Come and tell me about mattresses! What's yours like and why did you choose it? Did you/would you online?

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We need a new one; having spent some nights at lovely hotels we realised that we always have a much better sleep on their fab mattresses. (I know, factor in children not waking us/dark rooms/lovely nights out etc but still)

Our bed is a king size base so we could buy a king mattress and prob need to (dh is 6'4" and dd was in with us from 4am this morning).

Where should I start?
What's yours and is it good?
Links please to online places
What should I expect to spend? £500? More?
I've looked at Hotel Du Vin's mattress supplier and that looks good but any advice welcomed.

TIA.

god, NEVER buy a mattress online- you need to go and feel it, lay on it and see which ones more comfy if you are spending serious money on it (cheapy spare room type mattresses fine from internet!)

We have a latex topped, pocket sprung thingy vbut i was dissapointed after spending such mponey on it that it doesn't make me a cup of tea in the mornings!
I do sleep much better though- ours was £1100 for a super king

Really? Not even John Lewis? Am browing there in another window.

you must go and try them out! We bought a new bed and mattress (from john lewis) late last year and spent a small fortune on the mattress but it is divine!
And when you go to try them out, seriously try to arrange for your children to not be with you so that you can try them all properly.
we were nervous about spending so much money but every night I get into bed and I smile because it is just bliss

got a memory foam mattress from internet,on recommendation, from place called topsleep i think...really good nights sleep..

if you dont want to buy without testing cant you test them in shop ....then order online?

umm- thats just plain wrong! going into a shop prodding all their stock then buying it online!!!

the reason things are cheaper online is because they don't have display models and its a case of buyer beware- treating businesses like this really winds me up!

nearlythere, I don't know about that, we bought our mattress on-line from a place that had a shop, it was just too far for us to travel to prod their stock, we asked our local shop to match the price as the online shop was selling us our mattress VAT free (DH had a suitable medical problem at the time) and our local shop wouldn't sell the mattress VAT free as it didn't know the ins and outs of the scheme.

Try your local shops first, at least you can try the mattresses and they may have some good deals available, I personally prefer to buy locally if I can. In the end we bought a Tempur mattress and it is fab and as mentioned above there is a scheme whereby you can buy a Tempur mattress VAT free if you can prove a medical complaint that would benefit from a Tempur mattress.

I should add that whilst in our local shop asking about the prices of their mattresses we were almost forced by the sales assistant to prod their stock.

memory foam, £400 special offer on 5ft bed - you have to try though.
Ours was from John Peters.

sorry but i've seen so many local businesses go under recently, and thats one of the reasons. The attitude just winds me up!!

I'll just step back and say i told you so when all the local shops go under- so people can't go and prod before buying online!!!

sorry rant over!

I do agree with you nearlythere that you should support your local shops (I did say that I prefer to buy locally) but when I go into my local shop in good faith and find out that they are significantly more expensive than an online shop that also has a 'real life' store in a town, ie not a distribution warehouse, I feel I am left with no option.

We don't have a local mattress shop otherwise I would be there today testing etc. Hmm, it seems I do have to go and feel it, you're mainly saying so and even JL website says so. Thanks for all your comments so far. I'm wondering about calling a hotel we stayed in recently and asking about their exact mattress type, I reckon I could do that couldn't I and still end up with something I liked? Mind you, bet they're £2k ones (there are some for this price on JL).

thats not the general rule though!
I can see the point there, but what i was saying is the comment earlier about buying online "if you dont want to buy without testing cant you test them in shop ....then order online?" is a stinking attitude to have- basically with no intention of buying locally- just using a local business to try before you buy (somewhere else!)

Well, I think maybe shop local/globalisation/evil tesco world domination/ is a whole other thread!

But I take your point. I do however, browse in waterstones sometimes and then buy on Amazon but since they're both large cos I don't think it's bad.

nearly there..you are referring to my comment ...
its called research /common sense here...and i didnt suggest just going to a small local shop...it would be easier to do this at large department store...more choice to test!

i bought from mattressman and was very happy. i did test in a local shop which was a big chain and found the one i wanted. the big chain wouldn't come dowj in price so i bought online

and you can have fun seeing if john lewis live up to their 'never knowingly undersold' slogan..
cause sometimes they do..sometimes they dont..

are you a local shopkeeper nearlythere?

our local bed shops are a joke...with the most pine awful beds and gaudy bedroom furniture..
and i dont know how it stays in business quite frankly...

Are the Hotel du Vin mattresses Vi Spring? John Lewis does an exclusive range of Vi Spring mattresses, but the shops have both catalogues so can tell you which ordinary Vi Spring is equivalent to a JL Exclusive (if you see what I mean)

Try M & S top of the range mattress - sorry can't remember precisely what it is called. It is absolutely brilliant.