WEBVTT - Why are public bathrooms designed so poorly? (Devan Design Week) 0:00:00.520 --> 0:00:03.720 What's up. It's Devin. We want to hear from y'all. 0:00:03.880 --> 0:00:09.119 We are working on an episode about airplane etiquette. We 0:00:09.160 --> 0:00:12.040 want to know is it okay for you to recline 0:00:12.080 --> 0:00:15.600 your seat on an airplane? Leave us a voicemail at 0:00:15.600 --> 0:00:18.079 the number in our show notes, or you can send 0:00:18.120 --> 0:00:20.960 us a voice memo to many noa Devin at gmail 0:00:21.000 --> 0:00:25.560 dot com. Keep it short and we may feature you 0:00:25.600 --> 0:00:29.920 in an upcoming episode. All right, after the break Devin 0:00:30.040 --> 0:00:46.920 Design Week two. I'm Manny Noah, and this is Devin 0:00:47.159 --> 0:00:49.040 and this is no such thing. The show where we 0:00:49.040 --> 0:00:51.880 set are our dumb arguments and yours by actually doing 0:00:51.880 --> 0:00:56.920 the research. On today's episode, our bathroom sensors actually racist. 0:01:00.240 --> 0:01:03.160 There's no no such thing, no such thing. 0:01:05.280 --> 0:01:09.400 Touch Thanks touch, Thank. 0:01:11.280 --> 0:01:11.560 Touch. 0:01:12.000 --> 0:01:24.800 Than All right, y'all, Welcome back to another edition of 0:01:24.880 --> 0:01:29.160 Devon Design Week, Devon Design Week two, as we call it. Yes, 0:01:29.400 --> 0:01:32.280 many people have been asking about it, So if you 0:01:32.319 --> 0:01:34.760 did not hear Devon Design Week one, go back and 0:01:34.800 --> 0:01:37.959 listen to that. But you know, I'll explain what we 0:01:38.040 --> 0:01:41.600 do here on Devin Design Week is a series where 0:01:41.640 --> 0:01:44.800 I complain about designs I hate, then we get to 0:01:44.840 --> 0:01:47.039 the bottom of why they are the way that they are. 0:01:50.440 --> 0:01:55.440 Episode two, it's all about the bathroom. Okay, we're gonna 0:01:55.440 --> 0:01:59.559 be talking about why bathroom sensors suck. We're gonna rank 0:01:59.680 --> 0:02:05.400 our favorite and least favorite bathroom locks. But first we're 0:02:05.440 --> 0:02:09.959 gonna dive into this phenomenon of hotels removing doors and 0:02:10.160 --> 0:02:12.000 walls from bathrooms. 0:02:12.160 --> 0:02:12.680 Disgusting. 0:02:13.280 --> 0:02:16.200 Okay, So if you're not someone who travels a lot, 0:02:16.440 --> 0:02:18.680 or you don't stay in hotels very often, you may 0:02:18.720 --> 0:02:20.760 be saying, Devin, what the are you talking about? 0:02:20.840 --> 0:02:23.000 WHOA they'd be saying, what the hell are. 0:02:22.919 --> 0:02:23.520 You talking about? 0:02:23.880 --> 0:02:24.040 Sir? 0:02:24.560 --> 0:02:26.320 Are you talking about? Please? 0:02:26.360 --> 0:02:29.200 Bleep these they're shooting their phone right now, kids listening 0:02:29.200 --> 0:02:29.400 to this? 0:02:30.120 --> 0:02:35.080 What do you mean that a bathroom doesn't have a 0:02:35.200 --> 0:02:38.959 door wall? All right? So this is a newish phenomenon 0:02:39.560 --> 0:02:46.000 in the hotel industry where they're creating these open concept bathrooms. Yep. Okay, 0:02:46.200 --> 0:02:48.880 there's a bunch of different varieties of these, which we'll 0:02:48.919 --> 0:02:53.000 talk about a bit later. But first, many you have 0:02:53.200 --> 0:02:59.800 experienced this open concept bathroom? Yeah? Irl, a few years ago, 0:03:00.120 --> 0:03:03.880 that's right, If I remember correctly, you and your current 0:03:03.919 --> 0:03:04.880 wife were. 0:03:06.080 --> 0:03:08.720 My current wife, current prior wife. 0:03:08.800 --> 0:03:12.560 Yeah, your wife now who At the time, you guys 0:03:12.600 --> 0:03:16.760 were not you were maybe starting to date, thinking about dating. 0:03:16.800 --> 0:03:19.440 It was very early stages, as they say in Island. 0:03:20.480 --> 0:03:23.079 It was early days, and you guys were in Miami. 