is the odd things that designers do to hotel bathrooms these days. I had a hotel recently with that silly sliding barn door configuration, and by now I just expect that in a European hotel most of my shower will end up on the floor.
I love their suggestion to "just use another bathroom in the hotel," yeah that solves the problem (although I admit I will sometimes do this).
https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/no-doors-frosted-glass-why-191318220.html
I just returned from 13 days in Greece and turkey rooming w a near stranger. A couple of the bathrooms had sliding doors separating the bathroom from the room, only one had adequate counter space for two persons toiletries, some had towel bars i could not reach (im 5'2") and two in Turkiye had grand old bathtub, deep and slippery w an added shower head. Those we labeled "the bath tub of death "
This is why I look at photos of the rooms (not posted by the hotel) and read the reviews on booking dot com, even if I am not booking with them. All those kind of quirky things will show up or people will write about it.
I so agree! My favorite (not) configuration is this open bathroom. Literally, views from the bedroom through to the tub and/or shower area. Sometimes, it isn't possible to close this off with drapes or curtains. I've encountered this particularly in Germany, but also in Asia.
I have found "warnings" on some hotel websites regarding their bathroom set-ups. Obviously, I'm not the only one who enjoys privacy and complained.
My favorite (Ha!) hotel showers ( plural- yes-It’s in lots of “designer“ bathrooms) had a glass partition covering only one-third the length of the bathtub/shower basin.
After showering, the bathroom floor was flooded and I considered calling a water-taxi to get me from the bathroom to the bedroom.
Then, I remembered I was not in Venice.
Just finished a great tour, Eastern France, but the first 3 hotels had very modern bathrooms with showers that either had a very partial glass door or none at all! Even with great care you’d end up with water splattered all over. Not impressed. The older hotels with the small shower stall you could barely turn around in were actually preferable.
Last week, my friend was in a hotel here in the good ol' USofA that had a shower that was open on three sides. She could screen it off from the two queen beds (so, you know, not likely a couple alone in the room), but not the entry area. So if you were taking a shower while your spouse (and kids, I guess, because of the second bed) went down to the breakfast buffet, they (and anyone else walking by, I suppose) would get a full show when they came back to the room. WTH?
Just use another bathroom on the hotel???
How does that work? I never heard that.
As far as Euro bathrooms are concerned, they are full of pet peeves. And many are dangerous and need special care to get it done. They are quirky and annoying.
As much as we all love Europe for its better differences from the US, showers are where they lag behind significantly.
I dislike the bathrooms that have clear glass walls and door between to toilet and rest of the bathroom (Parador in Cáceres). There’s no point to it. There was one hotel in Madrid (Petite Palace chain) where the toilet was separated by a solid wall, but the rest of the bathroom was separated from the rest of the room by a clear glass wall.
My husband and I just returned from a road trip along the California coast and two of the places we stayed had frosted glass barn doors on the bathroom. Not a fan of that! The barn doors were noisy to open and close and the frosted glass meant that the whole room was flooded with light when someone used the bathroom during the night. Really stupid design!
A bathroom in an apartment we recently stayed in in Italy had the narrowest bathtub I’ve ever seen, with shower head over it.
It was almost impossible to navigate and my friend and I are not big people.
My friend tried to have a tub bath and had real trouble getting back out afterward.
The movable screen to keep the water out when showering had got trapped by the washing machine next to it, as the washer “danced” across the floor when it was spinning the clothes.
I mentioned in my review that larger-bodied or very tall people may not feel comfortable staying there as the shower setup was tiny, and was berated by the host and asked to remove my “negative” review.
The rest of my review was very positive as it was a good apartment, so I left it as is.
I have never once seen safety grab bars in Italian bathrooms, until my one night stay in Rome at the beginning of this recent trip…..there they were in the shower area of a modest and otherwise ordinary hotel.
Made my day!
It’s an adventure!
Thankfully my recent travels have been to hotels with very spacious bathrooms & big walk-in showers, but otherwise normal. There was the hotel I stayed at in Utrecht, where three of the bathroom's walls and door were just straight up glass and unfrosted. Thankfully I travel solo, so I couldn't embarrass anyone.
Too funny. Bathrooms in Europe have always been a trip. I recall using a shared one at the end of a hall during an early 1970's trip to London. As a teen, the reading materials that were available there literally blew my mind. I had no idea!
Then in the late 70's, in Germany I learned the hard way to start carrying my own soap and shampoo. I still do.
A few years ago my wife and I struggled to figure out how to use the bathroom in our Agritourismo in Italy. There was simply no way for us to shower without making an enormous flood. One towel can only do so much.
It's all good. My favorite of all time was a bathroom in Hong Kong. I had a corner luxury suite overlooking Kowloon harbor. The bathroom occupied the corner and featured gigantic windows overlooking the harbor. It was a sea of figured marble and laughable when I think of some of the ones I have encountered in France. Sooo over the top.
I don't travel to visit hotels. Hotels are an unavoidable necessity, so I don't get particularly worked up over the bathrooms.
The image of the vaporetto is priceless. I'll remember that next time I'm waiting for the ferry to get out of the tub.
I've not had to share a hotel room with someone not my spouse or a close friend for at least 40 years, when I was early in my engineering career and traveling on client work with a tight budget. The discussion here brings back some memories. Not all of them are particularly good.
At our spring NL trip, our newly-updated modern room in our Haarlem hotel had a shower actually IN the room, the glass wall was the headboard of the bed. The shower entrance was open air, no doors to the shower. The incredible thing was the room did not steam up, and there was no flooding on the floor. And, you could see the tv from the shower! Just an interesting and unique experience.
Some years ago, my wife and I stayed at a hotel in Italy that had a small bathroom.
It was so small that I could do the three S es all at one time.
My European bathroom pet peeve, in addition to the above, is the lack of safety bars to grab onto when stepping in and out of the shower tubs. I stay in some pretty swank hotels, and they rarely have the most basic safety grips for steadying oneself.
Very true, the shower does indeed end up on the floor.
I found that happening , of water ending up on the entire bathroom floor could be expected in certain hotel chains in Germany and Austria. My first time seeing this threw me into a momentary panic, ie, that split second panic, thought of calling the front desk, house keeping and all that.
Good that I did not , I just left the entire place wet and closed the door. Don't bet on the drain working at max capacity, they don't , then what?
...It was so small that I could do the three S es all at one time.
Many years ago we stayed in a room over a tea shop in Conwy, Wales where we could do the same. They had actually converted a small closet into a bathroom. I doubt it was even 5ft x 5ft. But at that point in our travels we were happy just to have our own bath. What adventures!
It sounds from some of the descriptions above that travelers have encountered "wet rooms" - very intentionally designed to have the entire bathroom function as a one room shower enclosure. As others have noted, I have also encountered these in Europe and Japan.
The wet room option was suggested to us when we remodeled our bathrooms several years back in Chicagoland. We weren't ready for the concept, but apparently others in our area like it.
