I am also allergic. From all my stays less than 5% bother to read my profile. That is from the Starwood side. Why do they even bother with a profile. Just another useless set of fields we need to fill out.

Yes exactly, although down pillows should be special small and soft feathers, usually from geese rather than chickens or other birds.

I guess I knew they existed in theory, it just never really crossed my mind that they were still around.

I experienced a memory foam pillow one night and I was hooked. Its a big heavy slab and its like putting your head on a soft brick. I love it.

I agree, down pillows are much nicer but I've only found them at Ritz Carlton and some Luxury Collection hotels. St. Regis probably has them too, but I haven't stayed in one of those yet.

They were probably feather pillows, not down. Down is the soft under plumage (a layer of insulation underneath feathers) that geese, ducks and other waterfowl have to keep them warm and dry

A feather pillows cost $20-40 USD, whereas down pillows cost $80-150+. Weight wise feather pillows are heavy whereas down pillows are light.

To answer the OP's question, I like down pillows because they are all around better (subjective personal opinion), soft, comfy, breathe yet still insulated well which is a big selling point for me personally as foam pillows always trap the heat and are way too hot for me. I put up with feather pillows at hotels as they are still better than foam IMO, but aren't as light, fluffy and soft as down.

Many USA hotels use feather pillows having the "Featherlite" label or some similar sounding brand, which claims that they're down. IIRC there's a silhouette of a goose on the label. They're usually enclosed in a heavy case, but they're definitely not hypoallergenic.

Well, OP asks for the reason why people like feather pillows. so people tell.

I am embarrassed by the fact that I didn't see that portion of his post. I personally love feather pillows. My opinion was that people were being hard on him for his allergy request directed at the hotel.

You'd need to double-check, but I'm pretty sure Comfort Inn doesn't carry feather pillows. You need to decide what's more important, a better breakfast or just total lack of feather pillows. The lower-end the hotel chain / hotel program, I would think the less likely to have feather pillows at all, given that feather pillows cost way more than foam/etc pillows you can get at Wal-Mart/Target/etc for under $10 and which a hotel can get in bulk even cheaper I'm sure.

I just looked at the label of a pillow (that doesn't feel like feathers at all) in my room tonight at a budget-boutique brand in another program, and the first thing I noticed is "all new material consisting of 100% polyester fibers", "cover 100% cotton". But then I looked at who made it: Allied Feather & Down Corp!

So the brand name saying "feather" doesn't prove the actual pillow has any feathers in it.

Wouldnt be an issue if properties set some rooms aside permanently feather free. That certainly would help. I know my daughter in law has an allergy to cats and dogs like noone else I've seen. Within 10 mins of being in someone's house with pets, she starts with the runny nose and red eyes. Then you can see red splotches on her skin. She will take benadryl and has tried shots. If people has a similar reaction to feathers, that would be misery. But as mentioned above, I have the opposite issue, I can't use foam without neck problems.

The problem would be that these presumably would be base level rooms, and probably in bad locations too.

Not ideal, but if one is miserable and could be provided a "never" feather room, that may be preferrable.

I have seen a few places where there is a non-base room called something along the lines of "hypoallergenic room -- PURE rooms" -- in fact a couple of times when I've submitted a feather free request via the app the "hypoallergenic room" turns into my "upgrade"

From my couple of experience it's the exact same as a base room but has no feathers and may have an extra humidifier or air purifier -- I believe Hilton has a few hotels that have this type of explicit branding as well/

EDIT: here's the brochure on this that pops up when you Google it https://www.marriott.com/hotelwebsit...e_brochure.pdf

Typically these rooms have hardwood floors and no carpeting. They might be cleaned differently, using different products. No flowers, no plants (live or artificial), no scented candles, etc.

I'm from Boston and always ask all my hotels to replace all polyfil pillows with feather pillows, but I didn't think Four Points or Courtyard had feather/down pillows?