0:03:23.560 --> 0:03:26.240 Here I'll tell you this. So here was the setup 0:03:26.240 --> 0:03:27.960 in the Hilltel room. You walk in the room, You've 0:03:27.960 --> 0:03:30.520 got your bed, obviously there's the bathroom without a door. 0:03:30.919 --> 0:03:35.080 But specifically they had this setup where in between the 0:03:35.120 --> 0:03:41.000 bed and the bathroom was this like silhouetted wall. And 0:03:41.040 --> 0:03:46.000 basically the point was that when your significant other was showering, 0:03:46.440 --> 0:03:50.520 you could see the silhouette of their body. And you know, 0:03:51.120 --> 0:03:54.560 our trip to Miami, that wasn't like so out of 0:03:54.600 --> 0:03:57.280 the question. But I've seen a lot of people online 0:03:57.320 --> 0:04:00.120 being like why is this here. I'm here with my 0:04:00.160 --> 0:04:03.160 mom or like my family and I don't want to 0:04:03.200 --> 0:04:07.320 see that, and you know, and like you referred to like, yeah, 0:04:07.320 --> 0:04:09.760 we were pretty early on. It wasn't like it was 0:04:09.800 --> 0:04:13.280 some mysterious thing that I hadn't seen before, but it 0:04:13.320 --> 0:04:14.920 was just like, well, this is kind of awkward. 0:04:15.280 --> 0:04:17.400 It's kind of putting in its early relationship, putting it 0:04:17.600 --> 0:04:19.800 kind of on the spot here to be like, okay, 0:04:19.839 --> 0:04:22.200 this hotel room that we're I'm assuming this was like 0:04:22.200 --> 0:04:24.719 your first trip together. Yeah, it was okay, they're like 0:04:25.120 --> 0:04:27.400 early days, first trip together, and now we're sharing a 0:04:27.440 --> 0:04:31.360 bathroom together, and now the bathroom has like a silhouetted. 0:04:31.000 --> 0:04:33.520 Yeah, and it was like we just thought it was funny, 0:04:33.520 --> 0:04:36.520 but we immediately thought about, like, wow, there's real families. 0:04:36.640 --> 0:04:40.479 You imagine if you're a fan, hey, you know someone 0:04:40.520 --> 0:04:45.240 who's been in a relationship before. The bathroom is kind 0:04:45.279 --> 0:04:46.680 of your private. 0:04:46.320 --> 0:04:47.920 Time, especially when you're traveling. 0:04:48.320 --> 0:04:51.080 Yeah, it's you're only alone time when you're traveling. Really, 0:04:51.600 --> 0:04:55.039 you're only really escape. Yeah. So like even if you're 0:04:55.080 --> 0:05:00.240 in a long term, committed relationship, not sure you necessarily want, uh, 0:05:01.040 --> 0:05:04.919 you know, for the bathroom to be open concept. But 0:05:05.040 --> 0:05:07.839 as you can imagine, a lot of people online have 0:05:07.880 --> 0:05:09.080 been complaining about this. 0:05:09.279 --> 0:05:12.080 Can you please tell me who started the trend somewhere 0:05:12.080 --> 0:05:14.400 in hotel design that they thought it was a bad 0:05:14.440 --> 0:05:19.080 idea to install like proper full coverage doors and walls 0:05:19.120 --> 0:05:22.600 in hotel rooms. Who wants to see their travel partner 0:05:22.720 --> 0:05:23.320 take a poop. 0:05:23.560 --> 0:05:25.880 I don't know what hotel chain needs to hear this, 0:05:26.480 --> 0:05:30.920 but put the bathroom doors back. Put the bathroom doors back, 0:05:31.320 --> 0:05:33.839 not a curtain, not a sliding door. 0:05:34.640 --> 0:05:36.800 Why do you keep designing hotel rooms they don't have 0:05:36.839 --> 0:05:37.640 bathroom doors? 0:05:38.080 --> 0:05:39.520 What do you know of your audience? 0:05:39.560 --> 0:05:42.320 Are you aware that people like privacy when they're in the. 0:05:42.240 --> 0:05:48.760 Bathroom and some of those people online are taking action. 0:05:49.839 --> 0:05:53.120 So I spoke to a woman who's working to bring 0:05:53.200 --> 0:05:54.200 back doors. 0:05:54.520 --> 0:05:57.760 Hi, I'm Sadie, and I created bring back Doors about 0:05:58.200 --> 0:06:00.840 seven months ago, which is a website dedicated to helping 0:06:00.839 --> 0:06:04.480 people find hotels that have proper bathroom doors and avoid 0:06:04.520 --> 0:06:07.360 hotels that don't have proper bathroom doors. 