It can be frustrating seeing change for change’s sake in the world. To be more specific, changes that are said to be done in the name of innovation and design, but are in truth ways for companies to save a buck.
One example that is getting attention is the bathroom doors in hotels… or the lack thereof, actually. One TikToker has had enough and has taken it upon herself to save regular bathroom doors in hotels and to point out why open-space bathrooms and glass doors just don’t cut it.
On her @bring_back_doors TikTok account, Sadie has a collection of videos highlighting the flaws in hotel bathroom designs, with the most prominent being the lack of a regular door to the bathroom. In one viral TikTok, Sadie discussed a hotel that reached out to her, explaining that they have “foggy” glass doors to their bathroom to provide privacy. She was quick to point out that it still doesn’t provide adequate privacy. “Yes you can see through these,” Sadie said, adding that “glass doors do not close properly.”
The comments rallied behind Sadie’s bathroom-door crusade
The commenters joined in with Sadie, demanding the return of solid, closing, and lockable doors to bathrooms in hotels:
“I HATE how hotels started thinking going to the bathroom is a shared experience.”
“I hate how you can’t turn the bathroom light on without disturbing the other person in the room.”
“The foggy ones are almost worse, you just get a hazy fleshy silhouette hunched over on the crapper like some kind of sack of ham.”
“I just don’t get it, NOBODY wants this, even couples. I won’t be more likely to book two separate rooms for me and my friend/sibling/parent, I’ll just book another hotel.”
“Love this campaign, I do not want a romantic weekend listening to the other person poo.”
A great way to save a buck—er, I mean, ‘create a modern look’
As many commenters asked, why do hotels have glass doors — or, worse, no doors at all—in their bathrooms? Well, this has been a growing trend in modern hotels over the past decade as a means to create a sleek aesthetic and to allow glass partitions to bring more daylight into otherwise darker sections of the room.
At least that’s what’s being promoted to the customer. In reality, skimping on solid doors for glass ones or none at all gives the illusion that the room is bigger than it is while requiring fewer building materials. It does bring in more daylight, but mostly with the hope that you’ll cut down on electricity use for lights in an otherwise enclosed space. These reasons are also why some hotels don’t have solid walls around their bathroom areas at all.
TikTok · Bring Back Doors
Tired of the lack of privacy? Check out the database
To combat this trend, Sadie has developed a database at bringbackdoors.com for her and her followers to report which hotels have true, solid, private bathrooms in their accommodations and which ones do not, so people can properly plan where to stay and have true privacy during their most vulnerable moments.
“I get it, you can save on material costs and make the room feel bigger, but what about my dignity?,” Sadie wrote on her website. “I can’t save that, when you don’t include a bathroom door.”
Over time, the hope is that sanity and dignity can be restored as hotels realize that their glass “features” don’t have any real benefit when they don’t allow basic privacy.
