News & Politics

DC Luxury Hotels: Buying a Used Mattress Is Not a Thing

Not even if you're Scott Pruitt

Photograph by William Potter, via iStock.

EPA boss Scott Pruitt asked a staffer to phone DC’s Trump International Hotel last September to inquire about the purchase of a used Trump Home Luxury Plush Euro Pillow Top mattress, the Washington Post reported Monday. The hotel’s website lists the mattress, and its designer linen, as an amenity “exclusive” to the hotel. In reality, you can buy a new mattress by mail-order by directly contacting Tempur-Sealy.

I like to imagine Pruitt spent one night of decadent, care-swallowing sleep at the Trump Hotel when he first arrived to Washington. He woke surrounded by a dreamy palette of Federal blues, his clothes resting in a stately bureau from the Trump Home furniture collection, reading his newspaper by the low light of a bedside lamp from the Trump Home lighting collection. Why should this experience be held hostage by Trump Hotel guests?, Pruitt may have wondered. Some of his Trump administration colleagues, like Gary Cohn, lived at the Trump Hotel while in Washington. Why should I not own but one used piece of this paradisal accommodation?

The Trump Hotel ultimately declined to sell Pruitt the coveted mattress. As did a number of luxury hotels when contacted by Washingtonian with the same request.

Michael, a concierge at the Four Seasons in Georgetown, confirmed that all expired mattresses are returned to the Simmons Hospitality company, where the mattresses, featuring a patented GelTouch Foam Center heat-absorption technology, are hygienically recycled.

Marie, the director of housekeeping at the St. Regis Hotel, says the mattresses from her suites are routinely donated to charity, a big job the hotel undertakes every couple of years. But for those interested in indulging in luxurious sleep at home, a California King-sized St. Regis mattress, replete with cashmere quilting and a pillow-top, engineered to eliminate motion transfer, will run you $2,796.

Asked if she would sell me a used one for less, Marie was aghast. “No, no. I don’t think you’ll find anyone doing that.”

“Oh my gosh,” says Trump Hotel spokesperson Patricia Tang on the flood of calls she’s received about Pruitt’s possible mattress purchase, “you have no idea.” The new hotel, which opened in 2016, has no formal system of mattress disposal in place yet. Still, Tang confirms, “We certainly don’t sell them!”

Contributing Editor

Amanda has contributed to Washingtonian since 2016. She has written about the right-wing media personality Britt McHenry, chronicled her night with Stormy Daniels, and come clean about owning too much stuff. She lives on H Street. She can be reached at [email protected].