It’s for Generation ZZZZZZZZZ.
Tourists had TikTokkers scratching their heads over a bizarre sleeping accommodating that was Virgin founder Richard Branson’s “Hotel Bed Of The Future.” A video detailing the sci-fi-evoking slumber pad has amassed over 2.8 million views as the web scrambled to deduce its purpose.
“We’re very confused by this thing on the sting of my bed,” inquired TikTok user Danielle Carolan within the clip of the bed, which had a wierd seat-like nook within the corner just like the bracket on an image frame.
She found the quirky mattress attachment particularly strange because it wasn’t a chair and didn’t “swivel out.”
Carolan had several theories about what the doo-hickey was used for, postulating: “One, it’s so that you don’t bump your knee whenever you’re getting up or going back to bed after going to the toilet. Or, we’re wondering if it’s so you may sit and chat together with your friends.”
The nook flummoxed the TikTok commentariat, who had their very own speculations about its function.
“That’s where you stack your laundry whenever you don’t feel like putting it away,” posited one armchair sleep expert, while one other wrote, “I believed this was so your dog could have a comfortable spot to put.”
Many had NSFW ideas concerning the nook’s purported purpose with one gutter-minded viewer writing, “Without getting too graphic … the probabilities are countless.”
Thankfully, that notion quickly got put to bed. As many TikTokkers identified, Carolan’s latter explanation was correct — the bed is definitely a “Lounge Bed” patented by Virgin Hotels, Inc. reported.
First offered in the corporate’s Chicago outlet in 2015, the futuristic sleeping accouterment is the truth is a cubby designed for an additional party to sit down comfortably at the sting of the bed while socializing.
In accordance with the article, The Lounged Bed is outfitted with three “cubby holes” — two bookending the headboard and one within the corner — so three people can comfortably lounge on the bed.
The front corner can be designed to be extra supportive in order that the mattress doesn’t implode when a 3rd person sits down.
“Everybody has a cubby hole where they will sit and talk and still work with devices,” gushed Virgin Hotels CEO Raul Leal.
And that’s not the slumber pad’s only cutting-edge attribute.
While most hotels have vertical headboards, which require travelers to pile up a Jenga of pillows to work comfortably, the Lounge Bed” comes with a soft, padded headboard that’s “ergonomically designed with a 120-degree pitch.”
This enables guests to each recline and work easily with a laptop or tablet propped up on their knees, thereby preserving their posture.
No word as as to if this feature also can lessen the likelihood of travelers contracting the dreaded work-from-home “hunchback” — an alleged symptom of the prolonged distant work arrangement fomented by the pandemic.