Just to clarify: I want a sleeping mattress, not a sniffing mattress, thanks 
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Working in the charity sector the criteria for accepting mattresses is
- Fire label
- Unstained
The first criteria is easy, the second can be subjective but any mattress which is unsold carries a tipping surcharge. Disposal companies charge between £20 and £60 to pick up and dispose of a mattress so charities find themselves getting large numbers of unsaleable stuff ‘donated’ as people see it as a free tipping sevice.
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Youve changed man 
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A necessary evil that doesn’t mean I want to keep and sleep on a used mattress in my house.
Some people take towels. Some people take mattresses 
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Wtf kind of second hand hifi have you seen? 
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How many of them do you think I have room for here?
I wouldn’t have a major problem buying a second hand bed, but I would no sooner buy a second hand mattress than I would a used pair of socks 
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Always room for a fresh one.
Buying used mattresses is a definite no from Ozexpat Towers.
The hotel argument is fatuous as most hotel beds (at least the places I stay in) have mattress protectors and (as already noted) are a necessary evil.
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I’m inclined to bang on about stuff and I’ve resisted banging on about this. But honestly the hotel argument is not fatuous.
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People sleep on very very used mattresses in hotels. Literally everyone accepts it (have we ever stood behind a bloke at Reception complaining about it ? No.). So, literally by definition, sleeping on a used mattress is acceptable.
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If a mattress protector is all it takes to make the difference then what would be impossible about having one of those at home ? I know the answer to this. We actually do have one because Mrs VB likes the sensation of having as much laundered stuff as possible between her and the unwashed world.
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I completely understand that a lot of people, us included, buy new mattresses because they’re a bit nicer and because, well, we can. But as long as a used one met Kev’s charity shop criteria I really wouldn’t worry about it.
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When I was a much younger man I was lucky enough to be invited into a few (tragically few, come to think of it) girls’ beds. I never said “An unexpected shag ? Yes please … oh, hang on a minute, this mattress looks like you’ve been sleeping on it. Ugh !”
.
Phew, I’m done. I really have to get out of bed.
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The only argument I can personally think of against buying used is the inevitable misrepresentation of wear-and tear, i.e. if like any civilised person the previous owners have used effective mattress protectors, it’s quite possible for a mattress to look superficially pristine but have utterly knackered springs.
All the rest is just personal squeamishness born out of decades of marketing. Fine’n’dandy, but it is also why millions of tons of food go to waste the moment “best before” dates are reached and also why millions of gallons of unnecessary bleaches and disinfectants are polluting waterways and encouraging ever-hardier strains of bacteria to evolve. I also suspect the ever-rising rates of autoimmune diseases may have their roots in the proverbial “germ-free adolescence” everyone experiences now…
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Wtaf!
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It’s also possible to hold two ideas in one’s head at the same time such as the example of not buying manky second-hand fucking mattresses and simply NOT wasting food and having bleach parties.
You fucking weirdos.
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Now they look like some billy-bargains 
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ITT . . .
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Shiddy old mattress and ghastly old divan now dumped, timber sawn, drilled and sanded, bedframe drilled, whole lot bolted together, massively-less disreputable mattress installed for the time being - thank fuck, I’m shagged-out now…
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should’ve gone to…