9 ms·

It's not about saving a few bucks on a door. It's about discouraging you and your friends from sharing a single room. Hotel sees the money they're leaving on th

• autoexec 11mo ago
  It's far more likely to discourage me and my friends from staying at that hotel entirely.
  • throitallaway 11mo ago
    How many people consider what a bathroom looks like before booking a hotel room? I can't say I've ever done so.
    • RoyTyrell 11mo ago
      Until recently, you never had to think about it. But as it becomes more common it will become something you might want to consider.
      • mumber_typhoon 11mo ago
        And until then they will milk as much money as possible. If there is outrage or they see sales dropping, a few thousand dollars per hotel will replace those rooms with doors leaving with net profit and steady shareholder growth. Some statistical analysis ppt made by some mid level MBA must have proposed this and got a promotion.
        • eru 11mo ago
          > Some statistical analysis ppt made by some mid level MBA must have proposed this and got a promotion. Not necessarily. Just like natural evolution doesn't requite its participants to understand themselves, neither does the market require anyone at a business to understand why they are successful.
        • autoexec 11mo ago
          This is why it falls on us to not simply put up with what little they expect us to settle for. Ask about their privacy and bathroom doors when booking and if caught by surprise by a lack of an actual door or inadequate privacy demand a new room, or go elsewhere taking a refund if necessary. I have to admit that I'm getting very tired of the unsustainable push for endless growth driving companies everywhere to jack up prices as high as people will tolerate and then also delivering the least and worst product/service they can possibly get away with on top of it. It means that everything is getting shittier unless you're willing to spend insane amounts of money to get what used to be standard and more affordable. It's becoming exhausting maintaining a list of businesses I no longer want to give money to and products/services I won't pay for. This is especially true as companies change names, redesign products, and buy up one another. the list just grows and grows all the time.
      • thaumasiotes 11mo ago
        > Until recently, you never had to think about it. But as it becomes more common it will become something you might want to consider. This is closely related to a phenomenon I don't understand. Pretty much every proposed regulatory change (for example: letting drivers pump their own gas at gas stations) meets a fierce counterargument that says "currently, no one considers this situation at all because only one state of affairs is legal. If that thoughtlessness continues after we legalize other possibilities, TERRIBLE THINGS COULD HAPPEN!". But obviously this protasis† can never occur and so it doesn't matter what's in the apodosis. † https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/protasis#English https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/protasis#English (2)
    • gpm 11mo ago
      Actively? Almost no one. But I absolutely check out google maps reviews, and a single review saying that the hotel did not have a proper door on the bathroom would guarantee I would not stay there. Even traveling alone it's a clear indication they have no respect for their guests, and it's a significant hygiene issue.
      • eru 11mo ago
        > [...] it's a significant hygiene issue. How so?
        • cwillu 11mo ago
          Shit particles are literally blown into the surrounding air when flushing; closing the door and running the fan contains the mess. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toilet_plume https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toilet_plume
          • eru 11mo ago
            Have you considered closing the toilet lid?
            • lukeschlather 11mo ago
              There was a study which showed closing the lid reduces the acute problem but actually increases dwell time. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/339650907_Real-time_Monitoring_of_Aerosols_Generated_from_Toilet_Flushing https://www.researchgate.net/publication/339650907_Real-time...
              • neutronicus 11mo ago
                The larger conclusion is that the health consequences of this alleged horror seem to be, in fact, fuck-all
              • eru 11mo ago
                Well, as long as the closed toilet bowl has time in between to settle, it's all fine. And your hotel toilet isn't exactly a high traffic area.
    • chatmasta 11mo ago
      Really? It's one of my main discriminators. The quality of the bathroom is the highest signal indicator of the quality of the hotel. I look for a stone shower basin, a rainhead, a bath tub, or at a least glass shower door... if it looks bolted onto a plastic box, I'm not staying there. If they're cheaping out on the shower then I'm not going to trust the mattress is clean or the linens are soft.
    • sbarre 11mo ago
      I definitely do not return to a hotel where the bathroom was sub-par... And likewise I absolutely return to a hotel where the bathroom was good when going back to a city. I'm mostly talking about the water pressure for the shower here, but you get the idea.
    • zapzupnz 11mo ago
      I want a hot bath after a long day. I don't have one at home so you best believe I'm having one when I'm travelling.
    • rdtsc 11mo ago
      It could discourage repeat customers? There is a website dedicated to it. It would take someone posting that to a few social media accounts and for hotel search sites to put "has an almost see through glass bathroom door" result category, and I think it could turn from a sneaky money maker into a reason people avoid the place.
