How to Create Spa-Like Bathrooms in Hospitality Applications
January 22, 2021
3 Ways to Create Upscale, Spa-like Bathrooms in Hospitality Applications
The hospitality industry prides itself on providing the very best experience for hotel guests. In the months and years to come, hotel bathroom design will be all about helping people forget the devastating impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The ultimate goal is to create upscale, luxurious, spa-like bathrooms to foster a sense of comfort and to help hotel guests manage stress.
Let’s take a look at four hotel bathroom features that increase luxury and help guests manage stress in upscale hotels and health clubs.
1. Tub-to-Shower Conversions 
Tub-to-shower conversions have become a standard in the hospitality industry; as a matter of fact, hotels can’t get rid of bathtubs fast enough. Hotel bathrooms are getting more spacious, and shower footprints are increasing. In 2021, the shower will take center stage and, because showers are gaining space, built-in bathtubs are being removed.
Finding a cost-effective and efficient way to convert a large number of hotel bathtubs remains an all-too-common challenge for commercial building contractors.
QuickDrain USA tub-to-shower conversion kits can streamline the process in hospitality applications. The kit helps contractors adapt to numerous commercial jobsite irregularities when converting conventional bathtubs into popular spa-like curbless or curbed shower retreats. These irregularities include unexpected plumbing configurations and structural constraints.
The kit’s multiple-SKU components and standardized options speed installation and minimize a renovation’s impact on customers, making the system especially popular for hospitality remodeling projects that need to maximize their return on investment. Contractors can select from several standard linear drain options and then order pre-sloped shower pan kits to achieve near-universal adaptability. Tile-ready and site-sizable pan kits enable installers to contend with a full-range of rough-in configurations, including waste connections that are above-the-floor, flush or at-the-surface, through-the-floor or depressed.
General contractor Turner Construction used QuickDrain’s tub-to-shower conversion kits to convert 404 old cast iron tubs to modern showers at the Four Seasons Hotel Houston, reducing installation time and labor costs. Read the case study here.
2. Smart Bathroom Technology
Smart bathroom technology is already becoming more prevalent to foster a sense of comfort. Such features might include digital mirrors and smart toilets.
From mirrors with automatic, built-in LED lighting options or fog resistance to high-tech mirrors incorporating built-in clocks, TV panels or digital assistant-connected features, the bathroom mirror has gone way beyond a simple place to shave or check your look.
Bathroom mirrors with automatic sensors light up as your face approaches the mirror. Some high-tech mirrors include touch-screen controls; some are controlled by remotes, while others are responsive to voice commands.
Meanwhile, today’s smart toilets can make hotel guests feel like royalty, with heated seats, warm-water cleansing and warm-air drying. Some models are created with sensors that activate the flushing mechanism: When a guest moves away from the toilet, it flushes automatically. Alternatively, the guest can wave a hand in front of the toilet to get it to flush.
3. Large-Format Tile and Wetrooms
Large-format tile is becoming increasingly popular in the hospitality industry, driven by the need to reduce the number of grout lines where mold, mildew and grime can occur. In particular, fewer grout lines eases maintenance within hotel showers, which is crucial to enhance cleanliness.
QuickDrain’s linear drain, ShowerLine, delivers this desired lower maintenance, because it can be integrated with larger-format tiles. Using large tiles throughout the room, from the floor into the shower, offers the added appeal of making a small bath appear larger.
Hotel bath designers also appreciate not being handcuffed to certain tile sizes that best work with a center-point drain that slopes in all directions. In sharp contrast, linear drains open up new tile opportunities. These drains expand options for designers, making it easier to construct shower floors using larger ceramic, porcelain and stone tiles, as well as solid surface materials like marble, granite and engineered stone products.
To create luxurious “wet-room” spa baths in upscale hotels and health clubs, curbless showers are becoming increasingly popular, thanks to the way they marry style and functionality.
The ultimate stress-reducing hotel bath mimics a sleek European design with larger showers, oversize tiles, glass shower doors that visually extend the space, and smart technology. Curbless showers or wet rooms, uninterrupted by any barrier, are especially well-suited to this clean look, particularly when designed with QuickDrain’s unobtrusive linear drain systems.