Travelers were baffled by a quirky-looking bed in their hotel room. It's billionaire Richard Branson's 'hotel bed of the future.'

05.11.2023 - 21:51 / insider.com / Richard Branson

Two travelers enlisted the help of TikTok to make sense of their quirky hotel bed — which turned out to be billionaire Richard Branson's "hotel bed of the future."

In a video posted Thursday, TikTok user @danielle_carolan showed the bed, which had a chair-like nook at the bottom corner. In the video, which has over 2.4 million likes, she theorizes what the nook is for. 

"We're very confused by this thing on the edge of my bed," Carolan said. "It's not a chair; It doesn't swivel out. A couple theories: one, it's so you don't bump your knee when you're getting up or going back to bed after going to the bathroom. Or, we're wondering if it's so you can sit and chat with your friends."

The latter, TikTok commenters pointed out, is the correct answer. 

Though Carolan didn't say where she was staying, the bed appeared to be a "Lounge Bed," a concept patented by Virgin Hotels, according to a 2015 article by Inc. It first debuted in the chain's Chicago hotel in January 2015. 

According to the outlet, the bed was designed with a soft, padded headboard so people could get work done while traveling. It's also built with two "cubby holes" on either side of the headboard, as well as one at the foot of the bed — the nook that Carolan pointed out in her video.

Raul Leal, the former CEO of Virgin Hotels, told Inc. at the time that the cubbies allow three people to sit comfortably on the bed, whether to chat or to work.

A post shared by Virgin Hotels (@virginhotels)

"Everybody has a cubby hole where they can sit and talk and still work with devices," Leal told Inc.

Still, despite its intended use, TikTok commenters had fun creating other scenarios for its cubby usage, including a place to "stack your laundry when you don't feel like putting it away," or using it as a "protective corner so your dog doesn't fall off the bed."

Carolan isn't the first TikToker to point out the Lounge Bed. Others have found the bed in Virgin Hotels in Las Vegas and New Orleans, some of whom were just as confused by the cubby.

"I am obsessed with this bed," TikToker @kimberlycherrell said in a video posted in June. 

"What is this? I thought it was a little sofa on the edge there, but it's not. You can't remove that."