Have you ever wondered what that piece of fabric lying on the hotel room’s bed is good for? And what is it even called? If you are looking for a decorative piece of fabric running along the foot of your hotel room’s bed, seemingly adding an aesthetic touch to the bedding décor, you are most probably looking at a bed runner.
In this blog, we shall discuss what a bed runner is and why hotels use these ‘seemingly’ useless (apart from being decorative) pieces of fabric on the bedding.
What is a Bed runner?
A bed runner is a small yet long piece of fabric that adds a hint of elegance to the bedroom – be it a hotel room or your home. Up until recently, bed runners were most commonly seen in top-class hotels. However, enhancing the appearance of a plain duvet cover with an elegant touch of color and style has made bed runners extremely popular with a growing number of hotels.
Bed runners easily add luxury to the bedding appearance without too putting a dent in the wallet and are also sometimes used for extra warmth during chilly winters. Bed runners were not ‘always’ used for adding aesthetics to a room but In fact, bed runners in the early days were used to hold heat between them for warming beds.
Nowadays, bed runners are ‘mostly’ used for aesthetic purposes to enhance the appearance of the living room and have totally lost their use as bed warmers.
What are the available sizes for Bed Runners?
Most probably, Different Bed runners are available in different sizes so that they fit perfectly to ensure that they fit perfectly with your bedding and lay just across the foot of your bed, bed runners come in the following commonly preferred sizes:
- Full – 68 x 18 inch
- Queen – 74 x 18 inch
- Twin – 53 x 18 inch
- King – 90 x 18 inch
- CA King – 86 x 18 inch
Why are Bed Runners expensive?
Whenever you are planning to add a touch of glam to your room and the best way to go about it will be bed runners. However, good quality bed runners can sometimes be expensive therefore, The primary reasons behind certain bed runners being more expensive than the others is the quality of the fabric used, embellishments, design, and handcrafting on the bed runner if any.
If you are aiming for a simple do-over for your bedding, choosing a minimalist and quality bed runner shall not come off as expensive for you.
Why Do Hotels use Bed Runners?
Anyone who travels or visits different places has an observant sight for knowing that bed runners are most commonly seen in hotel rooms.
Why do hotels use these bed runners? Further down in this blog, you’ll understand bed runners are way more important to hotels than being used for decorative purposes or aesthetic reasons.
1. To add a statement to the plain old white linen.
You already know that most of the hotels use plain white linens that are beautiful & monotonous If you have done a touchdown on a handful of hotels, Using a bed runner to enhance the appearance of these plain white linens allows hotels to create a better ambiance for the guests.
2. Cost reduction on the hotel’s end
A bed runner is just a complimentary piece of fabric that adds to the hotel’s expenses when you look from the hotel’s point of view.
Surprisingly, bed runners are, in fact, cost-effective decorative additions that come off more inexpensive than most other types of decorations.
Besides, bed runners enhance the ambiance and appearance of the room holistically, which means that they also save hotels from the additional cost of adding extra elements to a room to customize it and make it look more attractive.
3. Protects against dirty shoes and dirt on the linen
When you either tie your shoes on the bed or stow your luggage onto the foot of the bed to pick out some clothes then bed runners provide protection from dirt & stains to the linen on the bed.
Since bed runners lie across the foot of the bed, they act as a protective covering to not just the linens but also the white quilts and the white blankets.
4. Cheap and small in length
Bed runners are small in size, which means they are also cheap irrespective of Fancy bedsheets. The manufacturing cost of bed runners is lesser than that of embellished and designed bed sheets which again, makes bed runners a viable option to enhance the bedding without actually changing a lot of the elements.
5. Does not get dirty easily
When we say bed runners do not get dirty easily, we mean the obvious ‘spots’ and stains do not appear as fast as they would on those pristine white sheets. Thus, the need to launder them as soon as the guests leave is obliterated, which in turn adds up as savings on the hotel’s end (detergents and machine laundering are two expensive things, after all).
6. Easily washable
Now, say the bed runners have been dirtied after all – what now? Well, the obvious answer is ‘washing’ them. However, unlike linen, bed runners do not take up much space in the machine, owing to their small size, mostly the dimensions in terms of width.
This is why they are not only easily washable but multiple of them can be fit into one load and run on a gentle cycle. This, again, proves cost-effective for the hotels.
Besides saving up on the expense of multiple washes, hotels also save on time since washing several bed runners in one go avoids delays in resetting rooms.
How to place Bed Runner?
The strategic placement of the bed runner on the bed is equally important. If you have a fancy and decorated bed runner, placing it at the center will give the bed a detailed appeal. Your bed runner will, for sure, steal the spotlight – if that’s what you were aiming at!
On the other hand, if you only want the bed runner to subtly blend with the bedding and the other features of the room, lay it across the foot of the bed, thus keeping the style of your décor perfectly balanced.
Hence, Buying a set of matching pillows can add a certain hint of ‘fresh’ to your complete space.
