Why You Can Trust CNET Best Mattress for Guest Rooms of 2024
The bed in your spare room should be comfortable and widely accommodating. Here are the best mattresses for guest rooms, tested and chosen by our sleep experts.
Mattress shopping for yourself is one thing, but it's another story to shop for a bed for others to sleep on. You'll want something accommodating so your guests find it comfortable, but you also probably don't want to spend a ton of money on a mattress that might not get used too often.
We picked a handful of beds out of the hundreds we've tested over six years that will make your guests so comfy they might not want to leave.
What is the best overall mattress for guest rooms?
The Puffy Cloud Mattress is the best option for guest rooms. It has an accommodating soft foam feel that most will find comfortable, and a medium firmness rating that should be suitable for any sleeping position. I also love that the mattress is often on sale for just under $1,050.
Plus, the cover on the Puffy Mattress is machine-washable and stain-resistant, so you can easily give the cover a deep clean after your guest departs. That's a compelling feature for a guest room mattress.
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Watch me review the best mattress for guest rooms.
Best mattresses for guest rooms of 2024
Mattress price scale:
$ = Budget: $799 and below
$$ = Average: $800 to $1,699
$$$ = Premium: $1,700 and up
These reflect MSRP or list prices. Sales might make a mattress less expensive, but are always changing.
Why we chose the Puffy Cloud mattress: The Puffy Cloud mattress is a nice, accommodating choice that most people should find comfortable. It has a three-layer, all-foam construction. Although the top layer behaves quite like a memory foam, the rest of the foams add up to give it more of a soft, neutral foam feel that your guests should generally like.
It's also around a medium firmness in our testing, so it should be able to support a variety of sleeping positions as well. This mattress won't be ideal for a strict back sleeper looking for very little give in their mattress, but if it's for a guest staying for a week or two, they should be fine. While the initial price tag may look daunting, rest assured that you can often find this Puffy mattress on sale for just under $1,050.
It also features a stain-resistant cover that wicks away moisture effectively and is machine washable. If you want to give this mattress cover a deep clean, it's much easier than most beds. We suggest hang-drying as it could shrink in a dryer and may not fit the bed. Read more about the Puffy mattress.
Pros:
- Accommodating firmness and feel
- Machine-washable cover
- Easy to move around
Cons:
- Somewhat expensive without a discount
- All-foam construction so may not be great for heavier guests
Puffy Cloud Mattress
Why we chose the DreamFoam Hybrid mattress: The DreamFoam Hybrid is one of the most affordable coil mattresses we've ever tested. Many sleepers prefer coil beds for their extra bounce and airflow. In general, coil hybrid beds like these are more supportive and durable over the long term, especially for heavier people over 200 pounds.
Despite the low price point, we don't think you're sacrificing much in terms of quality. DreamFoam is a sub-brand of Brooklyn Bedding, which is one of our favorite brands for overall value. Despite featuring a fairly thick layer of memory foam in its construction, it has a neutral hybrid feel that we think most will find comfortable.
In our tests, we found it to be around a medium on our firmness scale for the average person, so it should be plenty accommodating for your guests. It should also let your guests sleep a little bit cooler as the cover is noticeably cool to the touch. Its cooling factor isn't going to compete with more high-end mattresses with the Brooklyn Bedding Aurora Luxe (which is one of our all-time favorite cooling beds), but it's definitely there. Read more about this bed in our Dreamfoam mattress review.
Pros:
- Accommodating firmness and feel
- Hybrid design and cooling factors
- Budget-friendly
Cons:
- Not the best edge support
DreamFoam Hybrid Mattress
Why we chose the Leesa Studio mattress: The Leesa Studio is the most affordable mattress in Leesa's lineup, and it shares many similarities with the ultrapopular Leesa Original. Both beds are about 10 inches thick and feature three foam layers. The most significant difference is that the top two layers of foam are essentially flipped, which means the top layer of the Leesa Studio is memory foam.
We generally try to avoid beds with a classic memory-foam feel for this list because not everyone is a fan of the sink-in quality found in a memory-foam mattress, but the Leesa Studio has more of a responsive, balanced memory-foam feel. When sleeping on it, you'll know that it's made of memory foam, but we don't think it will turn off many people as it's more responsive than most memory-foam mattresses.
The Leesa Studio is slightly firmer than many beds on this list, somewhere between a medium and a medium-firm on our scale, so it should still be plenty accommodating for most sleeper types.
Pros:
- Responsive memory foam
- Budget-friendly
Cons:
- Could be slightly too firm for strict side sleepers
Leesa Studio Mattress
Why we chose the SweetNight Tri-Fold mattress: Let's face it -- not everyone lives in a space big enough for a dedicated guest room, but that doesn't mean you don't ever want to have guests stay with you.
The SweetNight Tri-Fold Mattress is exactly what it sounds like. When your home is guest-free, it can remain folded in a rectangular shape that can be easily stored, and when you have guests over, simply unfold it on the floor or a folding bed frame, and they will have a place to sleep that should be more comfortable than the average couch.
It can be used very effectively for camping trips for yourself. I actually slept on this mattress for 12 days on an extended camping trip in a tent and found it to be so much more comfortable than the usual air mattress and cot combo I used in the past.
It's not the most comfortable or supportive mattress in the world, given that it's only 4 inches thick, but if you have a small space, the SweetNight Tri-Fold Mattress is a great option for any guest.
