Why hotel bedrooms feel so relaxing – and how to recreate it at home

There is something about walking into a beautiful hotel bedroom that
immediately makes you want to relax. But what exactly are hotels doing differently?

By Tereza Pedro, in Home & Garden · 10 Oct 2026, 12:01 · 0 Comments

Credits: Unsplash; Author: unsplash, gabriel alenius;

You open the door, put down your suitcase and suddenly everything feels calm.

The bed is perfectly made. The lighting is soft. There is hardly anything on the bedside tables and, somehow, even though you have only arrived five minutes ago, you already want to lie down.

Of course, part of that feeling comes from being away from home. There is no washing waiting to be folded, no cupboard you have been meaning to organise and no reminder that the dishwasher needs emptying.

But hotels are also very good at creating bedrooms designed around one main purpose: rest.

And there are a few things we can easily borrow from them.

Start with the bed

The bed is nearly always the star of a good hotel room.

Clean white sheets, comfortable pillows and a duvet that looks almost too inviting. Everything else in the room seems to be arranged around it.

At home, our beds sometimes become something else entirely. A place to leave clean washing, handbags, laptops and whatever else we don’t know where to put.

Making the bed each morning is the easiest place to start.

You don’t need hotel-style tucked corners or six decorative cushions. Clean bedding, comfortable pillows and a neatly pulled-up duvet already make a big difference.

And if you want that particularly luxurious hotel feeling, good-quality white or neutral bedding is difficult to beat.

Clear the bedside tables

Think about the bedside table in a hotel.

Usually there is a lamp, perhaps a telephone, a bottle of water and very little else.

Now think about the one at home.

Chargers, books, receipts, hand cream, hair ties, glasses, medication and a collection of things we put down before going to sleep.

We obviously need some of these things. But removing what we don’t need can instantly make the area around the bed feel calmer.

A small tray or drawer can hide the everyday essentials while keeping the surface relatively clear.

Lighting changes everything

Hotels rarely rely on one enormous bright ceiling light.

Instead, they use layers of lighting.

Bedside lamps, reading lights, perhaps a floor lamp and softer indirect lighting allow you to change the atmosphere depending on what you are doing.

This is one of the easiest hotel tricks to bring home.

A bedside lamp with warm light can completely change how a bedroom feels in the evening. And turning off the main ceiling light before getting into bed can help create that feeling that the day is coming to an end.

Curtains matter more than we think

One thing good hotel take very seriously is curtains.

During the day, you want natural light. At night, you want privacy and darkness.

Heavy curtains or blackout blinds can make a bedroom feel cosier while also keeping early morning light out when you want to sleep a little longer.

During the daytime, however, open them properly.

Few things make a bedroom feel fresher than daylight coming through the windows and a little fresh air entering the room.

Keep the colours simple

Hotel bedrooms often use relatively calm colour palettes.

That doesn’t mean your bedroom needs to become beige from floor to ceiling.

But keeping the main elements, bedding, curtains and larger furniture simple gives the room a calmer base. Colour can then come through artwork, cushions, a chair or smaller accessories.

Hotels also tend to repeat materials and colours rather than introducing something completely different in every corner.

The result feels pulled together without necessarily looking overly designed.

Remove some of the everyday life

This might be the hardest part to recreate.

Hotel rooms are relaxing partly because they don’t contain our lives.

There aren’t piles of paperwork, children’s toys, exercise equipment or three baskets of washing waiting to be dealt with.

We can’t remove everyday life from our bedrooms completely, but we can hide some of it.

A laundry basket with a lid, drawers for chargers and smaller items, and simply taking things out of the bedroom that belong somewhere else can make an enormous difference.

You don’t have to become a minimalist. You just want your eyes to have somewhere to rest.

Add one little luxury

Hotels are also good at small details.

A nice glass beside the bed. A soft robe. A good hand cream. Fresh flowers. A beautiful candle. A coffee machine ready for the morning.

At home, one little luxury can create the same feeling.

It doesn’t need to be expensive. Perhaps it is simply buying bedding you really love or putting a small vase of flowers on the dresser.

The idea is to have something in the room that feels like a treat rather than another practical necessity.

Your own five-star bedroom

The goal isn’t to make your bedroom look exactly like a hotel.

After all, the nicest homes are personal, and a bedroom without photographs, books or any sign of the person living there can quickly feel soulless.

Instead, take the things hotels do particularly well and make them work at home.

A comfortable bed. Less clutter. Good lighting. Proper curtains. Fresh air.

You may not have room service waiting on the other side of the door, but your bedroom can still give you a little of that feeling you get when you first walk into a beautiful hotel room.

And the best part is that you don’t have to check out in the morning.