Hotel bathtubs are certainly one of my favourite elements of touring. For me, there are few issues extra pleasant after an extended day of flight delays and baggage issues than a soak. The larger and extra elaborate the bathtub, the higher.
So, think about my disappointment after I go to a brand new or just lately renovated resort solely to search out that my beloved bathtub has been changed by a phenomenal however underwhelming rainfall bathe.
It’s not simply my creativeness. Bathtubs are quickly disappearing from resort rooms.
“Hotels are increasingly focused on being destinations for guests and locals and embracing their surrounding communities,” said Kellie Sirna, co-founder of the award-winning hospitality design firm Studio 11 Design. “With so much to explore on property and nearby, there’s little need to provide a long, luxurious bath experience.”
In fact, many hotels are removing their tub and shower combinations and replacing them with more modern shower-only setups.
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Rise of the hotel shower
Having a dedicated bathroom for each hotel room wasn’t actually a common practice until the late 1800s. Even then, they were considered a luxury amenity.
Before hotel guests had access to their own bathrooms, they could expect to find shared facilities and a basin of water to wash up in. However, the idea of a private bathroom started catching on, and by the 1920s, many hotels were offering en suite bathrooms.
Like the move to create private bathrooms decades ago, the current shift toward bathtub-free spaces is coming from guest preferences. According to Sirna, guests are increasingly interested in more space, more sustainable hotel options and, maybe more than anything, cleanliness, when they travel.
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Does the tub get scrubbed?
There are several factors at play that have led to the decline of the hotel bathtub, though changing customer preferences seem to be a growing reason behind the trend. And as we’ve learned more than ever during the pandemic, cleanliness is key.
In a quick survey of TPG readers in the TPG Facebook group, we found more than half of those who responded preferred showers to tubs — often strongly. For most readers, concern about the tub’s cleanliness was the main reason for their preference. Many didn’t mince their words about their reasoning.
“Bathtubs used by anyone else but my own family [are] just gross,” Denise Jordan from Philadelphia mentioned within the TPG Lounge.
But resort bathtubs should not the one lavatory function that TPG readers had been hesitant to make use of due to cleanliness. Hotel showers had been additionally flagged as an space of concern, a lot in order that a number of folks said that they go for bathe footwear in accommodations due to it.
Overall, evidently TPG readers, and maybe resort visitors usually, are involved that the extent of cleanliness in accommodations may not match what they themselves are comfy with, notably given the sheer quantity of cleansing undertaken by resort employees.
“The staff has 100% more work than any human can be expected to do,” mentioned Drew Powers of Illinois within the TPG Lounge. “There is no way most of that room gets cleaned to the level it really needs.”
With many accommodations nonetheless so wanting housekeeping and different employees, shower-only bogs might probably reduce down on cleansing instances. A transfer that each saves the resort cash and helps be sure that housekeeping employees has extra time to correctly sanitize rooms.
But we have reported earlier than, resort housekeeping remains to be very hit and miss, with many accommodations nonetheless skipping each day cleanings — even at some luxurious accommodations. While a number of adjustments to housekeeping have been pushed by labor shortages, main resort firms have additionally been reducing again companies within the title of sustainability, one other issue that could possibly be driving the pattern of bucking resort bathtubs.
Is sustainability at play?
The common standard-sized tub takes up about 13 sq. ft, whereas a typical shower-only possibility solely wants about 9 sq. ft. But research differ on the query of which bathing possibility makes use of extra water (lengthy, sizzling showers may very well use extra water than the typical bathtub).
Either manner, in line with Sirna, vacationers wish to scale back their carbon footprints — and accommodations can play on that by eradicating costly tubs and changing them with showers, some small and fundamental whereas others are extra luxurious.
Related: 8 sustainable journey suggestions from skilled inexperienced vacationers
As a outcome, there have been some attention-grabbing improvements with regards to resort showers, together with low-flow showerheads that scale back water waste, and the usage of pure supplies like stone, to evoke the outside. Hotels are additionally evoking extra spa-like lavatory experiences with rainfall showerheads and even double showerheads, and more and more intricate and distinctive tile work.
Some new accommodations, equivalent to Motto by Hilton New York City Chelsea, are opening and not using a single bathtub. Others, like Dream Hollywood in Los Angeles, solely have bathtubs of their extra high-end rooms.
But if there’s actually no strong proof that showers are extra sustainable, it begs the query: Is eradicating bathtubs from resort rooms really about sustainability or a manner for hospitality firms to shrink the underside line utilizing sustainability as a ploy?
One manner we all know hospitality firms are really taking sustainability significantly is by eradicating single-use mini bottles of shampoo, conditioner and cleaning soap from rooms and changing them with mounted dispensers that may be refilled by housekeepers.
Will resort bathtubs disappear?
What lavatory facilities can be found in a resort nonetheless relies upon largely on its goal market.
“If city hotels have the space, offering a bathtub is an opportunity to tap into your local apartment-dwelling market who may not have bathtubs of their own,” Sirna mentioned. “Romance travelers are a mixed bag — while a sexy, unexpected shower experience has its own merits, the traditional, visual aesthetic of a beautiful bathtub still holds strong appeal. Business travelers are more impressed with a high-design shower experience that fits seamlessly into their daily routine.”
Paige Harris, the director of design and growth at Valor Hospitality Partners, agrees, including that she thinks resort bathtubs are “virtually out of date,” besides in very particular instances.
“Some luxurious, resort properties are holding tubs, however solely in suites, not in typical visitor rooms,” Harris mentioned.
So, regardless of the continuing and increasing pattern towards showers, bathtubs are unlikely to vanish solely. As lengthy as there are hardcore bathtub lovers like me and Carolyn Spencer Brown of Maryland round who’re keen to splurge a bit to have entry to 1, bathtubs will stick round.
“Team Bath all the way in which,” Brown mentioned within the TPG Lounge. “I’ll select one resort over one other over that.”
Featured Photo by Catherine Falls Commercial/Getty Images