When you’re booking a hotel room, most people have certain things in mind. After determining what brand and price works best, most people pay the most attention to the actual bedroom. What kind of bed(s) is/are in the room, perhaps the square footage, etc. The bathroom tends to be secondary, although that’s important too, especially if you’re concerned about having, say, a tub vs. a standing shower vs. both. And all of those are fair concerns, depending on your situation.
However, there’s something that most travelers may not pay attention to because it’s something that’s rarely encountered in the U.S. However, outside the U.S. (and even sometimes within this country, although not very often), it’s not quite so rare:
A “private bathroom” is not necessarily the same as an “ensuite bathroom.”
What’s the Difference Between Private and Ensuite Bathrooms?
Ensuite bathroom
An ensuite bathroom is what most Americans think of when they think of a bathroom in conjunction with a hotel. It’s part of the room.
Obviously, if the bathroom is part of the room, no one else can use it besides the people who’ve rented the room.
By the way, the concept of ensuite bathrooms is not as old as you’d think. The first ones were said to be part of the Hotel Statler, which opened its doors in Buffalo NY in 1908.
Private bathroom
A private bathroom still means that the only people who can use that bathroom are those who have rented a specific hotel room. However, it doesn’t necessarily mean the bathroom is part of the actual room they’ve rented.
It may be across the hall. Or down the hall. Or, on very rare occasion, even on a different floor.
Again, no one else can use that bathroom, since it’s categorized as a “private” bathroom – but you may have to walk to get there, and you’ll need to have a key (or a key card) to enter it. It’s sort of like “hostel light.” 😉
Put simply, all ensuite bathrooms are private bathrooms. But not all private bathrooms are ensuite bathrooms.
When You Might Encounter a Private Bathroom
More often than not, if the place where you’re staying was built to be a hotel from Day One, and was built after indoor plumbing became a thing, your private bathroom will be an ensuite.
But if your hotel is very old, or was remodeled from another type of building – say, a private home, a carriage house, an office building, etc. – and that remodeling was done with containing costs as much as possible, you might have a “private bathroom” that’s across the hall, like when I stayed at Cypress House, a bed & breakfast in Key West, back in 2008 (Cypress House was eventually sold to IHG and turned into a Kimpton. The property has since been sold again, but we stayed there in 2021. We were happy to see IHG had redone the rooms such that they all had an ensuite bathroom).
Airbnbs often offer private bathrooms that aren’t necessarily ensuites, because they’re typically privately (or corporately LOL) owned homes, and if there’s no master suite in the house, there’s probably no ensuite bathroom, either.
Hotels in Europe are also more apt to offer private bathrooms that aren’t attached to their bedrooms, because of the aforementioned older buildings that have been converted.
Downsides of a private bathroom
Obviously, if given a choice, guests will prefer an ensuite bathroom over a private bathroom that’s down the hall. If you have a private bathroom:
- You may encounter other guests – typically strangers – while you’re walking in the hall to your bathroom, perhaps in your pajamas or robe.
- You may have to carry all of your stuff – toiletries, etc. – with you when you go to your bathroom.
- You’re going to have to unlock the room every time you want to use it.
- Unless every room in the building is covered by central air/heat, or there’s a single heating/cooling element in the bathroom, your private bathroom may be inordinately hot/cold (remember when I stayed at Cypress House? It was early fall and it was still super hot and humid out. So was that bathroom).
Upsides of a private bathroom
- If a hotel offers both ensuites and private bathrooms, the ones where you have to exit your room to use your private facilities tend to cost a bit less.
- I’m grasping at straws, but it’s an experience you don’t get to have very often. It’s an adventure!
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