Air Beds can be broken down into two categories, guest use in the home, or as permanent beds in the bedroom or RV. Guest bed brands include AeroBed, Intex, Coleman, Air Cloud, Wenzel and others. Sizes range from twin to king, however few guest bed manufacturers offer king, as the majority of guest air beds are sold outside the United States, where king size mattresses are not standard.

Twin - 75"x39" (190.5 x 99 cm)

Twin long - 80"x38" (203 x 97 cm)

Full - 75"x54" (190.5 x 137 cm)

Queen - 80"x60" (203 x 152 cm)

King - 80"x72" (203 x 183 cm)

Raised beds are typically 20-26" (50-66 cm) off the ground to keep users away from the floor and offer a more traditional mattress experience.

Permanent air beds, designed to take the place of a conventional mattress or waterbed, are often mounted on a special foundation. Other innovations allow for a specific firmness setting to be applied to each half of larger mattresses. Air beds with latex rubber air chambers can last for years in daily use, and typically will have multi-year guarantees. Prices are roughly comparable to good quality coil spring mattresses.

An air mattress, also known as an airbed is an inflatable mattress, usually made of plastic or textile-reinforced plastic or rubber. The deflated mattress can be rolled up or folded and carried or stored relatively easily, making air mattresses a popular choice for camping trips and for temporary bedding at home for guests. They are inflated either orally by blowing into a valve, or with a manual foot-powered or electric pump. Some are even automatically inflating (up to a certain pressure -- usually some manual work is also needed) just by opening the valve. The three main categories for use of air mattresses are camping, temporary home use  and full time permanent use . Some air mattresses are specifically designed to perform both functions (camping and guest use) while others are specifically designed for one purpose alone(permanent use in the home or RV). Lightweight, reduced-size air mattresses specifically intended for camping and backpacking are sometimes called sleeping pads, especially when a layer of foam insulation is added under the air chambers. Better quality air chambers, that are designed for permanent use in the home, are constructed of vulcanized rubber, covered in canvas or of polyurethane. These chamber(s) are then installed into a cloth shell or tic. Permanent air beds will look almost like conventional beds with the exception of having a hose  coming out of the head of the bed. These hoses will be connected to an Air Inflator, with 2 outlet valves, that will have a remote control so that each person can adjust the firmness of their side to ones own exact needs. The firmness can be adjusted up or down, with the simple push of a button, on the remote.