Aerobeds do inflate and deflate very quickly. We just used ours for Thanksgiving visitors. One real advantage to them over other air mattresses is their height; inflated they are about 18 inches to the top so you can sit on them to put on shoes or sox. We slept on ours for several weeks total earlier this year during demolition for our remodel and did not experience leaking air during the night. They actually work quite well. I think kids would love them with a sleeping bag thrown on them.

However, there are comfortable sleeper sofas out there. Comfort seems to be in direct correlation to their price unfortunately (or was the last time I looked). We had one with an Aireloom mattress in it and it was great for years.

We have a dark brown leather sofa bed in the home office -- and it IS comfy! I've tried it -- so I know!

Yes -- there are comfy sofa beds out there -- and can be made MORE comfy with a good mattress pad and linens and comforter!

I far prefer a sofa bed to an inflated mattress especially when staying somewhere more than a night or two. BUT I do think that those are GREAT options for kids or teens .....

When my sister and BIL had a ski chalet -- they had six folding twin beds (they have metal frames and thin mattresses) from Ikea for the "Teen Retreat" they made in the basement ..... worked out fantastic! LOL!

I prefer the Aerobed to sofa beds (atleast the ones I have slept on). AN Aerobed is typically taller than a camping mattress. You could deflate them daily, but it would be easier, IMO, to just leave them inflated. I prefer the twin sizes that can be used by singles or pushed up against another twin size for couples.

If your kids beds are tall enough, have you considered by a twin trundle bed/mattress to go underneath their beds? If you routinely have company that might be a good solution.

If it's in the budget Grandin Road carries and Easy Bed. Inflates and deflates easily. Very comfortable.

Here is a link that might be useful: EZ Bed.

The sofabed we are considering is a custom sofa through Calico Corners so I would hope it would be comfortable; however, it won't be here for Christmas when we are having 5 guests for 12 days and then my mom for 2-3 days in between.

All three kids already have the underbed area used--one with a trundle and other two with drawers. The concern with the aerobed is we don't really have any place to set it up.

Those who know me, know I'm a Craiglist fan. I just checked into used futons and there are several for sale around $50/ea. Since my living furniture won't arrive until after Christmas, DH and I just decided to pick up a couple of used Futons on CL, some disposable blinds from JCP and set up the "formal" living room as a combo sleep area and daytime seating. Should be fun for the kids since we'll have the tree there too and no worries about the kids messing with the furniture!

Then after Christmas, back on CL they go!

Long term, though, we still think it makes sense to have a nice sofa bed--since we can stow away during the day. so glad to hear some of you like them. DH's family visits for weeks at a time--not days.

We have a sofabed as well - but to make it more comfortable, we store an extra mattress for it upstairs in the storage room. Yeah, it takes up extra space, but the doubled mattress makes the person more comfortable.

Thanks for reminding me that I need to get extra pillows! We haven't used the sofa bed in a few years!

DonnaR/CA

I hate to be an alarmist but I would be hesitant to buy anything like a used futon or mattress. There was something on TV recently about the higher incidence of bedbugs. The speaker said that you should never buy a used mattress, or even a couch. In fact, in talking about finding a great couch on the side of the road, she said that the nicer the couch is, the more likely it is to have bedbugs--otherwise why would they be getting rid of it? Kind of convolute thinking on her part but I think you get the idea.

Ditto with Meg. That's why I'd prefer to have all the stuffing removed and start over fresh with the frames. You just never know! And bedbugs, in particular, are apparently becoming a real problem -- even coming home with you from hotels! Of course, the media does like to scare us to death.

I don't think I've ever slept on a comfortable sofabed, but we have a fantastically comfy futon. We had to sleep on it for a week or so last year while we were painting the master bedroom and I almost didn't want to go back to our regular bed - it was sooooo much more comfortable! Everyone who has stayed over at our house has said good things about it too.

An interesting review of inflatable beds. I'm going to get the one from Wally World since I will need one extra sleeping place in a couple of weeks-assuming my local W-mart has it.

Here is a link that might be useful: Review of beds

Every inflatable bed I've ever slept on deflated during the night, at least enough to be uncomfortable. No fun.

We have a sofa bed. We supplement the mattress with an egg crate foam piece on top of a thick comforter. Makes a pillow top feel for the thin mattress. Then good sheets and a cozy quilt on top.

