I’ve visited France, Italy, and England several times, and lived in England 3 years. My question at several of the hotels in which we’ve stayed the shower had no curtain, door, or even a lip to keep the water contained. This resulted in flooded bathrooms and embarrassment. Will someone explain how one should cope with this type of showers.
Thank you in advance.
If it has a hand held shower head, as most do in Europe, it’s fairly simple. Take it and rinse off being careful to only aim it in the one obvious direction. Shut the water and soap up. Take it off again and repeat step #1.
We’ve stayed in a few hotels like that, but most have had a glass wall helping to block the water. For the couple that didn’t, as already stated, aim the hand held toward a wall or straight down.
You know, I can't figure these showers out either. I have long, very thick hair and can't get it fully saturated (let alone rinse out shampoo!) without creating a flood. If it's not a hair wash day (I only wash my hair every 3 days or so), it is fairly easy - wear shower cap, carefully position the shower head, wash body, rinse, done. Still creates more mess than I'm comfortable with but I think it's designed for a bit of that.
I have seen these showers less frequently as time goes on. Possibly luck on my part, possibly they are falling out of fashion?
As long as there's a drain that the "extra" water will flow to, then no need for embarrassment. But be careful of slipping. If there's a bath mat, I figure that's fair game to get wet, but try not to mop floors with regular towels.
Once I stayed in a room in a private apartment in Stockholm and the shared bathroom had a long-handled squeegee in it. In that case, I guessed I was expected to use it, though it was more work than I would have liked to do after my shower.
I appreciate the responses. I must say I have stayed in hotels in all of these places that have lovely bathrooms. I don’t want to leave the impression that all are difficult.
My hotel in Paris, a two star, is exactly that way when it comes to the shower. There is no curtain or anything blocking, preventing the water from going all over the floor, especially if you take a longer shower. Yes, the entire floor will be wet from corner to corner.ie, the water blankets the entire floor. There is no drain for the water to flow into as you're taking the shower.
The first time I encountered that, I just let the water cover the whole floor from one to the other.
Interesting, really. How long does the floor stay wet ? My experience is that after the water is turned off, the shower room door shut, within 10 minutes or less half the floor will be dry. That was surprising. The water evaporates quickly.
Yes, these showers can be confusing, but I like them better than the tiny cabinet where the water has barely enough room to drain down around your body as you stand there wedged in like a champagne cork. (Maybe you can guess I am not a small person?)
I also like these flood-the-floor showers better than the bath tub with the tiny little piece of glass. These only work for me if I sit down in the tub.
The un contained showers are designed with flooring that allows the water to quickly be absorbed and disappear soon after the faucet is shut off. As long as water doesn't drain out of the bath room into the rest of the hotel room, everything is as designed and should not be worried about.
Bathrooms without shower doors or curtains have hard surfaces over the entire bathroom that are designed to drain towards the shower. Some of the nicer Nordic bathrooms also have heated floors that dry the wet floor and are nice to walk with bare feet. Some also have floor squeegees to push the built up water towards the drain to speed drying. You get to take a shower and wash down your bathroom floor at the same time.
I’ve found that “wet” bathrooms are somewhat common in Europe.....
It was a bit of an adjustment for me to get used to them but the concept seems to work reasonably well.
These wet bathrooms are common across Europe...they are designed for this. Just make sure to put the toilet paper outside of the room if the toilet is shared in the space!
Personally, I really dislike the wet rooms and look for hotels/apartments with an actual tub or shower with lip. I hate everything getting wet!!
As others have said it just takes some concentration on where you are pointing the shower. It's different, most of us are used to just standing under a fixed shower head at home.
One option is to sit in the tub while you shower (especially if you're in a freestanding tub). That helps contain the mess.
I don't like leaving a mess behind so I'm not a wet room fan either. In Italy, my (now) ex took a shower on arrival, then used every towel to dry the floor. Italians aren't keen on bringing you more towels and I'm not a fan of using a towel that's been used to dry the bathroom floor.
I have to say I have never run across one of these!!!
I have seen the wet rooms designed for handicapped accessibility as the bathrooms in the Premier Inns (because I had specifically requested that for my mother) but I have never rented a hotel room and ended up with a bathroom with no shower separation!!
I’ve stayed in lots of fairly expensive hotels with a bathtub and a shower head (not hand held) and nothing to keep the water in and no drain on the floor. I hate them and do not understand why there isn’t a door or curtain to contain the water. Hate the floor being wet. Makes absolutely no sense to me.
