Ian Welsh

Are hotels removing stuff from rooms? I investigated. 🚪 Doors: Yes. A lot of newer midprice and boutique hotels now use frosted glass, a sliding barn door, or a curtain. Some put the sink out in the room and the toilet behind glass. Hotels told the Wall Street Journal that doors are expensive and a maintenance headache. Sadie Lowell started a site called Bring Back Doors after a London hotel put her and her dad in a twin room with no bathroom door, and she's gotten about 800 submissions. 🛁 Bathtubs: Yes, for about a decade now. In 2015, Marriott told owners of its Marriott Hotels to put walk-in showers in 75% of bathrooms, including every king room. By 2019, almost a quarter of US hotel rooms had no tub. A shower takes about 9 square feet vs. 13 for a tub, and it's faster to clean. 🪑 Desks: No. They tried, and they came back. Marriott pulled desks out of a lot of rooms in 2015, and guests complained right away. A year later, Marriott's new room design had a desk again, on wheels. 🧹 Daily housekeeping: Mostly yes. Hilton stopped cleaning most US rooms every day by default in 2021. In 2023, it brought daily cleaning back at its luxury, full-service, and lifestyle hotels, and most of its other US hotels went to every other day. 🧴 Little shampoo bottles: Yes. Marriott announced in 2019 that it would swap them for big pump bottles, getting rid of about 500 million small ones a year, and California banned them at hotels with more than 50 rooms in 2023. 🍫 Minibars: Mostly yes. The Marriott Marquis in Times Square started pulling most of its minibars back in 2004. A lot of hotels now leave you an empty fridge and sell snacks in a market by the front desk. 📖 Bibles: Some. 95% of US hotels had a Bible or other religious book in the room in 2006, and 79% did in 2017. Marriott left them out of its Moxy and Edition hotels. 🍿 Microwaves: Mostly no. Nicer hotels never really had them in the room. Budget and extended-stay hotels still do, and Residence Inn and Homewood Suites still have kitchens. Some hotels in between have pulled them because of smells and fire risk and put one in the breakfast room instead. The desks and the daily cleaning came back after guests complained, so I think doors have a shot. Tubs, I doubt. If you're sharing a room with a coworker or your parents, check the bathroom photos before you book.