Strange question!! But we are booked into the Residence Inn, Times Square for 3 nights next month, and our studio suite has a king bed and a sofabed. We'll need to use the sofabed for our adult son. However, I keep reading about how uncomfortable these beds are. We don't want to move to another hotel, as we like the location and price. I think the best solution would be to buy an inflatable mattress/bed - but I'm not sure whether to buy one here (UK) and take with us (bearing in mind that BA flights to NYC JFK are now going to fly from Terminal 5 from 5 June, which means that our luggage might well go astray 3 days later!) or to buy one when we arrive . The latter is probably the best option, but I have no idea where one might buy this in NYC. Any ideas? Thanks in advance - might seem a trivial question, but comfort is important!
Wild

Paragon
tents and trails
EMS

all having camping equipment

Bed Bath and Beyond is a homewares chain that sells inflatable mattresses. I know of two locations, one on 6th Avenue around 19th Street and the other on First Avenue about 61st Street. They deliver for a $15 fee. There may be other locations closer but those two addresses are not all that far from your hotel. Just call them to make certain that they still offer these items.

http://www.thinkaero.com/

You might want to at least check the sofabed before going to all that trouble.

The complaint usually is that the mattress is too thin to disguise the metal support bar across the middle. It may be more comfortable to sleep on the sofa without pulling out the bed; or get a small air mattress or foam cushion and put it on top of the sofabed mattress.

Ask the hotel if they can put a cot to be in the room -- (single-sized bed with mattress, on wheels, not the baby crib you Brits are thinking of).

kmart sells them too, in the camping department. I think there's a kmart on 34th and 7th (near Penn Station).

Pulling the sofa bed mattress off the metal frame---which tends to be what makes the sofa beds so bad--- and putting it on the floor will probably yield something not much less comfortable than an aerobed on the floor would be. More convenient too. The box for an aerobed is BIG, if transporting it is an issue. Also, they are not that cheap, if you want a comfortable one. We paid >$140 for our queen-sized one. If you do decide to purchase, the Bed, Bath Beyond store cited is a good resource as would be Linens 'N Things, altho you would have to see if there is one near the hotel.

The sofa at the Residence Inn is not long enough for an adult to sleep on it closed, so that won't work. We found that by adding another comforter to the mattress added greatly to its comfort. Also, unless you get the kind of air mattress that blows itself up, it will be a real PITA to blow up and deflate each day, and there is NOT enough room in the Residence Inn room to leave it inflated (although I guess you could prop it up against the window?).

Ditto Socialworker's comments. Just pull the mattress off the frame, close the sofa and put the mattress on the floor.

Thanks fodorites - much appreciate your replies and suggestions. I think that we should try the sofabed first, but if that's no good - and if the mattress on the floor idea doesn't work either - then it would be good to know where to go to buy a cheap inflatable thingie. Our stop after NYC is Chicago, and another Residence Inn with sofabed ... and, after that, we're driving the rest of the way to San Diego, stopping in some interesting accomm. along the way - so one might come in handy! The Aerobed looks fabulous - I could get hubby to sleep on that one, while I had the king to myself! But I was really wanting something a bit more lightweight and cheap (like this one in this UK store http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Produc...E+MATTRESS.htm)
But I would much rather be shopping for shoes or handbags!
*If* I do buy one, I will leave it in the USA, just as I do with the pillow I always take with me (!), packed in one of those suck-out-air bags!
Thanks!

Thanks dmlove and Jean. Yes, I'd read about others asking the hotel for an extra comforter, on TripAdvisor, but not always successfully - glad you had better luck. We've got a slightly bigger room (I think) a corner one with 3 windows, but I wouldn't fancy leaving the bed inflated all day. Also, we have to leave early, on the last morning, for our flight to Chicago; wouldn't want to miss the flight because of waiting for the bed to deflate or having to try to get it on the plane inflated - LOL!
Isn't holiday planning relaxing! NOT!

wby, one of those on tripadvisor who had trouble getting the extra comforter was ME We couldn't convince the front desk clerk that we didn't mean an extra flat sheet or flat blanket. We finally got someone who understood, but it took some doing!

If the sofa bed is uncomfortable, simply pull the mattress off the sofa bed and put it on the floor. Usually much better, and better than an inflatable one in my book!

The modern inflatable beds inflate and deflate very, very quickly, so they should not create any time problems.
Our twin-bed sized one we got at Bed, Bath & Beyond retails for $100.

dmlove - it was *your* review - LOL - well, at least you know that people do read and take note of your reviews! I read through most of the reviews (LOTS of them!) the other evening actually, to try to find out what time the free supper is!

I don't know why I'm worried about the springs on the sofa bed though, because as long as my son has a fridge for his cola and a TV remote control, he'll sleep sitting up!

Thanks all.

If the sofa bed is uncomfortable, I don't think putting an inflatable mattress on top of it will necessarily solve the problem.

Putting the mattress on the floor is the answer (because the complaint about sofa beds is usually that you feel the frame thru the mattress).

As the proud owmer of several aero beds I highly recommend them. Various sizes, you blow it up (w/ included electric pump) till you get to the desired "feel" and off you go to dreamland. Folds up into a little backpack sized thing.

Why not just ask the hotel for a cot? Did I miss the answer to this?

I doubt they have cots - first the maximum room occupancy is tecnically 3 (and they already have beds for 3 in every room) and also, it would clearly be a fire code violation - the way the rooms are set up, with the sofabed open, a cot would block access to the door.

While the availability of rollaways can be easily verified by contacting hotel, I would imagine that they *do* have them. Usually when a hotel includes a sofa bed in a separate room the implied room capacity is 4 persons. Some of these 4 person groups include families with 2 teen-agers of opposite sex that may not relish sleeping in the same bed!

There is nothing "implied" about the capacity - the stated capacity is 3, not 4. And there is no separate room for the sofabed - it's one big room - the regular bed and the sofabed face each other.