    • neutronicus 11mo ago
      My wife is keenly interested in whether or not there is a bathtub. Keenly.
      • devilbunny 11mo ago
        Mine is as well. So far the only way I have found to locate such increasingly-rare rooms is booking.com followed by calling the hotel. For all their sins, Booking at least lets you search for hotels that have bathtubs in any rooms at all. Aside from rinsing off after a pool or ocean swim, or when she is actually dirty (e.g., after yard work), I think I have known her to voluntarily take three or four showers in 25 years together.
    • jen20 11mo ago
      I do. Most of my travel is alone for work so I don’t care about a door, but I always call ahead and refuse to book hotels with shower curtains.
    • ajsnigrutin 11mo ago
      You don't, because you expect there to be a toilet, a sink, a shower, towels, a mirror etc. there. There's nothing to consider, it's just expected to be there. Same for the bathroom door. But if i got burned once or twice by a room without a bathroom door, i'd start checking that too and avoiding places that don't have them.
    • TitaRusell 11mo ago
      Depends on how long I stay. For a two week vacation I definitely check out the layout. For a city trip I basically accept anything with a bed and running water.
  • rolandog 11mo ago
    It sometimes feels like hotels are taunting us: "we're behaving like a cartel, whaddaya gonna do? Regulate us!? We've already tricked you into thinking that's socialism!"
    • autoexec 11mo ago
      It's a weird flex for a time when airbnb and vrbo have options all over the place.
      • Nextgrid 11mo ago
        With hotels you're playing the lottery but there is generally a baseline consistent with the brand of the hotel. With those two you're also playing the lottery but there is no baseline. With a hotel, you're also generally paying when you check-in and can thus refuse a subpar room and argue with a real, mostly-reasonable person. With those two, you get charged before you even enter the place and any arguments will be with a bot or a call center drone in a third-world country pretending to be one.
        • yunwal 11mo ago
          > there is generally a baseline consistent Not having a bathroom with a door is an incredibly low baseline. I can only think of a single Airbnb that I’ve stayed in that’s been worse than that (The key to the Airbnb was missing and the host was inaccessible)
    • potato3732842 11mo ago
      >whaddaya gonna do? Regulate us!? We've already tricked you into thinking that's socialism!" More like "I dare you, regulation will only further increase our moat"
      • gpm 11mo ago
        I'm gonna go ahead and suggest that the "bathrooms must have doors" public health regulation is unlikely to increase any moats.
• kstrauser 11mo ago
  Maybe, and also 100% guarantees I’ll never stay there with my family.
  • akudha 11mo ago
    But do you check if the hotel has bathroom doors? If yes, where? You call up and ask? And trust the person on the phone is honest? Most people would assume bathrooms have doors. It is just exhausting to have to check for every small, commonsensical, super basic detail
    • throwaway173738 11mo ago
      The more I travel with my family the more things I add to my list of things to ask about.
    • array_key_first 11mo ago
      It's extremely exhausting, welcome to modern America. Where you can't trust shit from anyone. Everyone is lying, everything is a scam, everything is stupid just cuz, and it feels more and more like the world around you is being specifically designed to piss you off as much as possible. I just want to give businesses my money in exchange for goods and services. Is that asking too much?
      • ryandrake 11mo ago
        "Buyer beware! You are responsible for checking for X!" is a lame excuse, and just enables the worst possible behavior from vendors and service providers. I shouldn't have to check 500 things every time I choose to do business with someone! This is madness. Imagine some future hotel service trend where, right after the customer checks in, the checkin agent punches the customer in the face, by policy. I shouldn't have to check beforehand whether this is a "face punch" hotel or a "non face punch" hotel. We shouldn't all have to live our lives with Caveat Emptor as some sort of horrible default societal moral framework.
        • 10mo ago
• giantg2 11mo ago
  New business idea... set up a truck with automated lockers on it next to the hotel and rent folding doors to the occupants for $20/night.
• roadside_picnic 11mo ago
  I honestly think it's more about "things that look better on instagram" that has infected virtually every hospitality related experience I've had in the last few years. A room that photographs well or a meal that looks ridiculous are more important than a room that's actually comfortable or a meal that tastes good.
• idiotsecant 11mo ago
  Oh wow, I actually never realized this was the motivation. I thought there was just a hotel convention somewhere and they decided bathroom doors don't look good on social media so they're not gonna do them anymore. This makes much more sense.
