Nowhere to hide (or why glass is not enough)

Some hotels, such as the Kempinski Mall of the Emirates, have adopted open plan bathroom designs.

Hotel industry expert Guy Wilkinson hopes there is nobody watching as he explores the business side of the new trend in hotel room designs.

It may not seem such an important feature of a hotel at first glance, but many hospitality experts consider a satisfying bathroom experience to be one of the keys to achieving mellow guests and high levels of repeat business.

The availability of a 'power shower', for example, is among the cornerstones of some mid-scale chains' marketing campaigns, along with other essential offerings such as a decent mattress and a hearty or even a free breakfast.

A somewhat scandalous development has been taking place in bathroom design within the GCC over the past year or two, with Dubai spearheading the movement towards greater freedom of expression. What, you may ask, is there to express in a bathroom?

Well, the answer is, yourself! Several extremely chic new hotels in Dubai have taken the brave step of introducing fully glazed and even open-plan bathrooms, much to the joy of exhibitionists and the alarm of the more conservative among us.

The pioneer was the Park Hyatt Dubai, which opened in 2005 with wonderful 52m² 'standard' rooms with a twist. In many cases, the wide, spacious bedrooms have a large picture window overlooking Dubai Creek.

As in many hotel rooms, the bed itself faces the window and backs onto the bathroom wall. The difference is that there is a large open window into the bathroom in the wall above the bed, allowing guests to luxuriate in the tub while gazing at the sunset over the Creek.

The bath tub sits boldly in the middle of a large open-plan bathroom with no door, while the shower and the toilet are in separate cubicles at the back, which do have doors.

Due to concern expressed early in the hotel's history, mainly by Arab and Muslim guests, the open windows above the bed heads were enhanced with the addition of attractive wooden shutters or blinds. The main bathroom area, however, while generally hidden behind the bathroom wall, remains unprotected by a door.

The Al Manzil and Qamardeen hotels, which opened last year in the upcoming ‘Downtown' district in the shadow of the Burj Dubai, also have open-plan bathrooms. Measuring 36m² and 32m² respectively, these four-star rooms look much larger than they really are, thanks to the use of clear glass bathroom walls.

Al Manzil's standard rooms have a transparent enclosure for the bath tubs, together with frosted glass shower and toilet cubicles. Qamardeen has a transparent bathroom, containing separate bath tub (Queen rooms only), shower and toilet cubicles.

The developer, Emaar, together with the operator, Southern Sun, have wisely built roller blinds into the clear glass walls, so that privacy can be more or less maintained by shy bathers and onlookers alike.

The latest properties to launch with glass bathrooms are the hip InterContinental and Crowne Plaza hotels at Dubai Festival City, which have standard rooms of 45m² and 34m² respectively, and interiors that can only be described as sexy.

The Crowne Plaza rooms, in particular, are notable in making the huge, ceiling-height bathroom window a feature right next to the bed - almost like an alternative to the TV screen - although again, blinds are provided for those guests who value their privacy.

Were this phenomenon in the West, this subject would probably not be newsworthy. But here in the Middle East, it appears that these hotel bathrooms have become a symbol of the very state of Arabic society.

At the same time as we are the global MTV generation, living in the age of Oprah, we are also residents in a region in which ancient traditions run very deep, not least time-honoured religious codes.

For Westerners, it may be quite normal for married couples to share every facet of intimacy, but for many Muslims, it is simply considered indecent. A bathroom design implies a culture, and here the availability of blinds in transparent showers suggests a deep dichotomy between old and new beliefs, conservative and liberal values.

For modern, outward-looking destinations in the Gulf, devoting significant government resources to creating major inbound tourist markets, it surely makes sense to create international-style hotels that are at the cutting edge of interior design.

But equally, such properties should surely also be places in which local guests can feel at ease, and not be forced to behave in ways that are quite at odds with how they act at home.

These are the days not just of glass bathrooms, but also of non-smoking floors, ladies-only floors, Japanese rooms and not least, Islamic hotels. The latter are modern concepts built on courtesy to guests and respect for their preferences. Is now not the time to take a fully inclusive attitude, and create the first ‘Islamic rooms' within Western-style hotels, especially those located in our region?

Guy Wilkinson is a director of Viability, a hospitality and property consulting firm in Dubai. For more information, e-mail: This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it .

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