|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The bathroom has increasingly become the newest battleground. Savvy brand builders realize that a good chunk of time spent by guests in the hotel room when not asleep is the bathroom. Newer hotels are building them bigger, the lighting is becoming brighter and the experience is becoming a whole lot better. It’s a great change of pace from hotels built in a different era that didn’t consider a small, cramped bathroom an issue guests were concerned with. That being said there is always some room for improvement. So here are some elements of this temple to personal hygiene I really love as well as some hopefully helpful suggestions that will imbue you with what your guests are thinking, but don’t tell you.
Bathroom Amenities
More hotels are moving to partner with third party providers or are debuting cool new proprietary bathroom amenity lines. While this is a great branding move – to either leverage the power of other established products with strong brand equity, for example -- some of these soaps and shampoos are extremely aromatic and overflow with a perfume smell bordering on offensive. The unfortunate side effect here is aside from all of us emitting the same pungent scent down at the lobby bar, some of us are having allergic reactions to your cool new bathroom products. How about having some basic soaps and shampoos on hand in the housekeeping department in case someone can’t fully enjoy the in-room product? Those guests will be happy you care about their needs and how much does it cost to have a box of hypo-allergenic amenities around anyway? Another upside is you don’t have to see me ugly-ing up your conference center with a face full of itchy hives.
Bathroom Light
Recently at the Fairmont Turnberry Isle I noticed that small bathroom mirror typically used for extreme face close-ups had a much better use than showing me just how clogged my pores can get. A light ran around the rim of the mirror that while subtle, was also bright enough that it was doing double duty illuminating the bathroom during the wee hours of the night. That means I didn’t have to waste electricity leaving the bathroom light on to better find my way to the toilet at 3:00 am. It’s a great idea that improves the guest experience while also providing a solid ROI.
Sinks
Believe it or not, even the lowly sink can be a place of constant consternation. Now I’m not talking about the sink basin, but the faucet. In way too many hotels the faucet hangs extremely low and hardly juts out over the sink. That means every time I stick my hand under the water flow my hands are touching porcelain. I think about all those dirty hands that got there before me and water always splashes all over the countertop. This just makes it annoying for me to clean my hands and housekeeping has to mop up a lot of excess water. Here’s a radical notion: Why not spend the couple of bucks needed to have a faucet a couple of inches longer and hangs over the center (and incidentally deepest part) of the sink to avoid these problems. Bonus: Less towels will be used by folks cleaning up water and housekeeping won’t have to spend as much time mopping up messes.
Soap
What’s going on with this move to square soap? Now that everyone is beefing up their bathroom amenities, someone seems to have made the decision that square soap equates to luxury. I hate to break it to them, it doesn’t. Here’s the rub , if you’re looking to get a good lather going, all those straight edges make it much more difficult to roll the soap evenly around. And once you get those pesky edges rounded off, housekeeping seems to take it at as sign to replace the bar with a new one. How about leaving the old one and giving us a new one just in case we’d like it. Also, do us a favor and stick to the round stuff, if possible.
Bathroom Amenity Type Size
A good portion of the population is getting older and with aging comes weaker eyes. Mine still happen to be under 40 – for now -- and are working pretty well. Except, that is, when reading labels on shampoo, conditioner and lotion bottles. I have yet to see a bottle where it’s easy to read what’s inside. Either the word ‘shampoo’ is written in micro-type like you’d see as an anti-counterfeit measure on a $100 bill or it’s written in a semi-clear white font that’s the exact color as the shampoo inside. Here’s a tip: Increase the font size that tells us the product we are using. Or at least use a color for the lettering that’s in contrast to whatever is in that bottle.
Phones
I know it’s a necessary evil to achieve a four diamond rating, but really it’s gross. It’s quite likely this is the dirtiest place in the entire hotel, and does anyone really have business that is so pressing they can’t wait until they are out of there? I know this is AAA and Mobil’s fault. But seriously, this is plain gross.
TV
The best luxury I’ve ever seen in the bathroom has got to be the television. There is nothing cooler than taking a shower while watching “Deadliest Catch” on Discovery Channel or even watching those boring talking heads on CNN explain to us the latest nuances on a news story no one would have cared about before the 24-hour news channel era. The in-bathroom television experience makes the whole hotel stay much more enjoyable. And another benefit –especially for that guy banging on the wall in the room next to mine – is I don’t have to turn up the volume of the main television to get a whisper of sound to keep me company when I shave. With the rapid drop in flat screen television costs, it’s getting cheaper than ever to install this amenity in four and five star hotel rooms. I haven’t heard much discussion on this phenomenon yet, but I expect to see a rapid adoption of this amenity in the next five years.
Bye-Bye Bathtubs
Hotels that focus predominantly on the business traveler are getting rid of the bathtub in increasing frequency. Bravo! While it may make sense to keep a few on hand I do not know many business travelers – male or female-- that like to take a bath on the road. The only notable exception is the move by many properties to include both a shower and an oversized bathtub with water jets. The days of the grungy slippery bathtub are coming to end. It’s OK to celebrate its demise; your guests won’t miss it.
|
 |
|
