Designing the perfect hotel room: the bathtub

Specifying the ideal hotel shower consumed two lengthy blog posts. My hope is that the tub proves simpler, but we shall see.

Let's do the easy parts first: All the towels, for this and the shower and the rest of the bathroom, should be from the same source: Liddell linens, as I mentioned in the shower post. A large number of towels, at least three sets of both the normal and the huge size, should also be easily reachable from the tub, as should washcloths. Finally, the tub should share with the shower the traits of having built-in drains all around it, so any overflow trickles quietly away, and a large exit mat that is comfortable and heavily absorbent, perhaps in part by being over a fine mesh drain.

Now, to the specifics of the tub itself. A large, Japanese-style soaking style would be best, one in which you can fill it so high that a tall person can easily have the water reach his or her neck. It should be big enough for two large people (or four very friendly normal ones) to be comfortable in it. If two people are in it, each should be able to lean back and relax. We're talking at least six feet long by four feet wide. If you're alone and want to stretch out, you should be able to do so.

Yes, this design means you could drown in it. A waiver of liability for the tub and shower should be part of what you must sign upon check-in.

To fill this beast, you should have four faucets, each capable of pounding out so much water that you would have trouble holding your hand under one. The hot water must, of course, be unlimited; as with the shower, point-of-contact heating would be best.

For those who are worried about the eco implications of all the water I'm consuming, my dream hotel is, of course, using solar power to clean and reuse all gray water.

Jets, lots of them and at different heights, are mandatory. All four sides should have jets that could hit at least your lower and upper back, as well as your legs. They should be easily controlled from buttons on any of a set of four diagrams within comfortable reach of either occupant.

The surface of the tub should be heated so that when you get in, you never experience cold if you don't want it.

An HD TV, with music channels and built-in speakers providing surround sound, should be viewable from either position without having to crane your neck; yes, this means two TVs, one above either end of the tub. You should be able to dock your iPod to the same sound system. The same waterproof touch pad that manages the jets should control them.

All along one side of the tub should run a soft shelf on which you can put your drink or book, as well as hand towels for drying off before picking up said book.

To enter the tub, you should be able to walk up steps at one end or just step over the tub's lip. The steps should have handholds on either end and be non-slip.

I've had tubs that hit some of the high points of this one in a few hotels, notably in an otherwise unremarkable establishment in Memphis and in the Grand Hyatt Roppongi Hills in Tokyo, but I've never come close enough to satisfy me.

Now, back to you, other travelers and interested readers: What would you change or add?

Designing the perfect hotel room: the shower, part 2

I received a lot of comments and email messages about my first crack at designing the perfect hotel room shower, and many of them included valuable improvements. I then improved on some of the improvements. So, to complete the shower, I list here, in no particular order, the additional requirements for it:

The shower door should not in any way conflict with the bathroom door or any of the rest of the bathroom.

If the shower door swings out, there must be enough room that it cannot interfere with the main bathroom door, the sink and counter area, or anything else.

The mirror should start at four feet high.

A five-foot-tall person who wants to check her/his face in the mirror should be able to do so without getting up on tippy toes.

Bars or hand grips all around.

Hey, we can be safe and pretty, too!

Operating the shower heads must be easy.

Using them should be either so easy that anyone can do it or well documented enough that infrequent visitors can figure it out easily--while in the shower. Related to this is that the marking of hot and cold should be obvious and consistent on every single head.

The shower mat should be large and safe and highly absorbent.

When you step outside the shower, you should step onto a soft, warm (via the heated floors), absorbent mat or towel that will not skid. I like the idea of a fine soft grating over a drain, or even a not quite so soft bamboo-type drain, but whatever it is, it should not move when you step on it.

The lighting should be bright and thorough but adjustable from within the shower.

The default should be a completely brightly lit shower, but for those who want it dimmer (and, let's face it, with a shower this awesome more than a few couples and/or groups are going to want to play in it), the controls should be easily accessible while you're in the shower. Yeah, I know that poses some tricky electrical problems, but having seen the pools and light shows in Las Vegas, and in particular those at Cirque's O, I'm confident we can deal with those issues.

No matter how long you're in the shower, no water should escape.

