The other day when I mentioned hotel showers with no place to put your soap or shampoo, I should have expected a long, informative message from my pal of many years, Joe Brancatelli. Joe knows more than any person alive about airlines and travel — as you'll see…
You asked about hotel showers. First of all, you should know that hotel bathrooms are undergoing massive changes. The old "four point" bathroom (tub, shower, vanity, toilet) is actually disappearing. People don't really bathe in hotels now so hotels are switching to shower-only arrangements. Which, of course, allows them to design fancy showers and use less space for the bathroom, too. I wrote about it here.
Now, of course, that doesn't really answer your question: Why design without shelves for things like shampoo and soap? Most places do, but, occasionally, you will find them omitted. And the answer is that no one was back-checking the designer and no one gave the designer a punch list of what they wanted in the shower. The designer will show the fixtures (i.e. handheld, rainwater heads, etc.) but the hotel owner is rarely going to be impressed by looking at the shelves. So many designers won't show them and if they aren't specifically asked for them, they may not install them. Ruins the look, don't you know…
Now I'll give you two good hotel-bath stories.
The Opposite House is a glorious hotel in Beijing, designed by one of those artsy-fartsy Japanese minimalist designers. I checked in shortly after it opened and found two anomalies: No shelves in the wood-lined shower, which was otherwise sybaritic. And the sink, also made of wood, was so shallow that even a gentle stream of water splashed up and caught your pants exactly where you wanted not to be caught.
I arranged a walkthrough with the general manager (an Aussie), who had been with the hotel from the construction stage. As we went through all the design aspects, he says "And, of course, you know all about the shower by now. We're very proud of them." When I mentioned the lack of shelving, he sheepishly admitted that the Japanese designer, in his drive for minimalism, decided they weren't needed. They back-filled by finding some lovely teak stools and had them placed in the shower so that guests could at least put things on the stool.
But when we got to the sink, I explained how they splash your pants at the most inopportune spot. The GM looked at me, disgusted, and said: "Yes, I do hear that from guests, but they're wrong."
Imagine a GM saying that. All his guests are telling him his fancy wooden sink was too shallow and soiling their slacks and his answer was only: "They're wrong."
What do you say to that?
Other interesting tale: In the late 1990s, I was in a newly opened Marriott hotel in Moscow. It was a big deal, right on what had been called Gorky Street and just a short walk from Red Square. The place was wonderful. Everyone spoke English. The staff was incredibly well trained. And you may remember the old AT&T Merlin phones that had voice mail. But one problem: The shower curtain kept collapsing in a heap. Four or five times a day. Why? The GM had ordered incredibly ornate curtains, but the bathroom designer used awful spring-tension rods that couldn't hold the weight. As he said: "Who knew you had to ask for the specs on the shower-curtain rod?" You can read that story here. Any help?
I guess. So the answer to my question as to why someone designs a hotel shower with no little shelf in it is that the people who design these things are sometimes stupid. Makes sense, I guess. That's probably the answer to most mysteries of life. Thanks, Joe.