There’s a hotel trend that started quietly a few years ago, like all bad ideas do.
At first it showed up as a “modern design choice.” Then a “European vibe.” Then suddenly you’re standing in a hotel room brushing your teeth while your travel companion makes direct eye contact from the bed.
Hmm.
It is time to talk about the open-concept bathroom. You know the one. Glass walls. Sliding barn doors. Frosted panels that promise discretion but deliver silhouettes. Toilets separated from the rest of the room by what appears to be a strong suggestion of privacy.
Apparently this is supposed to feel intimate. I would like to formally decline.
Travelers are finally pushing back on this trend, and I would like to stand at the front of that line holding a protest sign that says:
MAKE BATHROOMS PRIVATE AGAIN.
Why mess with this?
Who woke up one day and thought, You know what would really elevate the guest experience? Removing doors from deeply personal activities.
Because here’s the thing. People don’t travel to feel exposed. They don’t book hotels hoping to navigate vulnerability while peeing.
Travel is already a lot.
You’ve just walked 20,000 steps.
You’ve debated which monument is worth seeing versus which one gets a drive-by. Someone is hungry. Someone is tired. Someone insists this detour is “only ten minutes.”
Your phone battery is at 14%.
Your feet are negotiating with your soul.
By the end of the day, you don’t want architectural experiments.
You want sanctuary.
Sometimes, after navigating crowds, maps, museums, and differing opinions about pasta, you need to go hide in the bathroom and decompress.
Not perform in the bathroom.
Not be observed in the bathroom.
Hide.
Bathrooms have always been sacred spaces. Historically, culturally, psychologically. They are where we regroup. Where we scroll. Where we take deep breaths. Where we have quiet pep talks with ourselves in the mirror. Where we escape for five minutes from the person we love very much but have been next to for twelve straight hours.
They are tiny emotional reset rooms.
And now hotels are like “What if we made that communal?”
No.
Let’s bring psychology into this for a moment.
Personal space matters. Privacy regulates our nervous system. When we don’t feel observed, we can relax. When we don’t feel exposed, we can actually rest. That’s not luxury. That’s basic human functioning.
Glass bathroom doors are not chic.
They are cortisol with hinges.
And yes, I know. Some designers will say it makes rooms feel bigger. More open. More airy.
Great.
So does removing the roof, but we don’t do that either.
There is a reason bathrooms traditionally come with walls, doors, and locks. Because humans have always understood that some moments deserve separation. Some sounds deserve containment. Some experiences are not meant to be shared in high definition.
I don’t want to contemplate my life choices while making eye contact through frosted glass.
I don’t want to coordinate shower schedules like air traffic control.
I don’t want my so-called personal space to include an audience.
Vacation is supposed to reduce stress, not introduce a new layer of social performance.
And let’s be honest. Nobody has ever checked out of a hotel saying, Wow, the lack of bathroom privacy really brought us closer.
What people want is simple. A door. That closes. Preferably with a lock. And walls that understand boundaries.
So here’s my humble request to the hospitality industry. Stop reinventing the bathroom.
Let it be boring. Let it be enclosed. Let it be a quiet little box where we can emotionally recalibrate after navigating foreign subway systems and relationship diplomacy.
Give us back our private decompression chambers.
Because sometimes the most luxurious thing in the world isn’t a rainfall showerhead or imported marble.
It’s being able to sit in peace.
Categories: architecture, Culture, current events, Psychology, Travel
psychologistmimi 
I don’t want even my nearest and dearest observing me in certain positions.
Agreed – wholeheartedly!