Pros:
- Can be stored to save space
- Low profile
- Useful for other things (such as camping)
Cons:
- Not as comfortable or supportive as other beds
SweetNight Tri-Fold Mattress
Why we chose the Brentwood Home Crystal Cove mattress: If you're looking for one of the highest quality and most versatile mattresses for your guests, look no further than the Crystal Cove mattress.
This bed has a unique design that we haven't really seen on any other mattress we've tested. It is flippable with a soft side and a firm side, and not only do the sides have different firmness profiles, but they also have completely different feels.
The soft side has a primary comfort layer of charcoal-infused memory foam that provides a body-conforming, sink-in sensation your guest might be looking for. It can also be flipped to the firm side where the top layer is Dunlop latex foam, which has almost the exact opposite feel. It will have plenty of comfort and cushioning, but you don't sink into latex foam much, and it's super responsive as well.
When guests arrive, they can test out each side and pick the one they find most comfortable. Talk about luxury.
Plus, Crystal Cove has a large number of certifications to show how natural, organic and sustainably sourced the materials in this mattress are, including the difficult-to-achieve GreenGuard Gold Certification.
Pros:
- Flippable design
- Two different feels in one bed
- Natural and organic materials
Cons:
- Quite a bit more expensive than the other beds on this list
Brentwood Crystal Cove Flippable Mattress
Other mattresses we've tested
For all of our best lists, we have to make the cutoff somewhere, but these top five are by no means the only good options for guest rooms.
- Siena Mattress: This is a super affordable memory-foam mattress option, in the $500 range, with a relatively accommodating firmness profile that would be a solid guest room option. In our opinion, its feel isn't as universally comfortable as the beds we put on the list, so it just didn't make the cut.
- AmazonBasics Mattress: This is probably the most affordable mattress we've ever tested, and if you're just looking to not spend much at all on a guest bed, it's hard to argue with the AmazonBasics mattress. It's comfortable enough for most people, and one of our biggest concerns with it is durability, but if it's going to be slept on only occasionally, it should last quite a while.
- DreamCloud Mattress: This is just one of our favorite hybrid beds. It's super affordable, has a luxurious design and has an accommodating firmness profile. It doesn't share the same memory-foam feel as the other beds in the DreamCloud mattress lineup, so pretty much everyone should find it comfy enough. This bed just had a lot of overlap with the DreamFoam Hybrid and the DreamFoam is slightly more affordable.
How we tested the best mattresses for guest rooms
Be sure to read up on how we test mattresses. For a list like this, we wanted to keep several things in mind when choosing from the hundreds of beds we've tested.
Feel
We wanted to find beds that pretty much everyone finds generally comfortable. Some sleepers love a classic, dense memory feel, and others don't. Some folks love super responsive latex beds or even the unique feel of a Purple mattress, and others don't. The beds we chose have more of a "safe" feel that we think anyone who sleeps on them will probably like, and a guest room mattress isn't necessarily for a specific person who might want a specific feel.
Firmness
We wanted all the beds on this list to be around a medium on the firmness scale because they usually work well, or at least OK for all sleeping positions. Whether your guest is a back, stomach, side or combination sleeper, any of these beds shouldn't cause them any aches and pains.
Pricing
Buying a mattress for yourself that you spend (hopefully) eight hours a day sleeping on can already be a sizable investment, so a mattress for guests to sleep on shouldn't cost a lot. That's why we tried to select beds that were more affordable than the average online mattress.
Durability
We can't lay on the mattress every day for years, so it's hard to tell exactly how long each bed will last. Based on several factors, like construction, we get an idea of how long we think a bed will last. The average lifespan for a mattress is seven to 10 years. For this list, though, durability was less of a concern because a guest room bed probably won't be slept on every night.
Things to consider when choosing a guest room mattress
Room size
Not everyone has the space available for a guest room that can accommodate larger mattresses like a queen size. Consider full or twin XL mattresses for your guest room, and brands like Brooklyn Bedding and DreamFoam even sell atypical sizes like short queens and short fulls that might better suit your guest room space.
Sleeper types
You'll likely have a variety of people sleeping on this mattress, so you want to avoid beds that are extra soft or extra firm because one guest might be a back sleeper and another might be a side sleeper. Finding a mattress around medium firmness should work well enough for a variety of guests.
Construction
We often recommend hybrid mattresses for the long-term durability coils provide, especially for individuals above 220 pounds. For guest rooms, durability isn't as important, so even if you have heavier guests stay over, an all-foam mattress construction will be fine. All-foam mattresses are perfectly fine for handling medium to petite-size sleepers on a nightly basis.
Budget
The amount you're willing to spend on a guest room bed is going to be lower than your actual mattress. It might be tempting to get an equally expensive mattress for a guest room because you want guests to really enjoy their time in your home, but just make sure to set a budget and stick to it when shopping for a guest room mattress.
Best guest room mattress FAQs
What is the best type of mattress for a guest bedroom?
A generally comfortable mattress that pretty much everyone will find comfortable, at least for a few nights.
Should a guest room mattress be soft or firm?
Ideally, a guest room mattress should be around a medium firmness rating as it should work decently well for any sleeping position.
Is memory foam good for a guest bedroom?
Memory foam mattresses aren't ideal for guest rooms because they can be divisive. Some sleepers love the feel of memory foam and others don't.