Where Have All the Hotel Bathroom Doors Gone?

"On a recent two-week trip to Japan with my fiancé - six cities, six hotels - every stay was gorgeous and perfectly appointed. We wanted for nothing. Except, in most cases, a proper bathroom door. Instead, we spent the better part of two weeks making accidental eye contact through frosted glass and translucent panels while one of us was otherwise occupied. A design choice, apparently. A test of intimacy, definitely."

""Closing off an often windowless room to natural light means guests will run up energy bills and leave maintenance with more lightbulb-changing work. Concrete and wood are expensive. Door handles jam and break," the report reads. "The Americans with Disabilities Act requires a door frame wide enough for a wheelchair. Many of the early modifications had drawbacks. Hotel architects installed pocket doors that don't require space to swin"

A travel experience across six Japanese cities revealed that many hotel rooms lack fully closable bathroom doors, often featuring frosted glass, translucent panels or partial barriers that allow visual contact. Hotels increasingly install sliding barn doors, curtains, strategically placed walls and other replacements that fail to contain noise, odors or sightlines. Sharing a room with a partner reduces embarrassment, but such designs create awkwardness with non-partner roommates. The shift toward partial barriers is driven largely by cost, energy and maintenance considerations, and by accessibility and practical design trade-offs like pocket doors with drawbacks.

Read at InsideHook