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Open Bathrooms in Fancy Hotels Migrating down to Potentially
Way Cheaper MOTEL 6’s Wow Dear Miriam What a Strange Move That is
Yes i Still Have No Evidence
My Wife Has Done Anything
Yet Pee In 36 Years of Marriage
As of February 21st This Year True
And the Five Months of Cohabitation
at My Sister’s Apartment before That
Yet of Course hehe there is Still the
Possibility that evidence may
Present itself Freed before
The 21st Yet Hell No With the
Disappearing Act my Wife Is And
Does No Possibility Indeed hehe
OBTW my Wife Would Literally
‘Kill me’ by Metaphor of course if
She Knew i was Writing this Now
Yet the Dropping of my Words are
Way too Much for Her to Consume
Per 248 Thousand Words For Literally
The Last 48 Days Indeed They Used to Call
me “The 7,000 Word Man” By “Slight” on the
“Wrong Planet” Website then when i was only
Writing Tiny 500 Word Essays A Day Yet Doing
the Math In Open Room Word Count in the Current
Solo Page of “Depth oF The Story” Yes Finishing Page
132 of 16 Posts in 16 Days Last Night indeed Precisely
On Average for each and every Day of the Last 48 Days
On the “Wrong Planet’
Yes Now Literally
Yes Literally
on Average
Per Day
i am
The
6,000 Word Man Still Creeping
Up to the Historic
“Slight” By Others of
“TL:DR” Yep Up to 7,000 Words
Yet Indeed 8,000 Words is the Upper Limit
For What Posts Will Hold on the “Wrong Planet”
In One Comment Field a Day and also in the Comments
Section of WordPress Where as Usual i am Currently Drafting
Two New EPiC Long Form Poems there in the Comments Section
of the Blog Post Celebrating “23,000 Miles oF Public Dancing” Yes
Additionally the Already Written Celebration of Subchapter “Nether Land Bible
14 MiLLioN WordS Old’ in that ‘Holding Pond’ Awaiting Multi-Media Collection
For EPiC Long Form Poem MacroVerse Blog Publish of Around 115 Thousand
Words While “23,000 Miles oF Public Dancing” Weighed in at 125,119 Words
And As of Now i am about Half Way Through Writing the MacroVerse EPiC
Long Form Poem Celebrating “SonG oF mY SoUL 15 MiLLioN WordS Old” that will
Surely Measure
Over 100 Thousand
Words too Yes in that
Comments Section too
Indeed Over 340 Thousand
Words From the Top of the Already
Published Blog Post “23,000 Miles oF Public
Dancing” to the Bottom of the Comments Section
Eventually Holding the Body of Those Next Two Drafted
Blog Posts
Well Considering
the Upper Limit for
A Comment on WordPress
Is around 8 Thousand Words
It Looks Like i’ve Digressed Long Enough
Indeed This is Open Room Free Verse EPiC
Long Form Poem Writing too Most Every Word
Yes in Poetic Reply to a Variety of Human Souls All Around
the World With All 15 MiLLioN Words Plus of “SonG oF mY
SoUL” in 149 Months Just An Anthology of all of that Yet It’s sort
Of Like The Conundrum of Open Bathrooms in Motels and Hotels
Do You Really
Hehe Wanna See
All of This “STUFF”
i Surely Understand
If Hell No You Do Not
Yet thank You for at Least
Humoring my “Run On” Sentences
With This Free Rental Blog Page Space
In
New
York
New
York
Other than that Yes
We “Beat The System”
of McMansion Building
in Our Locality By Breaking
Down Walls when We Built Our
Modest 1333 SQ FT Interior Living Space Home in
1993 Making One Big 23 X 25 Foot Great Room including
The Open Small Kitchen too Surprisingly Not too Different
In Size of what the McMansions For Half a Million
Dollars Offer over in the Next Neighborhood with
No Trees Where You Can Literally Spit on Your
Neighbor’s
Bathroom
Window
With Cars
Lined Up and
Down the Street
Yes Mostly Four
Wheel Drive Trucks
as the Double to Triple
Car Garages of Course are
Stuffed with “Walmart Stuff”
With 5 Bedrooms and 3 Bathrooms
Occupied or Not by Human Beings
Or Just More “Stuff” Awaiting the Next Garage
Sale Flea Market Oh Dear Lord With Signs all over
the Neighborhood Yards to advertise it for Guaranteed
Hehe even
Lower Prices
Just to Stuff it
With “Stuff” And
Do It All over again
Perhaps a Drain Field
Might Work Better Hehe
Yet Indeed it would get all clogged Up
On Top of that Our Open Space in Our
Home Even offering a View of my Wife
From the Bedroom into the Kitchen
And Of Course Brushing Her
Teeth in the Open Sink
Area in Our Bedroom
That She Doesn’t
Mind too Much
that is not Private Yes
Allows me to Constantly
Monitor Her Complex Partial
Seizure Epilepsy Condition as there
is Always the Possibility that She Will
Fall Unconscious to our very Well Cushioned
Carpeted Floors
Yet Yes Hell NO She
Already Won’t Go to
A Motel or Hotel
As She Knows
What Folks
Leave Behind
Particularly on
Valentine’s Day
Such is the Human
Condition Nice Yet Naughty
And Very Messy too With SMiLes…
i feel i’ve gone on too Long Have a Nice Day
With
Run on
SMiLes too…
he
he…
As i Also Begin
Page 133 Of “Depth
oF The Story” Almost
6.9 MiLLioN Words in
Almost 66 Months on
The “Wrong Planet”
As Subchapter too
Of “SonG oF
mY SoUL”
Indeed IT’S
Some
Deep
“Stuff’ Hehe
Yet It’s All Just
Gaseous Fumes on
Page of the Heavenly
Meditative Bliss of Heaven
Within i Experience When Writing
in Flow or Dancing in Flow in Public
That Does Also Go On with 23,213 Miles
Now in 149 Months Just inching toward
The Distance around our Equator Around
6 or So Months After i Reach Age 66 on June 6th
i Suppose it Might be a Bit More Than 6 or So Months
Later Making
it when i
Reach
66.6 Years Old
It’s Weird i’m not
Planning All of this
in Advance Yet Never the
Less
iT
STiLL
HaPPeNS hehe…
Yep Sort Of Like
Existence OverAll..:)
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