Hotels Are Increasingly Ditching Solid Bathroom Doors
It's getting tougher to find doors like these in hotels. (Getty Images / towfiqu ahamed)
Hotel bathrooms are going open-concept, and not all guests are thrilled. A Wall Street Journal report by Katie Deighton highlights how some midprice and boutique hotels are swapping traditional bathroom doors for frosted glass, sliding barn doors, curtains, or partial walls—features that often fail to block light, sound, or smells.
For hotel executives looking to cut costs, traditional doors can be expensive, block natural light, and require extra maintenance. Some hotels are now questioning whether bathrooms need doors at all, experimenting with setups where sinks and showers sit in the main room and toilets are tucked behind glass panels or small nooks.
Travelers’ reactions vary. Some shrug it off, while others are less forgiving. The Journal notes digital marketer Sadie Lowell’s “Bring Back Doors” campaign, in which she emails hotels to ask about bathroom privacy. She has compiled a public list of hotels with only partial or no doors—currently listing 500 properties. Cathy Adams, writing in the Times of London, offers practical advice for anyone ending up in a door-less room: “Make full use of the loos by the lobby. That’s what they’re there for.”
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