Group Travel

Why Boutique Hotels Are Jumping on the Bunk Bed Trend

The space-saving layout is made for both group travelers and families.
Palihotel Seattle
Courtesy Palisociety

The best parts of summer camp involved leaning over from the top bunk, giggling with your friends below, and living that glamorous stacked-bed life. And now, you can relive those days at several boutique hotels, who have paired bunk beds with all the upscale touches of their regular hotel rooms, such as Smeg mini-fridges, Aesop bath amenities, and complimentary craft beer.

Once a hallmark of hostels, bunk beds are popping up across the country in hotels looking to update their room layouts and appeal to different crowds. Bunk rooms are a way for high-end boutique hotels to bring in the group traveler, or parents traveling with kids—and a way for those audiences to add a touch of affordable luxury to their vacation.

Just don’t picture anything like the pay-per-bed budget bunks from your backpacking days; not least because in a hotel, you rent the entire room, rather than each bunk. At the San Francisco Proper Hotel, guests climb a brass ladder to the top of the walnut-wood structure, where they’ll find their own HDTV. But even more importantly, it’s a high-end experience with a lower price tag: the bunk room gives travelers access to the hotel’s convenient Mid-Market location, indulgent amenities like kimono robes and Aesop bath products, and a service-driven stay that includes access to the concierge through an app. Bunk rooms start at $300 per night, savings over the standard room rate of $400, plus two friends or siblings can share a room without having to share a full-size bed.

A bunk bed room at the San Francisco Proper Hotel.

Courtesy Proper Hospitality

The 12 bunk rooms were designed by Kelly Wearstler to “allow adults to channel their inner child,” says Sade Lee, director of sales and marketing at the hotel, which opened in 2017. Seattle’s Hotel Max has been open since 2005, but just remodeled to allow guests a new way to capitalize on the downtown location and eminently “Seattle” amenities, including free pour-over coffee in the mornings and craft beer happy hour in the afternoon. While the hotel’s modern king rooms sleep two people and start at $284, for just $10 more, groups of up to five people can grab one of the two bunk rooms. They still get all the trendy features of the art-themed hotel, including a Crosley record player and a curated selection of Sub Pop records in the room’s seating area, but in just 375 square feet of space. The Provenance Hotel Group also opened the Revolution Hotel in Boston late last year, which has a total of 49 bunk rooms ($150 for a triple, $169 for a quad, both with bathrooms down the hall).

Rooms made for sharing at The Revolution in Boston.

Courtesy Provenance Hotels

But the benefits aren’t only for guests who want high-thread-count sheets on sleeping bag budgets. Hotel Peter & Paul in New Orleans, opened late last year by ASH NYC, readily admits that the reason they designed a bunk-bed room ($119) was because no other bed type would fit. After all, who needs space when the French Quarter and Marigny await outside your door? The room can also be combined with a neighboring king room, both accessed through a private entrance, allowing families to share a larger space. Seattle’s Palihotel offers the same thing through adjoining rooms in the eight bunk rooms (starting at $175 a night) it opened with late last year. They tried to create a space that was like staying with your local family, explains Kirsten Leigh Pratt, the Principal of Hotels and Branding for the stylish Palisociety. “Having bunk beds seemed like a fun part of that story.” That is, if your relatives have a Smeg mini fridge stocked with local sparkling wine and a rain shower in the bathroom. Oh, and if they happen live directly across the street from the iconic Pike Place Market.

That last part highlights the common thread tying all these bunk-boasting spots together: these are boutique hotels in the heart of cities, stocked with exciting amenities and enough style to make vertical sleeping arrangements as cool as they were when most of your traveling was done in the backseat of a minivan.

The quirky appeal for guests, combined with the excellent value proposition for both hotels and customers, seems like it should be a win-win situation for everyone. But even as all of the hotels mentioned here were excited about the expanding audience for bunk rooms, few have committed to more bunk rooms in the future. While ASH NYC has no current plans, they say they “always keep some in the mix.” Neither of the San Francisco Proper Hotel’s upcoming siblings in Santa Monica and Austin will have them, nor will the next planned Palihotels, though Leigh Pratt says they “would most certainly do bunk rooms again.” Which sounds promising—if just a little like that shaky vow your summer camp friends made to keep in touch all year.