Hotels using sheets instead of duvet covers?

[WeepingBicycleMonkeys]

Lighthearted, first world problems before the po faced appear but for the love of God, is it really really so much more time consuming to quickly slip a duvet cover on?
All that elaborate folding of the two sheets to cover the bare duvet must surely take more time?
Longer than even the most inept duvet cover-er would take.

We are currently in an American chain hotel and I'm becoming mildly irritated by the nightly battle to keep my sleeping drooling face away from said naked quilt.
It makes it impossible to just have the top sheet over me when DH favours the full compliment of bed covers as it involves unravelling complex folding mechanism.

Anyone work in a hotel that can shed some light? AIBU? and, do the duvets themselves ever get washed?
Actually, maybe don't answer that bit for another few days

[WorktoLive]

I want to know about this too. I hate sheets and blankets and find that many hotels still have them. I dread to think how infrequently that they are washed and can’t bear the thought of touching a bit that has been stuffed in someones sweaty armpit and I am probably the least germ phobic person on here. I hate the way they make beds too and how you have to untuck everything before you can get in.

I’ve even been known in the past to pick a hotel based on the fact that I know they use duvets and proper covers and it always dismays me to find sheets and blankets or those awful bobbly topcover things. We got duvets in about 1980 and our family were by no means early adopters. Why can’t the hotel world catch up? Is all that hotel bedding out there really decades old?

[MillionToOneChances]

Ewww no. Was in a naice hotel last week that did this. I was aghast in the morning to see - when the duvet had inevitably escaped its sheets - that it was dark yellowy-brown with accumulated sweat and grease from the guests before me. Gross.

[frenchfancy]

Not hotels but I run holiday rentals.

Duvet covers are much more difficult to wash and iron than sheets. A flat sheet can go through the machine and tumble dryer, then through the roller iron and you don't need to worry about whether it is inside out or whether something is caught up inside it.

However, I agree with all that has been said so I use duvet covers. All bedding that you touch should be clean just for you and washing duvets or blankets every changeover is just not possible, so duvets all the way.

I had American guests once complain that there was no top sheet because they didn't realise the covers were washed between each guest so maybe it is more of an American thing.

[GraysAnalogy]

Oh no I HATE duvets. I like it when we get to a hotel and it's sheets and a blanket, with a duvet stored somewhere in case we want it.

[KumiOri]

america you say?
I have not yet encountered a hotel with duvet/covers there...

[Skiptonlass]

Gross! Is this an American thing? The last hotel I stayed in there had this too... Foul :(

I loathe the 'pile of cushions and random bedspread that's never washed' thing as well with hotel beds. Those things get washed...infrequently. Anything that's on the bed needs washing between guests!

[Pinot4me]

YANBU! I hate it too....along with itchy blankets that are often used as spares....that, no doubt, only get washed once in a blue moon. Yuk!!

[WorktoLive]

My experience of hotels is mostly UK and Spain. I have never been to the US and never will judging by the state of the bedding.

I scour pictures of rooms on hotel websites, to see what sort of bedding they use. In the UK I try to stick to Premier Inns where possible as I know it will be a duvet. I would like to find that naice quirky independent, but not so much that I don’t want to reduce the risk of sheets and blankets as much as possible.

Spain appears to be almost entirely sheets and bedspreads with blankets in the wardrobe that are thankfully unnecessary due to the heat.

[Thurlow]

I chambermaided years ago, back when the hotel I worked for was transitioning to duvets.

I can safely say that duvets are an absolute nightmare to change, and sheets and blankets are so much easier and quicker. I mean, you've got to actually get the duvet inside the duvet cover. On a king size bed? With a 5'1 chambermaid? Used to take be bloody ages. Whereas sheets and a blanket are very quick to change, once you get the knack of hospital corners.

Having said that, I much prefer sleeping under a duvet. And those hotel blankets do not get cleaned or changed very regularly...

[TravellingToad]

I used to work in a hotel as a chambermaid. We had duvet covers but also a sheet between the customer and the duvet. We were under strict instructions to ONLY change th duvet cover if it was visibly soiled.

