a wise choice for a pillow these days, especially if you sleep on your side. It moulds to suit your position.
The only other issue you need to consider with your pillows is the pillow case. These are mostly for decorative aesthetics. Choose the pillow case that most suits you or your bedroom.
Blankets & duvets
If ever an area of bedroom essentials could be deemed as complicated, this would certainly be it. The terms blankets, duvets, sheets, linens and covers seem to be interchangeable between every household around the world. Everyone refers to their bedding in different ways, even when these terms mean slightly different things.
A blanket is, in essence, a large piece of cloth. Blankets are distinguishable from sheets from their thickness. Blankets are designed for the purposes of comfort and warmth where as sheets are designed for the purposes of hygiene. Duvets are a type of blanket that are usually filled with down and feathers, generally thicker than your average blanket and useful as an insulator. The covers are usually the sheets that go over your blanket and mattress.
Regardless of how you define and distinct these different pieces of bedding from one another, one thing is for sure, you need them!
You also want to make sure that your duvet and blanket designs do not contrast too much with your headboard. The headboards can often dictate the style and colours of your bedding.
The main source of warmth from a bed comes from what you cover yourself with and a blanket or duvet provides a lot of it. The choices of blankets available are down, fleece, cotton, wool and electric. You must take into account what material best suits you and your body. Luxury, durability, versatility, blankets are designed for all purposes and all preferences. One of the most coveted aspects of linen shopping is not even necessarily the comfort derived from the linens, but more so the design and style. These days there is enough selection out there to get the ideal of both comfort and appearance.
Give your contract beds the comfort makeover they deserve.
A Fresh Look at Contract Beds this spring
It’s the season for a spring clean – and why not start by taking a fresh look at your contract beds? After all, we at Millbrook Contract Beds offer free delivery right to your door as well as (for an additional fee) removal and disposal of your old beds.
As the leading supplier of contract beds in the UK, with over 60 years’ worth of experience in the industry, we know exactly how important a good night’s sleep is for your guests. Where customer service is concerned, the quality of your contract beds can make the difference between a complaint and a compliment, which is why our selection of beds is designed to provide a perfect night’s sleep to all of your guests. We do spend roughly a third of our lives asleep, so the importance of a good quality bed can never be understated – let alone where accommodation is concerned.
In the accommodation sector, guest satisfaction is especially important, as it can lead to repeat custom and positive endorsements in the future. After all, in the hotel industry, a good night’s sleep is the most important thing a hotelier can offer to their guests – so it’s important not to compromise on the quality of your beds, which should each last between seven and ten years depending on use.
Durability is one of the prominent features possessed by all of our contract beds, which are made to the highest quality following in more than half a century’s tradition of hand manufacturing. Our dedication to these traditional techniques in an industry that is fast becoming about mass production keeps us strongly in touch with the values and requirements of each of our clients, and allows us to adapt our constructions to any individual specifications that may be required from our clientele.
Here at Millbrook Contract Beds we offer unrivalled service, impartial advice and a complete customer support system – fill in our call back request form and we’ll be in contact when it’s convenient for you to discuss any of our products or arrange a free site survey. We stock beds built for all manner of requirements and for all budgets, so we’re bound to have something perfect for your needs.
If all this isn’t convincing enough, we’re pleased to offer discounted prices for most of our International Collection, from the simple and popular Hotel to the exceptional Executive, with the Club Class boasting a blend of comfort and value. The individually packed pocket springs of the Executive and Club Class provide a superior quality of sleep while the Hotel offers unparalleled value. With each of these varieties available in sizes through from the single to a 6’ zip and link and with a selection of material options, there’s every excuse to update your contract beds this spring.
Mattress Recycling- Why it’s essential in the hospitality industry
When you go through the process of replacing your contract beds, or perhaps your contract bed mattress, it is easy to get someone to remove your old mattresses to make way for the new ones, but what happens to the ones you’ve thrown out?
The sad fact is, unless you care, you will find that many old mattresses become part of landfills and in a society that is increasingly concerned with the environment and looking after it, it’s probably time to consider the more positive effects of recycling and ensuring that whoever removes your old mattresses will recycle them.
As well as being more ecologically aware as a hotelier, there is also something to be said for the impact and positive image this might create for your hotel and brand as well. If your clients care about the environment and they see that you do too – then loyalty will not be far away which in turn will obviously have a positive effect on your business.
Landfills – Your old mattress and it’s new home
The downside of a mattress in a landfill is mostly associated with how they might absorb chemicals that can harm the earth around them, but perhaps more crucially the fact that many mattresses are not biodegradable means that slowly over time, they take up a lot of space and never go away.
Imagine a world in the future where all these old contract bed mattresses are still taking up space and damaging the ecology of an area? If you have children you may well want to consider the impact on their future too.
So let’s assume we choose to recycle
Recycling any mattress will always be a better option to putting it in a landfill. Mattresses sadly aren’t easy to recycle but it is possible. With the right tools then a mattress can be stripped back to the core parts and then bailed. Once this is done then the mattress can be reprocessed and end up back in a supply chain. The end result being that none of it ends up in a landfill, we recycle the materials in a positive way and most importantly protect the environment for now and in the future.
