Where to Shop for Sheets if You Want to Re-Create Your Favorite Hotel Bed

What makes a hotel bed so much better than home? Someone else making it for you is pretty nice. Free chocolate on the pillow is awesome, too, but it’s really all about those sheets. Hotel sheets just feel fancier than sheets at home. Because they’re crisp, not cozy. Crisp and buttery-soft sheets make me think of a well-worn blanket you snuggle with when you’re sick. It’s that near Oxford-shirt stiffness that I love about hotel beds. Just how that’s achieved may surprise you. Here’s a little-known secret: Hotel brands shop the same home stores we do for bedding. Yes, really. You just have to know what thread count and type of material to buy. We’re breaking down several hotel bedding tricks below, plus where to shop to snag the same sheets as designer boutique hotels use.

Hotels Shop the Same Brands You Do

If you’ve browsed our best towels guide and many of our gift guides, you know that we love Parachute. Boutique hotels love Parachute, too. Nearly 100 hotel brands around the world partner with Parachute officially, from robes at the Proper Hotel Santa Monica to feather bedding at the Salish Lodge & Spa in Washington to Parachute’s sateen sheets at The Bellwether Hotel in Kentucky. The Louisville hotel’s lumbar pillows and bed runners are custom-made, but the white sheets are the exact same sheet set you can buy online. Nashville’s cheeky Vandyke Bed & Breakfast uses sateen sheets in their cocktail-themed suites, and they opt for Brooklinen’s luxe sateen sheets, which we also love. So, why sateen? Because it has a nice sheen like silk. Of all the different cotton sheets, a sateen weave gets as close to that super-smooth texture as you get with silk. But unlike silk, these Egyptian cotton sheets are durable and can handle tumble after tumble after tumble in the wash.

And Hotels Love Percale Sheets, Too

Percale. Percale. Percale. These cooling cotton sheets are a godsend in the summer. But they’re also beloved by hot sleepers year-round because the weave style — a one over, one under pattern — allows for better airflow and circulation, which can help regulate your body’s temperature while you sleep. And hotel brands know this, too. Ace Hotel properties use custom-made percale sheets, and many trendy designer hotels use Brooklinen’s percale sheets, from the ultra-posh Guild House Hotel in Philadelphia to the modern cabins at Gather Greene in New York. Yep, these are the same sheets that we’ve awarded twice in our best sheets guide and best cooling sheets guide. We have other percale favorites, too, but the Brooklinen ones really are the best. They’re so light and crisp, which is the perfect kind of sheet to balance a big fluffy hotel duvet.

High-End Doesn’t Mean High Thread Count

One of my favorite luxury hotels in the world, the Four Seasons Orlando, has sheets that, to me, feel like the height of high-end luxury. So, I was seriously surprised to find out that their sheets only use about a 300 thread count. Turns out a higher thread count doesn’t mean higher luxury. It just means more vertical and horizontal threads in the weave pattern.

“That may seem low, but the higher the count, the harder it is to maintain that iconic look of a Four Seasons bed as the linen is too soft,” said Director of Housekeeping Reggie Bello. “Also, a lower thread count means the linen will be too stiff and rough. Being at a 300 to 350 thread count is a good number where the linen has a longer life without compromising the luxurious feel Four Seasons is known for.”

The Four Seasons home collection sheets are made from 100-percent long-staple Supima cotton, which is a cousin of Egyptian cotton. So, what’s special about long-staple? Long-staple cotton means longer fibers make up the threads in the weave. The longer the fibers, the less fiber ends stick up, which creates a smoother, softer sheet and a sheet that doesn’t pill.