So the same duvet cover could stay on for weeks months until someone bled on it of spilt tea.

The theory was that people had a clean sheet between them and duvet. In reality we all know that that sheet ends up rumpled down near your toes and you sleep under the duvet cover.

This was a 4* best western hotel

[LikeABadSethRogenMovie]

Duvet covers are not particularly popular in the States in the first place. I still laugh at a review someone had left for a duvet cover on a kids interiors company I use who was all outraged as "it is no thicker than 2 sheets".

[Pennybun4]

Don't get me going about dirty hotel rooms and other places. Blankets and bedspreads in hotels with suspect stains, the dodgy looking marks on carpets in hotel rooms, no mattress or pillow protectors being used.

Aircraft toilets which are not emptied between flights. I don't care about their turn round times - I care about hygiene. Crew admit this happens and giggle as if it is to be proud of.

[TooMuchRain]

I don't mind sheets and blankets but hate sheets over a duvet (no cover), they don't stay on and then you inevitably come into contact with the manky duvet urghh, last time this happened was Wales

[silveroldie2]

Sheets and blankets are fab, I loathe duvets but can understand why that's not good. If they use a duvet, it should be in a cover.

[FeckTheMagicDragon]

Go to Scandinavia . Not only are duvets - there are TWO large singles on a double bed - one each so no tugging the duvets off each other (although DH did manage to steal both one night) . And a large comforter/top quilt if needed. Still in the same bed so can snuggle. We've been converted and are planning on getting some.

And to make the bed just neatly fold each duvet on each side of the bed.

www.apartmenttherapy.com/scandinavian-style-two-duvets-on-one-bed-168149

[Jedi1]

Most Americans don't use duvets (sweeping generalisation based on the American hotels I've been too and American family), it's three sheets, thick quilt and silky quilt thing. Royal pain in the arse when you have to make the bed in the morning when you're staying in someone's house...

[Jaeme]

Argh, I hate that!


They do it at the hotel we stay at in the states. I move about a lot in my sleep so I end up with my side in a huge tangle by the morning. I gave up and just sleep on top of it with my own blanket now.

[WeepingBicycleMonkeys]

Exactly, the blanket thing I accept is fine with sheets in place of a duvet altogether, old fashioned but kind of cosy but if you are going to supply a duvet at least put it inside a bloody cover! Aargh!
I am resisting the urge to peel back the sheet and inspect it in daylight.
Ignorance is bliss in view of previous posts I think!

[merrymouse]

I can understand the logic of duvet covers being difficult to wash, but they aren't difficult to change.

[Scotinoz]

You don't get duvets so much in the US, it's more sheets and comforters (a quilted blanket to match the bed linen).

I don't like sheets etch personally, I get all tangled up. But in a hotel there's a chance they're a bit cleaner since sheets can be laundered more easily than a duvet.

[ilovechristmas1]

i used to chambermaid years ago

duvet covers are not difficult to wash and put on imo

and yes those blankets and bedspreads DO NOT get changed very often as i remember

we had really nice clean crisp duvets and covers at centre parcs last year and the bed was so comfy,was a posh lodge if that makes any differrence the ones with a games room and a bathroom per room

[WeepingBicycleMonkeys]

I know Americans have a thing for those matching embroidered silky comforter things but this is not one of those. It is a genuine off white bald cotton duvet/quilt.

In fairness though, it's not just an American chain hotel, it's international

[SenecaFalls]

I'm American. It's true that we don't use duvets in the way that Europeans do where the cover serves as the top sheet.

I don't see the issue in hotels really. The top sheet should be long enough to fold over the top portion of the duvet/ comforter to prevent drooling, etc. And it's easier in my opinion, when one partner wants the duvet and the other just wants a top sheet.

I live in Florida and it is too hot here for duvets most of the year. We have a bottom and top sheet and light blanket/coverlet year round.

[HormonalHeap]

On hols in Canada and eying up bedding suspiciously...

[dingit]

In California, lying on bed with fresh sheets.