Hotels Are Getting Rid of Bathroom Doors and Guests Are Furious

You check into a stylish hotel, drop your bags on the bed, and go to find the bathroom—only to realize there’s no real door. Maybe it’s a glass cube, a sliding panel that never quite closes, or an open alcove that spills light and sound straight into the room. What used to be the most private space in a hotel stay is suddenly on display.

This isn’t just a one-off design misstep. In a Wall Street Journal travel feature, reporter Katie Deighton described how guests are “waving goodbye to the luxury of a fully-closable opaque barrier” as more hotels swap solid doors for barn sliders, glass panes, or nothing at all. For many guests, that shift feels less like modern luxury and more like an invasion of basic dignity.

The backlash has been building for years. Writing in The Daily Telegraph, columnist Catherine Nikas-Boulos asked bluntly, “May I present… the bathroom with no doors?” and wondered when couples decided they needed to watch each other use the toilet in the name of style. As more big-name brands adopt the look, guests are starting to push back loudly.

How ‘Open-Concept’ Bathrooms Took Over Hotel Design

So how did we get here? Lifestyle writer Rosie Spinks traced the trend in Quartz, noting that “open plan” or “deconstructed” bathrooms started in edgy boutique properties like The Standard before spreading to mainstream chains. Think freestanding tubs in the middle of the room, showers visible from the bed, and vanity areas that simply bleed into the sleeping space.

Architect Mike Suomi, principal at Stonehill Taylor, told Quartz that design teams use these layouts to make shrinking guest rooms feel bigger and more spa-like. Opening the bathroom to the bedroom lets more natural light in, reduces the amount of solid wall needed, and creates what looks like one continuous, high-end space. It also cuts construction costs: fewer framed walls, fewer swinging doors, and less hardware to maintain.

Budget and efficiency play a big role too. In a feature carried by Hotel.Report, design leaders explained that glass panels and partial walls are cheaper to build and easier for housekeepers to clean, especially when staff have only about 30 minutes per room. From a spreadsheet perspective, the bathroom door starts to look optional, even if guests don’t see it that way.

Guests Say the ‘Peep Show’ Bathrooms Go Too Far

Guests are making it clear they never signed up for exhibitionist bathrooms, sharing frustrations online in Reddit and TikTok. In a post on the r/travel subreddit, one guest shared a photo of a toilet visible through a wooden cut-out beside the bed and asked, “Who wants to watch their companion on the toilet?” In another subreddit r/HGTV, a commenter summed up the sentiment: “Doors are our friends. Bathrooms without doors are just insane.”

The complaints aren’t just about modesty. People traveling with parents, teenage kids, friends, or colleagues say open bathrooms create genuinely awkward situations. A piece in The Sun described guests so uncomfortable with doorless hotel designs that they sneaked off to use the swimming pool restrooms for privacy. Los Angeles comedian Fahim Anwar told the Washington Post he hit his limit after yet another half-partitioned shower flooded the floor, saying, “Enough is enough. This must be addressed… I am so tired of the lack of doors.”

Industry voices admit the tension. David Eisen, vice president and editor in chief of Hotels Magazine, called the bathroom “a sanctuary” and “the one place in a hotel room where you want to feel like you’re private and alone.” Yet guests like Sadie Lowell, profiled by the Wall Street Journal, have felt compelled to start “Bring Back Doors” campaigns, emailing hotels to ask whether their bathrooms actually close and maintaining online lists of properties that don’t make the cut.

Will Hotels Finally Listen to the Backlash?

Some in the design world say the pendulum is starting to swing back, at least a little. In the Hotel.Report article, architect Greg Keffer explained that layouts are evolving toward more discreet “bathhouse-style” spaces, where walls and curbs are minimized but the entire wet zone is still contained and private. Designer Margaret McMahon noted that partial glass doors and “gimmicky” fogged glass are already falling out of fashion as guests voice their discomfort.

Still, economics haven’t changed overnight. The Wall Street Journal reported that chains experimenting with partial partitions, barn doors, and glass see real savings in energy and build-out costs, especially as room footprints shrink and owners look for every possible efficiency. Some guests say they don’t care where the toilet is as long as the bed is comfortable, which gives brands just enough justification to keep pushing minimalist layouts.

For everyone else, the message is simple: bathroom privacy is not a luxury upgrade, it’s a baseline expectation. If you care about it, seasoned guests recommend checking photos and room descriptions before booking and, if you arrive to find a “peep show” bathroom, asking the front desk for a different room. The design experiment may have started as a stylish way to open up small spaces, but guests are reminding hotels that sometimes the most modern amenity is still a solid, opaque door you can close.