0:06:07.720 --> 0:06:11.719 Sadie was radicalized after taking a trip with her dad. 0:06:11.839 --> 0:06:14.200 I was visiting England with my dad and we had 0:06:14.200 --> 0:06:17.680 one night left before heading to the airport, and we 0:06:17.680 --> 0:06:20.680 were staying in this hotel in London. We check in 0:06:20.920 --> 0:06:23.560 and we walk in and there's just no bathroom door 0:06:24.839 --> 0:06:28.960 and it was just completely open. And the website, photos, 0:06:29.400 --> 0:06:33.640 everything online had shown like a bathroom door, so we 0:06:33.640 --> 0:06:36.920 were not prepared for this room type to just be there. 0:06:37.120 --> 0:06:40.600 So, as Sadie points out, hotels were not always transparent 0:06:40.800 --> 0:06:44.120 about whether or not they actually have a door on 0:06:44.160 --> 0:06:47.839 their bathrooms. So her website puts hotels into a bunch 0:06:47.839 --> 0:06:51.120 of different categories depending on just how private the bathrooms 0:06:51.320 --> 0:06:52.440 actually are. 0:06:53.320 --> 0:06:55.480 So I do the zero privacy. 0:06:55.680 --> 0:06:58.600 That's when you have no door, there's no wall. 0:06:58.600 --> 0:07:01.760 Or sometimes a lot of hotels like this one, where 0:07:01.760 --> 0:07:04.719 they will have like a wall and a door, but 0:07:04.760 --> 0:07:06.280 then for some reason a. 0:07:06.160 --> 0:07:06.960 Window as well. 0:07:07.279 --> 0:07:09.920 So I put those all in the zero privacy category. 0:07:10.720 --> 0:07:13.560 And then I have fifty percent privacy, which is like 0:07:13.640 --> 0:07:16.920 the glass doors, where you have walls and there's a 0:07:16.920 --> 0:07:19.160 glass door and you can create the privacy. 0:07:19.800 --> 0:07:21.840 That was kind of your situation. Man, Yeah, you just 0:07:21.840 --> 0:07:24.320 said as a fifty there was a there was some 0:07:24.600 --> 0:07:26.280 opaqueness to the glass. 0:07:26.520 --> 0:07:29.320 Yes, it wasn't like you're fully it's not transparent. 0:07:29.480 --> 0:07:31.680 Yeah yeah, but you know you can tell a person 0:07:31.680 --> 0:07:33.400 who's in there. Oh yeah, you can see there. 0:07:33.680 --> 0:07:37.120 It's designed to show you a sexy silhouette. 0:07:37.200 --> 0:07:37.440 Yes. 0:07:37.760 --> 0:07:40.320 And then eighty percent privacy, and that's for like the 0:07:40.360 --> 0:07:44.160 sliding doors or slatted doors, which are oh my god. 0:07:44.280 --> 0:07:46.080 Those just annoy me because I know they cost more 0:07:46.120 --> 0:07:49.640 than a regular door. And I give that information because 0:07:49.640 --> 0:07:52.440 everyone has their own level of Hey, what is an 0:07:52.480 --> 0:07:54.840 acceptable door for me to have on vacation. 0:07:56.840 --> 0:08:00.320 I hate the hotel bathroom that's there is it's a 0:08:00.360 --> 0:08:04.040 sliding door, but it's over the like there's not it's 0:08:04.080 --> 0:08:07.360 not sealed, so to speak. It's just behind the gap 0:08:07.400 --> 0:08:11.280 where a sealed door could be. And so in that instance, 0:08:11.840 --> 0:08:14.000 there's no privacy as well if you're in there, you know, 0:08:14.080 --> 0:08:16.880 going number two or whatever. Like the noise is the 0:08:16.920 --> 0:08:18.880 smell that it's all it's all in. 0:08:18.880 --> 0:08:22.240 The all in the room, and you can't escape. A 0:08:22.240 --> 0:08:25.720 lot of those places don't have no they don't have vents. 0:08:26.640 --> 0:08:28.280 You don't even got the bathroom vet. So you could 0:08:28.280 --> 0:08:30.000 put that on the credit a little bit and a 0:08:30.040 --> 0:08:33.560 little bit of priva. It's like your ship smells just 0:08:33.600 --> 0:08:38.199 all in the room. Now, horrifying, horrible. It's a city 0:08:38.920 --> 0:08:42.040 obviously noticed this was a problem and trying to give, 0:08:42.240 --> 0:08:45.280 you know, people some tools to figure out whether or 0:08:45.320 --> 0:08:50.480 not their hotels have actual proper doors on their bathrooms. 