Will This Luxury Bed Help You Sleep Better?

When The Savoy, one of London's grandest hotels, was being given a facelift in 1904, the owners wanted everything to be the very best. The Savoy, as the story goes, was the first London hotel to have running water and electricity and as per the wishes of hotel owner's wife, Lady D'Oyly Carte, the Savoy was determined to provide its illustrious guests with a night's good sleep. That's when the hotel began stressing on the importance super comfortable beds and developed the Bed No 2.

Originally called the Savoy Bed, it's still handcrafted using the same century-old methods and materials at Savoir Beds, the company owned by Alistair Hughes, which bought The Savoy's bed-making division in 1997. "We still use the same Victorian traditions to make all our beds, we don't use any machines while crafting our beds and all the materials we use are 100% natural," said Roger Ericson Savoir Beds' country manager for Asia and the US, who recently visited the brand's Indian flagship store in New Delhi.

"Your bed is one piece of furniture you that you will spend a lot of your life on. It's not a big investment and [a good bed] will give you more value for money. But unfortunately, a lot of people overlook this product," said Ericson. Yet he's upbeat about the response in the Indian market and hopes to open a second store in Mumbai soon.

The entire range of Savoir Beds - Bed No 4 was introduced in 1998 and Beds 1 and 3 in 2009 - which have been available in India since April 2011 are made with natural animal fibres such as wool and horse hair which make them more breathable and therefore more comfortable to sleep on. "These materials suck away the moisture," says Ericson, which makes the beds perfect for India's hot, humid weather.

The beds, built in London and then shipped here, are customised to adjust to the buyer's weight, height and spine shapes, which is probably why the likes of Winston Churchill, Frank Sinatra, King Hassan of Morocco, Madonna and Elton John have been big fans.

And while Bed No 2, at Rs 14 lakh might be the company's best seller, it's the Rs 37 lakh Bed No 1 that steals the show. Fitted with taller springs and lavish layers of natural fillings for a deeper mattress, Bed No 1 is the most extravagant of Savoir's designs.


The Savoir Beds are available at The Gallery on MG at MG Road in New Delhi.