Hotels Not Ready to Flush Away the Open-Concept Bathroom Design
Photo Credit: Open-concept and glassed-in bathrooms may look nice on paper, but guests aren't always thrilled by them. Owners say there's a method behind the design tactic and are providing fixes like frosted glass on doors (Pictured: the Brenton Hotel in Rhode Island). Brenton Hotel
Skift Take
A design aesthetic that is easier to maintain and gives guest rooms the sense of a larger space and more light — but often a view of the toilet — needs to be artfully executed for post-pandemic hospitality marketing.
Andy Ross will never forget the hotel stay that tested his sense of propriety. The open layout and glass partitions meant he could see all the way from the bed to the ongoings in the bathroom — and beyond.
“It was not only that you were fully exposed when you were in the bathroom, but you also had floor-to-ceiling windows that looked directly into the office building next door,” he said. “So there was no sense of privacy and I remember how shocked I was. Then I thought, ‘This is kind of fun. I can work through my insecurities and make it work.’”
The managing director of the Brenton Hotel in Newport, R.I., has since seen modifications — like frosted glass — to the concept to not only “secure modesty” but give hotel designers another tool in their belt.
“You can immediately open up what was dark and cavernous and make it feel big and bright,” he said.
As hotels emerge from the pandemic, a renewed interest on design and function will be top of mind, down to every square inch of the bathroom, as owners look to layout and convenience as fresh marketing fodder.
