Beds For Guest Bedrooms

Your guest bedroom doesn’t need an expensive bed. It would be a waste because it only gets slept in now and again, and even on longer weekly stints, you can provide a fantastic sleeping experience on the cheap.

It is much better to plump up the cash for a great mattress than an expensive bed frame, although you can kill two birds with one stone with a divan base and mattress combo – these offer the best value overall.

Best beds for guest bedrooms

You have two main options for guest bedrooms:

• Stick a regular bed in there (e.g., a king-size divan)
• Stick a converting bed in there (e.g., sofa bed, guest bed)

Regular beds

Regular beds offer the best sleeping experience because they have a standard mattress, prioritising comfort. They also have the advantage of purposeful design – beds look right in guest rooms, even if they take up floor space.

The downside to regular beds is that they take up floor space when not in use, limiting opportunities to create multi-use spaces. However, ottoman beds benefit from extra storage, so picking your poison is the case.

The best-value beds are divan bases with a mattress included, such as the Giltedge Beds Solo (£419, king), also available with drawers.

Beds that save space

Don’t want to take up loads of floor space when your guest bedroom isn’t in use? Then you want a guest bed with a fold-out trundle - these save space and offer similar comfort levels to regular beds for a fantastic sleeping experience.

The downside to guest beds is they lack the top-end comfort of regular beds and need converting before use. This usually means moving things off the floor; you might need a hand to convert the bed.

The Julian Bowen Versailles (£344) is an excellent example of such a bed, with a metal frame and a pull-out trundle to make a king-size bed.

Cheap guest beds – how cheap is too cheap?

It would help if you looked to spend between £450 and £650 for the bed frame and the mattress, giving you a maximum split cost of £325. Adding a headboard to a divan base adds around £100, so always factor this into your costs.  

Don’t spend more than £650 unless you adore the bed frame – remember, your guest bed will be used infrequently. You can spend money on luxurious décor and lighting to improve guest comfort in other ways.

Our favourite cheap beds for guest bedrooms

Without further ado, here are our top picks for cheap beds:

Giltedge Beds Topaz (£399, king)

This divan bed has velvet upholstery and a medium mattress with a luxurious micro-quilted surface. Medium mattresses are perfect for side and occasional back sleepers, with sufficient support for people weighing up to 190 lbs. The mattress has coil springs and a fibre filling, which is breathable and plush.

Giltedge Beds Solo (£419, king)

This is an upgrade to the Topaz bed with a memory foam mattress and an outer cooling cover. It has a medium feel, and the bed frame comes with a fancier design finished in velvet. You can add a headboard for £109 and drawers or an end or side-opening ottoman base for storage.

Julian Bowen Versailles (£344)

This luxurious trundle guest bed works as an unconverted single or king-size bed when converted. The under-bed trundle pulls out with minimal effort, creating a comfortable, full-size guest bed. It comes with a sprung slatted base, and you can add a mattress for as little as £130, so the whole package costs less than £500.

Flintshire Halkyn 3-In-1 (£329)

The Flintshire Halkyn 3-In-1 can be used as a single bed, as two separate single beds, or as one large bed pushed together. The trundle bed folds away neatly under the frame, and you must fold it to convert it. It has a sprung slatted bed base and requires slimline single mattresses like the Solo Master (available at checkout).

• The Bedstar Guest Beds Buying Guide