If you’re thinking of changing your contract beds or contract bed mattresses, think twice before assuming they will end up recycled, as a question now could save the world later on – making you feel good and of course giving you something to shout about when you promote your hotel’s unique selling points!
Ever wondered what’s inside a Millbrook Mattress?
As a leading contract bed maker and supplier, Millbrook Contract Beds takes pride in offering the very best in quality and the highest manufacturing standards to all its clients.
The fact that Millbrook offers contract beds that are comfortable is all down to the mattress but if you opened one up, what would you find?
In a contract bed mattress you will have interior springs which come in two types. The open coil mattress and the pocket spring mattress. Both offer comfort and luxury at different levels though.
An open coil mattress on a Millbrook Contract Bed is comprised of lots of individual springs that are specially joined together with wire. As a general guide, you can expect there to be between two hundred and eighty and three hundred and twenty five springs in a five foot mattress.
For lighter use, this is ideal and offers a good amount of support and of course value for any contract bed buyer.
With a Millbrook pocket sprung mattress you will find even more luxury and comfort as this form of manufacture is generally considered to be the very best. Each spring in the mattress is actually contained within a singular fabric pocket and therefore, will move independently to the other springs inside. This is particularly comfortable because it means excellent support for the spine and longevity in terms of shelf life.
The spring counts within a mattress on a Millbrook Contract Bed will range between eight hundred through to three thousand and of course, as you would expect, the highest quality spring units are joined in two tiers, which tends to offer the very best support and comfort for the sleeper.
Of course there’s a lot more to a contract bed from Millbrook than this, such as traditional hand-side stitching, which essentially joins the outside springs to the border at the bottom and top, which is an excellent way to prevent what we call ‘roll-out’. This is by far one of the most skilled and intensive parts of the manufacturing process, but it is most certainly worth it as it means the sleeping area of the bed goes right to the edge.
As always, we’re proud to offer over sixty years of experience in the supply of contract beds and mattresses so if you’re looking for some impartial advice on your next contract bed do contact us.
Refreshing the hotel sector for 2012 – Advice from Millbrook Contract Beds
With the 2012 Olympics on the way a recent survey conducted across UK hotels has helped to quantify the anticipation for it as a good year for the British hospitality industry. What it seems to represent is the chance for building up and bringing back business to a fluctuating economical climate. The hospitality industry has been suffering from these shockwaves over the past few years. Continue reading »
“Springs” into action with Millbrook Contract Beds
When choosing a mattress it’s important to recognise the importance of the spring system. Traditional open spring constructions are still widely used, and here at Millbrook Contract Beds we have many such examples on offer – take a look especially at our Academic Collection. But if you’re after the next level in comfort technology, a pocket spring mattress may well be what you’re looking for. But just what is a pocket spring system, and what advantages does it have to give you the best possible night’s sleep? And why choose a pocket spring mattress over its open spring counterpart? Let’s take a closer look… Continue reading »
Are you upgrading your hotel contract beds for the London 2012 Olympics?
The Olympics are coming to London! The world’s most revered sporting event is being hosted here in the UK for the first time since 1948, and we at Millbrook Contract Beds think every potential 400m runner or long jumper out there deserves a comfortable place to rest those tired legs after an exhausting practice session. We spotted an opportunity for all of our customers, especially in the hotel industry, to make the most of this… Continue reading »
Millbrook Contract Beds explores the future – A hoteliers guide to the 2012 Olympics Part 1
The first question we have to ask is;
Are we ready?
The 2012 Olympics are only a blink of an eye away and the UK hospitality industry will be caught up right in the middle of events. It’s going to be a big year for the UK economy.
As a contract bed supplier, we here at Millbrook Contract Beds thought it was time to delve into matters by addressing the expectations and possibilities of next year’s radical shake-up of approaching trade. As demand for more space, rooms and beds goes up, so too will our responsibilities. We have a duty to our customers to deliver the finest quality hand-crafted contract beds in time for this boom.
As far as research into matters are concerned, studies and predictions have yielded positive results. UK hoteliers will need to position themselves in order to capitalise and meet the large demands ahead. Those based out of London from the small independent hotels to the large franchises will be in the thick of it, although the Olympic Games will spread far and wide around the country.
Current projections have speculated that London should expect 350,000 foreign visitors per day during the Olympic period. At this point in time the UK hospitality industry is well-equipped to absorb this increased demand thanks to the creation of an extra 13,000 rooms in the region.
To help meet this demand there will be need for beds. Lots of beds.
That’s where Millbrook comes in.
Our mission has always been to equip hotels and residences with all the contract beds they can handle. It’s been our speciality for over 60 years. 2012 will be just another notch on our belt. For those area specific hotels, guest houses and B&B’s that will be looking to reap the dividends of such a prosperous influx, they will be needing quality contract bedroom furniture.
Our International Collection was tailor made for this kind of situation with The President and The Executive providing fine quality sleep experiences for tourists, guests, visitors and even competitors. In a previous blog we even addressed the 2012 Olympics revelation that beds were being custom built for athletes in order to provide them with the ideal night’s rest!