• al_borland 11mo ago
  How would not having doors prevent people from sharing a room, unless it was highlighted prominently on the website? If that was the case, this person wouldn’t be making a website to catalog this information.
  • vagab0nd 11mo ago
    By making it enough of a nuisance such that the next time you book a hotel, any hotel, for 2 platonic friends you are strongly nudged to book two separate rooms.
• darreninthenet 11mo ago
  But how would you know until it's too late and you've already checked in? Doesn't seem to be a very effective way of achieving this... Just means my mate and I wouldn't go back to that hotel again.
  • bravoetch 11mo ago
    There are photos online and video tours of every hotel room on the planet. Check before booking.
    • slyall 11mo ago
      I saw an interview with this person. Often the photos of rooms will be taken from the door-frame of the bathroom looking in or out. So not obvious if there is an actual door.
      • dangus 11mo ago
        This is where you can practice human interaction and call or email the hotel.
        • jrockway 11mo ago
          I just feel like this becomes time consuming after a while. Will there be soap? Toilet paper? A bed? You don't know unless you ask! But ... c'mon ... they can just tell you on the website.
          • dangus 11mo ago
            If you’re going on so much travel that this is a burden then you’re truly privileged. Maybe your assistant or travel agent can handle this issue for you. Jabs aside, you don’t need to be rich to use a travel agent or Rick Steves guidebook instead of blindly booking hotels on Internet sites. If there’s an issue like this you’ll easily find it on review sites and most of those are searchable. The same thing applies to other experiences like restaurants and museums. For example, it’s always smart to jump on Google/Trip Advisor reviews and type in “kids” or “stroller” into various attractions to make sure you are prepared if you’re bringing kids along. Travel is never perfect. I’ve been in weird rooms with actual glass walls with a perfect framed view of the shitter facing the bed. I have no idea why they did this, maybe this culture values natural light in bathrooms? I witnessed it more than once so it wasn’t just one creepy place. Individual privacy especially within the same family is something of a recent and western concept from my understanding. Either way it was hilarious and a minor inconvenience considering it was a lot minute hotel. It’s just peeing and pooping, we all do it. My traveling friend and I took turns averting our eyes. We had warm clean beds and a story to tell.
• fragmede 11mo ago
  Of course, you could just upgrade to a suite, at three times the price. Hey where are you going? btw the minibar water is only $7 but if you prepay, you can get it discounted to $6! for a bottle of water!
• majormajor 11mo ago
  I don't think that adds up. "Staying in a hotel with a romantic partner and/or family" is at least as primary a use case for hotels as "staying in a hotel with a platonic friend" and is still a scenario where you want a door but is NOT a scenario where "just get separate rooms" is a logical conclusion. "Get the hell out of that hotel and complain about it to everyone you know," on the other hand, is. The much more specific way to target platonic buddies/coworkers from sharing a room would be eliminating rooms with two beds since the "couple" scenario would generally be perfectly happy with that still.
  • citizenpaul 11mo ago
    How do you complain and go to another hotel if every single hotel is owned by four companies that are colluding together to do the same thing. This ignores the very obvious fact that you may not want to search for a hotel at 2AM in a strange city when you are exhausted. Keep making excuses for your masters though, this is the world you live in. Marriot,Hilton,IGT,Hyatt own almost all hotels in any area you want to go to. Enshittification is not just for apps anymore.
    • WheatMillington 11mo ago
      It's hard to understand what you want here... No one is making excuses for the hotels? Literally "don't stay there, go somewhere else, and tell everyone you know" is as much power as an individual can possibly muster in this situation. Why do you think this is "making excuses for your masters"? What is your solution?
      • aaomidi 11mo ago
        Regulation is when individual action isn’t enough. Regulation is a form of collective action.
        • kijin 11mo ago
          And it doesn't even need to be government regulation. The hospitality industry has self-imposed standards as to what kind of amenities a facility should have in order to rate as a two-star hotel, three-star hotel, etc. Things like TV, shampoo, and hair dryer are on that list. If customers make enough noise about bathroom doors, the rating organizations might actually add that as a requirement.
• hammock 11mo ago
  The Standard in NYC has a straight up clear glass wall between the shower and the bed. Very sexy. Very not good for platonic friends sharing a room :)
  • LorenPechtel 11mo ago
    I've seen that in some hotel rooms in China.