As long as there is a door between bathroom and bedroom, anything is fine. I abhor those rooms (Hotel Berna, I am looking at you and your updated rooms!) with glass doors on the bathroom! Light floods the bed chamber when someone uses the facilities at night.
I agree, Laurel. A design idea isn't better just because it is new. Those glass doors are a really stupid idea in any room designed to accommodate more than one person.
--Posted from a Point A hotel room in Glasgow with a glass door to the bathroom.
I know this is general Europe, but....
This was my experience in the merida Mexico area, open shower stalls w no curtains, and no bathroom doors, either. Supposed to manage mildew
I hate those and I avoid booking them. My husband rolls his eyes at me, but I carefully look at pictures of the bathroom before I book a hotel. Unless there's something to contain the water (often a glass panel that extends partway), I don't book it.
The shower is in separate room with a door between that and the bedroom. Between the shower itself and the rest of the shower room with the toilet there is no curtain, door or anything blocking the water from getting the entire floor "flooded"
True, when I finish, the floor is covered with water. I've noticed also that the shower room in ca 20 mins will be 98% dry when the light is left on for those 20 mins and the door. closed. No problem with that.
@ Fred
I'm wondering about leaving the light on in your Paris retreat. How does it help dry the floor? Does that place still use incandescent or halogen bulbs - that would help as they give off heat? If they are LED or flourescent I don't see how...
I always say that while first-time visitors to Europe are worried about the toilets, it's the showers that are far more likely to cause trouble. The concept of "good bathroom design" is often very different from what's found in the US, and can be a major adjustment.
For the places that have a hand-held shower head and no curtain (popular in France), I find that by the third day I've adjusted my use of it to avoid spraying the entire bathroom (before that it's hit or miss). For the half-glass and a fixed shower head, I just try my best, but it often fails, and water gets all over the floor. A pre-fab stall shower can be wonderful - the water actually stays in the shower, and nothing else in the bathroom gets wet!
@ Nigel...The first time I saw one of these showers in my 2 star hotel in Paris i was baffled too, looked carefully for a drain into which the water would flow. Not there. Maybe the floor level would prevent water from going beyond the area of the shower, not that either since the entire shower room floor was soaked in water after I had used.
I don't know or recall, or noticed what type of bulbs were used. With the floor all wet, and I mean wet from one end to the other end, I left the light on , shut the door, and stepped out in to bedroom area. Close to 20 mins later, upon sliding the shower room door open, I saw 98% of the room was dry already....a pleasant surprise.
I thought it was the material used for constructing the shower floor and the heat from the light in a closed confined space led to the water evaporating so quickly.
@ Fred I'm wondering about leaving the light on in your Paris retreat. How does it help dry the floor? Does that place still use incandescent or halogen bulbs - that would help as they give off heat? If they are LED or flourescent I don't see how...
@ Nigel,
It's so that his wife can see what she's doing when she goes to clean up after him.
The Mrs. was never there, one of the advantages of going solo, isn't it.?
JC, THAT was funny!!!
I don't like the wet room type of showers, but I like even less the shower curtains that flap about and stick to you.
Ewww.
If I've seen a shower that has curtains in the photos of the rental I'm going to, then I bring a cheap curtain with me to replace it while I'm there.
Who knows who else that original curtain has stuck to!!
Doug, there are budget accommodations in which the shower is just a shower head head sticking out of the bathroom wall, no tub, no curtain or divider of any sort so much of the bathroom gets wet
I designed our shower to be a wet. It is waterproof with water directed to the drain. I refuse to wax and clean a glass shower door to sparkle like no one uses the shower. Cost would be nearly $3000. Thus, no shower door. The shower is private. I am use to wet baths in Europe. I am not use to when they are not private.
Shower curtains are very inexpensive.
Shower curtains are very inexpensive.
Doesn’t have to be a glass door.
Shower curtains are very cheap, $8.99 on amazon.com. With my wife's long, flowing hair, zero chance all the water will be contained even if she were the Houdini of shower head aiming.
Also, my dad is a big boy to say the least, so yeah, the water won't be contained in the shower. It's all rather comical really. He has to wash part of himself while the other parts hang over the edge, and then rotate.
We remodeled our bathroom and, in the end, preferred the curtain to a glass door.
We've had European VRBO bathrooms that were quite tricky, like having to take a step up with nothing to hold onto, except the hot radiator, and a slippery floor. It's all part of the fun!
Big Mike, travel is not for the faint of heart
Guests are able to use the second bath with a shower curtain in a tub/shower combo. Shower curtains can be placed in the washer.
