Lay My Hat

we have put in a sofa bed in our 2-bedroom apartment so it can sleep 6. Sofabed is extremely comfortable, easy to make up and turn back into a sofa in the morning. I have slept in it myself many times.

We are putting it a sofabed also in the 1 bed-apartment so it can sleep 4.

As said by others, it gives more flexibility,as long as the sofabed is of good quality.

I have to say we have never used ours, and when we replace the sofas, we won't get another sofa bed - we use the mezzanine instead as an occasional extra sleeping area. But for you, Cornish Maid, I think it sounds really useful to add flexibility. It extends your market to couples with one or two small children, two friends, snorers etc etc as everyone has said.

Check that everything else is OK for 4...seating, dining, crockery, towels, linen and linen storage (bear in mind if you have 2 bookings in a row that use the sofabed, you'll need significant extra linen to store) but if this is OK I would go for it.

Another thought...if it is at all possible to split the beds in the bedroom, I'd look into it. We can split all our beds bar one, and we've used it loads. It doesn't have to be by much.

EG some couples might prefer to put the kids in the bedroom, and use the sofa bed themselves, so they can stay up and chat, watch a film etc.

Look into beds with storage in them too, it's super useful. We have them in 2 rooms and will be adding them in the rest soon. Such a huge help.

Thanks fro replies.

I wouldn't want to cater for more than 2 people (plus maybe a small child/baby), as the flat just isn't physically large enough for that number of "bodies".

I can't split the beds in the bedroom as there isn't enough room (think I already said this earlier). A double will be tight enough, but before I bought it a couple lived there full time so they managed OK.

Can't go for "storage" type beds, as the property is liable to flooding over the winter (empty) months, and we need something we can dismantle and store, rather than a divan type with a solid base.

Sofa beds are normally in the lounge. They are often assigned to children for the family market. And that is the source of a problem.

This means that parents have to go to bed when the children go to bed. This tends to eliminate a large part of the potential market which would use a sofa bed.

A large let we work for called Hereford Barn has a clever idea of a childrens room with a sofa bed. During the day, the children treat it as their living room so leaving the adults to some peace in the main lounge.

Come bed time, the sofa bed is then used and the rumpus room becomes a childrens bedroom. This arrangement proves quite popular though, I know, it would not apply in your case.

We tend to advise against sofa beds for sleep 2 lets because they may have a slight impact on occupancy but, often, the sofa bed is not used from one month to the next. However, higher usage may happen in coastal areas where we are very much inland.

I would be eliminating my peak February market if the property only slept two people. For most of the year, it is solely couples, and an occasional three.

Is there something special in the area that makes the sofa bed useful in February?

French holidays Charles, stretch from mid-Feb to Mid-March, and French families go skiing.

Our area is tilted more towards grown up holidays although large family groups are fairly common it is more walking country.

It certainly depends on niche markets and location. I feel that if we had a bit of coast line sofa beds could be be more useful... skiing might be a nice extra.

Thanks for all replies. Very mixed opinions and advice as with everything like this - personal choice, location, budget etc all have an influence.

I have looked around for prices and reviews on actual sofa beds, and find that to get something which is rated as comfortable as both a sofa and a bed is going to be well ot of our price range! Seems like there is often a compromise with a sofa that is not great during the day, or a bed that is too low, too hard or too difficult to set up during the night!!!

I think we might skip the sofabed and put the money into a good quality sofa for now.

I also stumbled across this though:

http://www.tesco.com/direct/jay-be-delu ... 8-8319.prd

which seems to have very good reviews. Almost looks too good to be true for the price, but they also do some more expensive/luxury models too. We could perhaps keep one of these on "stand-by" if we get any enquiries from guests who are a non-sharing couple.

Reminds me of the ancient "Zed Bed" my mum used to have and I would have to use when my grandparents came to stay and slept in my room, but sounds a lot more comfortable!

The Ikea Ektorp sofabed is very good as both a sofa and a bed, not cheap, but very comfortable. Not sure if it is still available, though.

Have you looked at The Futon Company? Some of their furniture is very cumbersome but my daughter had one of their sofas and that was easy to make into a bed and very comfortable.

I'm looking at replacing one of ours with a one from Futon Company, we've had a one at home for 12 years, had one replacement mattress. The new mattresses are far more comfortable. The new three-fold ones are quite good as they dont take up so much floor space.

I just have to work out how to get it to the French Alps without it costing a fortune.