Here is a link that might be useful: Creative Soul

DD has slept on and EZ bed for nearly 3 years now. She has moved it 3 times to new apartments. I have slept in it. Regular sheets work fine. It is a big suitcase when folded. It goes up and comes down in under 5 minutes. We put a very expensive Murphey Bed in our music room. Very cool, comfy but for the $$ I wish I had known then about the EZ beds. I find the EZ more stable than the aerobed. For long term we did put an inexpensive memory foam topper on my DD from Overstock

My parents were here for Thanksgiving and, unfortunately, they had to sleep on a borrowed Aero bed because our sleeper sofa didn't arrive in time. The Aero was the high rise $250 version (the receipt was in the carrying case) and I thought it was very comfy when I tried it out. It did need to be inflated periodically. My mom said that, with it plugged in, the pillows tended to slip behind the mattress but otherwise it was fine. (Okay, she did say it felt like being on a waterbed whenever my dad moved but what can you do?)

Today our American Leather comfort sleeper arrived. There are no metal bars so it's very comfortable. The mattress is made up of three separate foam pieces. I think we'll get a pillow top mattress topper and it should be great.

Robin, thanks for posting the link to the airbed review. That was very helpful! I don't need one right now but when I do I'll remember where to go get one.

oceanna

You're welcome. I bought the Wal-mart one and was going to post a review but my sister changed her plans and isn't coming now. It was super easy to inflate and deflate. DH and I lay on it for a while watching TV--it is bed-height which I liked, and felt more comfy than the usual Coleman mattresses we've had in the past.

Robin

"Sleeping options for out of town guests (aerobed, sofabed, or)...

Hotel ;o)

Couldn't resist LOL

mrsmarv,

When we were considering our options, DH said that his parents wouldn't want to stay with us if we had a sleeper sofa rather than a bed in our guest room. When we asked her, my MIL said that they'd stay at a hotel in any event because that's where they're most comfortable. Works for all of us!

Does anyone remember those fold up beds from years ago? I will try to describe: They are square cushions that are connected, there are three of them that fold up on top of each other and have an attached roll for a pillow. They are kind of thick, like a couch cushion. I remember seeing them around 10 to 15 years ago? Does anyone have any of these? I wonder if they are still made? I don't remember that they were expensive, you get get them in discount stores. I just haven't seen them in a long while. I would think that it might be a nice solution, particularly for a basement room, or if you had a place to stash a couple of them until needed.

Joanie, I'm so glad you brought those up. I never had/used one but they seemed so practical -- just covered foam, which is or at least can be one of the most comfy sleeps of all. Are you talking about ones that served as very casual rec room chairs when folded up? I do remember those.

We used to have one of those. I can't remember when or why we got rid of it. They only came in a twin size - actually, I think that it was a bit smaller than a full twin.

Those fold-up beds joanie mentioned were very popular for kids in the 80s. I never had one, but some of my friends did.

Back to the sofa bed vs. air mattress, I would much prefer an air mattress to a sofa bed. It's nice to be able to adjust the mattress to your firmness preference. And I've never had one deflate in the middle of the night if you put the plug in properly, but I'd MUCH rather deal with that than a bar in the middle of my back.

The one problem I do have is that the air mattress always seems cold, especially when I visit my parents in the winter. We usually put a thick quilt or a bedspread under the fitted sheet.

Here's another I thought of....

An RV?????

Maybe someone in the family realm has an RV, if there's a place to put it. Our former neighbors used to put their motorhome out in the street for guests. A driveway can work if it's the right kind of driveway. Goodness knows we've stayed in our RV when visiting family - we've parked in a friend's backyard, an uncle's driveway, and in a local park that happened to have RV space and electrical hookups (but no water or sewer hookups).

With an RV, you know when the last time the sheets were changed, there should be a water heater for doing dishes if needed. Though I enjoyed my forced-sojourn to a hotel last June when our house was termite-tented, I really missed my RV.

DonnaR/CA

oceanna - that is exactly what I'm talking about! I wonder if they are a seasonal item, possibly available somewhere during the "back to school" sales in August and September. I'm going to keep my eyes open for one or two. We frequently have teenagers spend the night, and these would be perfect. We had friends stay last year and we put them on our air mattress. We felt so bad for them when it deflated in the middle of the night. We won't by another one of those.

I just wanted to show you what we decided to do. As we are still in the midst of decorating the living room (furniture is on order), we went ahead with the used futons on CL.
{{!gwi}}

We did air them out and check them out for any "bed bugs", but so far they seem fine. BIL and family will sleep here--if the futons are not comfortable, we figure they can put the cushions on the floor to sleep. Then in Jan/Feb when my new furniture is in, I will either resell on CL or donate. All total it was $150 for the pair--we purchased separately, but they are matching. I'm actually rather pleased how they look and being able to use my living room for the holidays even tough it's not "fancy." We will be a houseful of 11 (6 adults, 5 kids) and plan to have a party with other friends and family one day so it will be great to have the use of both living and family room.

We did purchase a sofa bed from Calico Corners that has a built-in air mattress topper to make the matress go a full 9" deep.