Hotel designers have a tough job. Either you’re trying to make a cookie-cutter hotel room seem interesting and inviting, or you have to shoehorn a design into a hotel that has a seemingly infinite number of different room configurations. You’re also trying to maximize the functionality of the room within a limited space, while simultaneously staying current with design trends. And you’re trying to please different masters – keeping the hotel executives happy while also pleasing the hotel guests.
While I can usually see the thought process behind many decisions (except removing desks from hotel rooms; that’s just dumb), I found a hotel room with a layout where I couldn’t believe no one noticed this major design flaw.
Like I said before, hotels try to keep their rooms interesting by including some trendy design fads. The newest one of these I’ve found in hotel rooms recently is bathrooms with sliding barn doors. While I love watching Fixer Upper, these designers need to let go of their inner Joanna Gaines. Before you know it, we’ll all have hotel rooms filled with shiplap walls.
A recent hotel room I stayed in had this design with a sliding barn door for the bathroom. Considering the total size of the room, it really was unnecessary.
Here’s the view you have of the door from inside the bathroom:
View of sliding barn door from bathroom
Opposite the toilet was the storage area of the room. Since the room didn’t have any drawers, it had plenty of baskets for storing your items and a reasonable amount of space to hang clothes, jackets, etc. There was also a full-length mirror to check yourself out before leaving the room.
Closet area with baskets and a full-length mirror
I stayed at this hotel on my first (and probably one of my last) business trips. I was the only one in the room. I don’t know your habits, but when I return to my hotel room, there’s occasionally a task I need to attend to right away. When speed is important, closing the bathroom door isn’t the first thing that comes to mind. When looking up, there’s something I just don’t want to see:
A full-length mirror reflecting the toilet
For my entire time on this earth, I have never stared at myself while sitting on the toilet, and I never want to do it again. Yes, those are Star Wars pajamas and yes, I did text this picture to Sharon to show her how ridiculous the design of this hotel was. When she surprised me by showing up at my hotel for the weekend, she also had the thrill of seeing herself as she had never seen before. She has some self-control and did not take a toilet selfie (Note from Sharon: After seeing myself on the bowl [and without Star Wars pajama bottoms, because I was using the toilet for its intended purpose], why would I EVER want to take a picture of myself on it? Ew!).
Dear hotel designers, if you do one thing in my next hotel room, please don’t put a full-length mirror across from the toilet and give me no way to close the door from where I’m sitting and taking care of serious business.
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