We are going for our third trip to italy this fall but this will be first time trying to use online housing search.
Some interesting places to consider but terminology is a bit stragnge. In particular the term "external private bathroom" . Anybody have an interpretation from experience.? I tried a few times to clarify it with apt. owner but not making a lot of headway.
Thanks,
Chuck
What it means is that there is a bathroom down the hall that is yours alone. It is kept locked and you are given the key. It is more annoying than it may sound. Every time you want to use that bathroom, you will go through these steps (though if not traveling alone, you might skip some):
Find bathroom key
Unlock room door
Exit room
Lock room door
Walk to bathroom
Unlock bathroom door
Enter bathroom
Lock bathroom door
...
Unlock bathroom door
Exit bathroom
Lock bathroom door
Walk back to room
Unlock room door
Enter room
Lock room door
Not.fun.at.all. For one night, to save a lot of money, OK. For more than one night, a very annoying experience.
The existence of places with this situation is probably the genesis of the British term "ensuite bath", which means the bathroom is inside your room, as it is in all modern lodgings.
I see that phrase more often in bed and breakfasts where the bathroom is for your private use but down a public hall....private but not ensuite. I wonder if something similar....bathroom in the apartment, but not ensuite. Can you tell from the apartment photos?
Using a site like Booking or AirBnB is going tomproduce more consistent and understandable features. However, sometimes the owner will list as 'entire apartment' even though it is really shared use of an apartment with a private bath and bedroom.
It’s the translation of “bagno privato esterno”. It’s a term that is generally used in hotels/B&B.
It’s basically a private bathroom, for your own exclusive use, that is not inside your hotel bedroom, rather it is outside the bedroom (maybe across the hall from the hotel bedroom).
In this case the apt owner probably intends to say that the bathroom is outside the master bedroom and probably shared by all rooms in the apartment. Apartments with two or fewer bedrooms very rarely, if ever, have more than one bathroom.
I have had this situation for 2 nights and I'm frugal so thought it would be fine. Yet I cannot tell you how creepy it feels going to the bathroom down the hall at 2a.m. During the day it's no different than being at a restaurant, where you go down the hallway to use the restroom. But at midnight...and if you are like me again at 4:30 a.m. (!), it was unnerving. Even though I repeatedly said to myself "It's fine, it's safe, don't worry", I've been brought up as a female to be aware of my safety at all times and not go wandering around at 2am in my pjs in a strange place on my own. Hee, hee. Really, my adrenalin was pumping by the time I returned to my room. Did I have anything to fear? NO. I just couldn't get comfortable with it.
