Sofitel has announced the results of a scientific study that analysed travellers sleep to guests’ sleep experience. Guided by this research, Sofitel will deploy new experience rituals across all its hotels to help guests enjoy blissful nights.
Sleep has always been a focus of Sofitel. In 2003, the brand unveiled a major innovation: the Sofitel MyBed experience, the epitome of comfort. It includes a box spring, mattress, topper, comforter, and an extensive selection of pillows, developed with the utmost care to deliver unmatched comfort and the sensation of being cradled in clouds.
Sofitel has now taken its commitment to slumber a step further by conducting a scientific study to analyze its guests’ sleep. The aim was to better understand how travellers sleep in order to help them sleep better and longer. The study was designed to minimise the notorious “first night effect,” which occurs when people sleep far away from home.
This effect is also known as a syndrome. When we sleep in an unfamiliar place for the first time, the left hemisphere of our brain displays heightened activity, which keeps it in a state of alert even after we have closed our eyes. This is a widespread issue for Sofitel as its diverse clientele has included many people who come for short stays: whether they were visiting for a business trip or enjoying a city break, in 2023, 45 percent of Sofitel’s guests spent only one night in the brand’s hotels. Such guests are especially prone to the first-night effect. This inspired Sofitel to design an original, first full-scale study to analyse these sleep issues, in collaboration with leading sleep experts.
On average, the subjects’ sleep quality in the Sofitel Paris Arc de Triomphe room was 13.7 percent higher than at home—the higher the score, the better the sleep. The subjects of the study slept an average of 65 minutes longer. Their cardiac and respiratory rhythms were also analysed. Respiratory rhythms were slower, a sign of deeper sleep. The study found 32 percent of the subjects woke up after 8 a.m., and 64 percent of the subjects fell asleep in under 30 minutes. These numbers were borne out in the positive feedback the subjects provided: more than eight out of 10 of them rated the experience as “good” to “very good.” When the subjects were asked about the best parts of the experience, the mattress and the pillow were mentioned in 96 percent of the responses.
“This study was invaluable for Sofitel because it gave us key data on our guests’ sleep. In late 2023, we started brainstorming on how we could apply the findings to our hotels across the world. We sought to give all our hotels clear guidelines and the opportunity to revamp their rooms and suites, to elevate the experience of all our travellers in the most personalized way possible,” said Nicolas Gronier, VP Global Marketing Sofitel
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