• NedF 11mo ago
  [dead]
• amiga386 11mo ago
  This doesn't make any sense. In what way would it discourage you and your friend(s) from booking a standard twin room, if they don't tell you there's no bathroom door? Dr. Strangelove: Of course, the whole point of a Doomsday Machine is lost, if you *keep* it a *secret*! Why didn't you tell the world, eh? Here are the options: 1. You offer double, twin and single rooms. Friends book twin rooms. 2. You offer only double and single rooms, in the hope that non-romantically engaged pairs of people will book two single rooms. Friends book some other hotel's twin rooms. 3. You offer double, twin and single rooms and you tell people before booking there's no toilet door. Friends book some other hotel's twin rooms. 4. You offer double, twin and single rooms but surprise! there are no toilet doors. Friends who've booked a twin room either demand a cancellation immediately upon seeing the room, demand a room with a toilet door, or they demand you offer some kind of ersatz privacy screen, and no matter what you do they're going to rain fury on every review site they can think of, tanking your reputation. In which of these situations does the hotel get extra money?
  • Fnoord 11mo ago
    > In what way would it discourage you and your friend(s) from booking a standard twin room, if they don't tell you there's no bathroom door? (They regard it as cheapskating/cheating.) Very simple: by making it the status quo that bathroom doors aren't there they discourage you to rent a single room. So instead, you rent two single rooms with full privacy for each of you. Because a double room is only for couples, in their (I concur: twisted) world. You mean you want to go to the competition? What if the competition does it as well? What if it is the norm? As for your #4. People don't have time to put effort into such. Outliers do, they're the ones who make noisy drama at the reception. But they're the exception, not the rule.
    • amiga386 11mo ago
      This continues to not make any sense. In most hotel pricings I've seen, twin rooms and double rooms cost the same. In fact, in the cheaper hotels, double rooms are just twin rooms with the beds bolted together (very annoying if you're a couple seeking romance). The hotel can reconfigure the rooms to match demand, as the only difference is whether the beds are joined. As a random example (I don't endorse it, I just picked a random London hotel) https://www.booking.com/hotel/gb/crowne-plaza-london-ealing.en-gb.html https://www.booking.com/hotel/gb/crowne-plaza-london-ealing.... has "Standard Room" (choice of twin or double bed), "Standard Twin Room", "Standard Queen Room with Bathtub" and "Standard Queen Room with Walk-In Shower" options all at exactly the same price. Each option makes abundantly clear what type of bed(s) you get, and how many people can use the room. Hotels that want to rent rooms to couples simply remove twin rooms from the list of rooms available. Only offer the double-bed option. People looking for a twin room go to the next hotel in the list. They don't need some secret plan to disappoint twin-room guests by not having a bathroom door so their next booking is two single rooms. You and the OP both said "single" rooms. Is this key to unlocking the mystery? In my experience, single rooms literally have one single bed. Why are multiple people hoping to stay in one? Also from what I've seen, "single" rooms are more expensive than twin/double rooms, not just because you can't share the costs but because they literally cost more, because there are so few such rooms in the hotel. The hotel couldn't accomodate people if it compelled twin room guests to get two single rooms, it'd run out of single rooms in a jiffy and be left with a lot of twin/double room capacity. Most of the rooms are double/twin. Why would any group of people book a single room? Is there some secret trick where multiple people turn up and bring their own beds with them, only to be foiled by a missing toilet door?
• the_arun 11mo ago
  How does a family of 3 or 4 use this room according to this logic?
• mensetmanusman 11mo ago
  Too bad, what have they done!!
• _jab 11mo ago
  The logical conclusion here would be to have no door for the bathroom, but to have specifically the toilet in a separate subroom. But I don’t think this makes much sense anyways. The hotel industry is not one that thrives from repeat patronage, and “the bathroom has no doors” features rarely in marketing.
  • ghaff 11mo ago
    Not sure how uncommon that is. Certainly a sink is often in an open alcove. The toilet and probably often the shower is in a subroom with a door. Not sure how common sharing a room with a work colleague--especially of the opposite sex--or a family member who is a teen is. But traveling with friends, activity partners (hiking, etc.), so much of what's being discussed on this thread just isn't a real issue in my experience at least in most Western culture.
• tartoran 11mo ago
  One way to get hotels to bring back the bathroom doors and other amenities from yesteryear is through cultural warfare of sorts. When all your customers consider and talk off these not as hotel rooms but cheap motel rooms or even brothel rooms:) Hotels aren't going to like it and eventually it'll catch up with them. With the rise in AIRBNB and other similar competing services I expected hotels to compete back by lowering costs and improving conditions. Was I wrong, oh boy..