The Secret to Great Hotel Bathroom Design
Offering guests a stay in a luxury getaway is the ultimate goal of any ambitious hotelier. And the very shrewdest do one thing better than most – they put the bathroom centre stage. How do they do that, exactly? Well, before we reveal that, let’s just think about the function of the bathroom in a four- or five-star hotel.
So what makes a beautiful hotel bathroom?
Haute cuisine, spa treatments and beautiful views are, of course, all well and good but there’s no room more important when you’re staying away from home than the bathroom. It’s the one place that needs to suggest to guests: “this is your personal space.”
A good hotel bathroom will barely be noticeable – it will function so perfectly that the guests barely register that it’s so well designed. But a truly luxurious hotel bathroom will leave clients slack-jawed with delight, whether they’re visiting for business or pleasure.
That means, of course, that it’s not just a case of making sure the shampoo, soap, towels and toilet paper are regularly restocked. That’s just the very basics, along with making sure the bathroom is spotlessly clean.
A gorgeous hotel bathroom, rather, flows from the rest of the space. It is an integral part of the interior design. And it will offer an experience that’s as important to the guest’s stay as any other element of the hotel’s offering.
We’ll show you the secret to doing that brilliantly below. First, let’s look at the essential components of a luxury hotel bathroom.
Freestanding bathtubs are the way to go
Whenever we talk design options with a private domestic client, we always tell them: “If you have the space, put in a freestanding tub.” It just makes all the difference in terms of elevating the bathroom to that next level of luxury. And it’s possibly even more important in terms of hotel bathroom design.
Guests want to feel that sense of opulence in their luxury hotel stay. They want the sense that their bathroom experience is at least as relaxing and rewarding as it would be at home if not significantly more so. Don’t forget, some of these guests will be paying a pretty penny to treat themselves to something special that goes above and beyond their regular life.
A stunning, freestanding, angled solid surface bathtub will feel beautifully adequate to the most discerning hotel guests and utterly magnificent to those who rarely get the chance to experience such levels of luxury. And the tub is actually an important part of our secret to hotel bathroom design, which you’ll soon see.
A walk-in shower that flows from the space
If a hotel bathroom has enough space for both a bathtub and a shower, then it’s advisable to have both when providing for guests who demand four- or five-star treatment. If not, we would suggest that it’s more important to have a shower than a tub, simply because it’s more functional and quicker (especially important for business users).
An over-tub shower is all well and good for the functionality of the home environment but, in a luxury hotel bathroom, it’s just not going to cut it. The thing is, it’s all about creating wow factor, so the shower needs to really stand out.
You’re looking for a shower tray that flows naturally from the room. It shouldn’t feel like any kind of effort to step into the shower. Guests should just be able to walk under the stunning waterfall shower tap, turn on the lever and enjoy the most luxurious shower experience of their lives. And, if there’s room for two, well… even better.
But is that the secret to great hotel bathroom design? Well, it’s certainly a part of it, but we’re coming to that.
The best materials for luxury hotel bathrooms
Most hoteliers’ first thought when designing their bathrooms is a rather basic, if not unreasonable, one: wipe clean. Makes absolute sense. Even the best hotels on the planet need to think like this, because hygiene is just – if not more – important than aesthetics.
So, the ultimate luxury hotel bathrooms are both beautiful and kept clean with barely any effort whatsoever. Which means one thing – Corian®.
Alabama Wall Mounted Double Washbasin
What is Corian®?
Before we finally reveal our secret to luxury hotel bathroom design, let’s take a look at the original solid surface material, developed by DuPont in the 1960s. Corian® is one of the most popular materials in hotel design because it’s both 100% nonporous, making it the most sanitary choice for the bathroom, but also stunningly beautiful and incredibly hardwearing.
Somehow both chalky and creamy in texture, Corian® feels like nothing else, either. It gives that instant top-of-the-range bathroom feeling that luxury hotel designers are hoping to achieve, which is why so many of them now choose it.
Is marble a good material for hotel bathrooms?
We’re coming towards the big reveal of our hotel bathroom interior design tip. And we imagine some of you were thinking that “incorporate marble” was it.
Well, whilst there’s no doubt that marble is the height of opulence and, so, the natural choice for a hotelier looking to achieve the ultimate high-end finish, there’s a bit more to it than that.
The decision as to whether or not to incorporate marble, in fact, really all depends on how much faith hoteliers invest in their ancillary staff and guests to keep it looking spotless.
Unlike Corian® and other solid surfaces, marble is somewhat more porous, so you have to be incredibly vigilant in terms of cleaning it and in terms of ensuring that guests treat it with respect.
The best hotels will, of course, do just that and they’ll make a point of doing it so that they stand out above and beyond their rather more functional competitors. After all, there’s little more breath-taking than a beautiful marble washbasin taking centre stage beneath a full-width wall mirror.
Which leads perfectly onto the secret of great interior design for hotel bathrooms.
It’s all about the balance between privacy and openness
Maybe you thought we were going to trick you by saying, ‘there is no secret, silly,’ but no… this really is it.
The delicate balance between that wonderful sense of privacy that the bathroom gives you and a daring sense of openness is what really makes the ultimate hotel bathroom.
A penthouse or presidential suite at the very top of the hotel will look out onto a landscape far above the naked eye of passers-by below, so you can afford to take some chances. Or if your hotel bathrooms look out onto uninterrupted natural space, you can do the same.
A freestanding bathtub situated next to a giant, sky-scraping or woodland-facing window allows the bather to soak in the view as well as the water. The shower will likely take up the rear wall of the space so as not to feel too exposed but will allow the guest a pure, uninterrupted view of the world outside.
It’s all about creating a sense of freedom without vulnerability. You might even say that this is the perfect description of what it means to enjoy a luxury lifestyle. The knowledge that you can be, well yes… naked as the day you were born and yet feel completely impervious to the world outside.
Don’t believe us? Then just check Luxury Travel Expert’s “Top 10 most amazing hotel bathrooms in the world” for a multitude of examples of this phenomenon. It’s a simple way to transform a bathroom from average to opulent by layout alone and it really works.
It just has to be the right kind of hotel bathroom.