The Executive contract beds
What makes a hotel worth satying in is how good the guest experience is. What makes a guest experience so satisfying is the quality of the services and facilities and the comfort of the beds. It’s a no-brainer really and it’s not like we haven’t covered this in detail in the past.
Operators are quite rightly preparing themselves for a long, hard but ultimately profitable summer next year. Estimations predict that caterers and restaurants will be providing over 18 million meals to athletes and visitors during the event. That’s a lot of people making plans to come and stay with us here in the UK.
Optimists think that the 2012 Olympics is very likely to strengthen the UK hotel industry and the overall UK economy due to its fostering of more public-private partnerships. If all goes according to plan then we should be looking at a more robust, government-backed business environment for operators in general.
It looks set to be a very busy, but very successful 2012. Just make sure that you have covered your bases and that you are supplying the right contract beds so that you optimise your guest experience for one of the most important years in the hospitality industry for a very long time.
Part 2 in this Olympic blog series is coming soon. In the meantime follow us on Twitter and like us on Facebook.
New Term, New Beds – A Guide to Choosing Contract Beds for your Halls of Residence
As we mentioned in the last blog article, it’s rapidly approaching that time of year when a whole new crop of eager students say goodbye to their parents and head for a new life at University.
For owners of student residences across the country, this means time is running out to choose, order and install a new set of contract beds. We already led you through exactly why you’ll benefit from replacing the beds in your academic halls of residence in our last blog, by mentioning the fact that students have become more hard working and more sensitive to the need for a good night’s sleep.
Now, however, we’re moving on to the next stage in the process; how to make your choices once you’ve decided on bringing in a new set of beds.
We offer three different ranges of contract bed designs especially for an academic setting at Millbrook Contract Beds, so there’s bound to be a model to suit your academic halls wherever they are located. Each of these different beds have been specifically designed to provide the perfect balance between quality and affordability, providing a rare touch of class to the task of buying beds in bulk.
The Millbrook Academic collection consists of three different beds, named the Conference, the Campus and the Residence, each with its own unique special features to meet your needs. Both the Campus and the Conference options are available in a range of sizes, from the standard single to a giant Super King size, plus the option of custom sizes to fit individual rooms.
A zip and link design which allows a double bed to be transformed into two singles is another handy alternative. This can come in especially useful if your halls are rented out as tourist accommodation or conference suites outside of the academic year, when twin rooms and double rooms are more likely to be needed than they are for students.
Each of the beds is designed to include space beneath it as an extra place for students to store their belongings. However, if a lower bed is needed, for instance if the room already contains a low bedside table, or even if you want to avoid hard-to-vacuum areas under the bed, the Campus design’s removable legs mean it can be effortlessly lowered.
Mattress material is another important thing to consider. The Campus and Residence designs are expertly stuffed with warming woollen felt for an affordable way to create a comfortable sleep experience. The Conference is a little more luxurious, on the other hand, and is made using decadent lambswool, cotton and soft white fibres to dissipate body heat more effectively.
All options are built using an open coil design to support the sleeper’s back and have wipe-clean surfaces for hygiene in a variety of different patterned or plain designs. There’s also a choice of material where the bed-frame and headboard are concerned, where wood, metal and fabric-covered options are all available.
If all these choices seem a bit much for you however, why not just contact Millbrook’s dedicated team for specialist advice on which of our range would suit your academic institution best? Just make sure to get in there fast, as before you know it, the new students will already be walking through your doors, ready for an exciting year ahead.
So it’s back to school? Some educational advice from Millbrook Contract Beds
As we all accept the fact that this summer hasn’t been the best on record, the student A’Level results this year were pretty good, which has offered some consolation at least to a few parents and students alike.
However, this of course has lead to an increase in new academic students this year, all eagerly looking forward to their first term in halls of residence, away from home.
If you’re looking at keeping budgets low, it’s very easy to assume that students should put up with their halls – whether they’re next door to a group that is partying every night or indeed if they’re using a contract bed that’s old. After all, isn’t that what student life is about?
Perhaps surprisingly, many students want to do well in their studies and as has been indicated by many professionals over the years, lack of sleep in a good bed can have an affect on academic results. It’s one thing to say that a student can’t concentrate if they have burned the midnight oil too many times, but to have someone say it because they were in an uncomfortably contract bed is something else.
So while you’re preparing for all the Freshers in the next three weeks or so, perhaps you can take a look at your contract beds in your halls of residence. Have they seen better days?
Remember that a contract bed is supposed to last up to 7 years. If you try and imagine a set of students every single year using a contract bed in the halls of residence and then during the summer a lot of delegates using that same contract bed – how long do you think it should last?
If you are looking for a contract bed for halls of residence or indeed any educational establishment, you may like to take a look at our Academic Collection or other ranges for some useful advice on what you can expect.
Equally, if you’re after completely impartial advice on contract beds for the academic industries we are always happy to offer this free of charge so do CONTACT US. Don’t forget that Millbrook Contract Beds is now on Twitter and Facebook too.