We're talking multiple excellent drains and a nice lip around the edge, at a minimum. Maybe even small drains around the shower's perimeter.

It must provide a "steam shower" option.

If you want to take some steam in your room, you should be able to do so, right there in your lovely shower.

Venting should be powerful and adjustable from within the shower.

If you don't want as much (or even any) steam, you should be able to have the vents remove it.

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I'm hereby closing the shower design. Next up (possibly after a movie review and other random stuff): the tub! Then, the counters and sinks, and finally the rest of the bathroom.

Yeah, this is going to take me a while, but with a goal as lofty as the perfect hotel room, what would you expect?

Designing the perfect hotel room: the shower

I travel a fair amount, so I end up spending a lot of nights in hotels. I've stayed in everything from sketchy rooms at motels with numbers in their names to a two-thousand-square-foot suite at the Ritz-Carlton in Chicago and the Julia Child room at the Inn At Little Washington. Many of these rooms have been amazing, but none has achieved what for me would be perfection.

So, I'm going to design my own perfect luxury hotel room, in installments, as the mood strikes me. Then, all I need is a company to implement these plans. I won't even charge for the design services.

I won't be considering price. I'm describing an ideal; I expect it to be expensive.

I'm starting with the shower because it's one part of the room I will use every day.

The space itself should be larger than most hotels provide; six feet wide and six feet deep will do. There should be a place to sit at the end, not because I'll use it--I won't--but because it will appeal to others and it's a good place to put shower supplies.

Speaking of such repositories for supplies, there should be at least four large ones, two low and two high, to accommodate people of different sizes and preferences. Each should be able to comfortably hold small bottles of shampoo and conditioner (which I don't carry but recognize many do), a bar of soap, and a razor.

Built into one wall stretching from about five feet high to about six and a half feet high should be a fog-resistant mirror for shaving.

The floor and any solid walls should be tile, preferably larger pieces, and the floor tile should be heated. (Yes, I know that's tricky with water, but it's solvable.)

I mentioned solid walls because sometimes showers have glass walls. I don't care one way or the other about that, so I leave that to the implementers.

What is vital is that the space provide multiple shower heads. In addition to two large shower heads at about seven feet high, the room should provide a detachable shower head (not for me, again, but for others) and at least four others, one hitting your body at about chest height from each direction. All should be adjustable in both height and water pressure.

Water pressure is a key issue for the shower. The water stream should be intense enough that if on full you fear you may lose skin as you look like Shatner and Nimoy faking G forces. The hotel will need you to sign a waiver of liability for the damage that water pressure can do to you. Sign it and enjoy.

You'll also need to free the hotel of liability for the heat, because the water should be able to be very hot--and stay hot even if you're in the shower for a few hours. Point-of-contact heaters would be best.

The shower heads should be large, powerful (as I noted above), and in all but the case of one of the two overheads, adjustable, so you can choose your favorite type of water flow. Why two overhead nozzles? So you can have one that is a rain-type head, but with huge water pressure, and one more conventional head.

The door should have a rod--a heated one, of course--on the outside with enough space to leat you hang two large towels without them touching.

The towels should all be Liddell, of course, with at least four each per person of wash cloth, hand towel, normal shower towel, and beach towel. I leave color to the designers, but ideally the room would be both warm and cheerful.

The closest I've come to this ideal shower was in a small suite at Caesar's Palace, where the shower was all glass but had five shower heads, enough water pressure that I never had any nozzle on full, and so much hot water that after my first, half-hour shower, I couldn't tell any difference in heat from when I'd started.

I know I've omitted one shower item: the toiletries. I haven't discussed them because I have no idea what's good or what's not, so personally I don't care. So, at the risk of sounding sexist, let me say on this subject the one thing that would matter to me: The toiletries should be so exotic, so great, so expensive, and so amazing that any woman who cared about such things and who was in the room or in another room on the same trip would gush about them and steal them all to take home for her own use and maybe, just maybe, for giving to a few select friends whom she deemed worthy.

One other point about the supplies: The hotel should have tons of them, at least three complete sets in the bathroom, and it should happily replenish all of them every day when they mysteriously vanish.

Just build their cost into the bill. It's not like this is going to be a cheap room.

Other travelers and interested readers: What would you change or add?