0:08:51.559 --> 0:08:53.839 But I was curious as to why this is a thing, 0:08:54.360 --> 0:08:58.079 you know, why who is asking who's going in and saying, man, 0:08:58.120 --> 0:09:01.880 I really wish that bathroom didn't happen. It'd be really 0:09:01.960 --> 0:09:03.599 nice if the toilet was just kind of out in 0:09:03.640 --> 0:09:07.000 the open. So after the break, I want to talk 0:09:07.040 --> 0:09:10.320 to a reporter dove into this question of why all 0:09:10.320 --> 0:09:15.440 these hotel chains are getting rid of bathroom doors. Stay tuned, 0:09:28.480 --> 0:09:31.920 All right, we're back. As I mentioned before the break, 0:09:32.120 --> 0:09:34.640 I want to know why these hotels are getting rid 0:09:34.760 --> 0:09:38.480 of bathroom doors. So I called up Katie Dayton. 0:09:39.800 --> 0:09:42.560 I am a reporter at the Wall Street Journal, where 0:09:42.600 --> 0:09:46.960 I cover marketing, advertising and also a little bit of design. 0:09:47.120 --> 0:09:50.440 What were like some of the justifications in the people 0:09:50.480 --> 0:09:54.480 that you were talking to? Four should this new wave 0:09:54.559 --> 0:09:59.199 of bathrooms without proper doors? Because it's not like a 0:09:59.200 --> 0:10:01.199 as far as I know, no one was going to 0:10:01.320 --> 0:10:04.240 hotels and being like I wish the toilet was out 0:10:04.240 --> 0:10:05.880 in the open, I wish your showers out in the open, 0:10:05.920 --> 0:10:07.760 and I wish the bathroom didn't have a door. Right, So, like, 0:10:07.800 --> 0:10:10.760 what problems are they solving like now? Doing this? 0:10:11.559 --> 0:10:11.800 Well? 0:10:11.840 --> 0:10:15.160 Some would argue that you might not have said you 0:10:15.280 --> 0:10:20.440 wished for that. However, we do prefer the at least 0:10:20.559 --> 0:10:25.680 sense of space. Yeah, so hotels have been shrinking. There's 0:10:25.760 --> 0:10:29.559 many reasons for that. But the idea is if you 0:10:29.600 --> 0:10:34.240 start partitioning everything off the space, when you walk into 0:10:34.280 --> 0:10:35.800 the room, it just looks a lot smaller. 0:10:35.840 --> 0:10:37.680 And then the photos that looks a lot smaller. 0:10:37.720 --> 0:10:40.360 So when you're you know, browsing around, you're going to 0:10:40.440 --> 0:10:42.920 kind of like just pick the spot that's in your 0:10:42.920 --> 0:10:46.200 budget that looks like you have the most space, and 0:10:46.840 --> 0:10:51.160 removing like that barrier of the door or even an 0:10:51.400 --> 0:10:56.760 entire room that automatically makes the space look a lot 0:10:56.840 --> 0:11:02.679 more aspirational. And you know, the everything in life, if 0:11:02.720 --> 0:11:05.280 you think about it, is becoming more open plan. 0:11:07.160 --> 0:11:08.559 That's the justification. 0:11:08.760 --> 0:11:10.640 And a lot of these hotels, you know, they've said 0:11:10.640 --> 0:11:14.320 like they don't actually get complaints, and I mean, I 0:11:14.320 --> 0:11:14.760 think there. 0:11:14.679 --> 0:11:15.800 Might be a few reasons for that. 0:11:15.880 --> 0:11:19.440 I think some people, you know, still fine, especially in 0:11:19.520 --> 0:11:26.080 Puritanical America, still fine talking about bathrooms embarrassing. They might 0:11:26.160 --> 0:11:29.120 think that when they booked the room was kind of 0:11:29.160 --> 0:11:31.000 there in front of them and they didn't think to 0:11:31.080 --> 0:11:36.880 check it, and it's their fault. They might just think 0:11:36.920 --> 0:11:39.040 that in the first instance, is a funny story, and 0:11:39.120 --> 0:11:41.040 we'll live with that and we won't go here again, 0:11:41.720 --> 0:11:45.320 so they say there's no complaints. I think this kind 0:11:45.320 --> 0:11:47.840 of movement that Sadie started, I mean, I think what 0:11:48.000 --> 0:11:51.360 she hopes will happen is that more people will be 0:11:51.440 --> 0:11:54.120 calling up ahead of time and refusing to book a 0:11:54.200 --> 0:11:58.240 room without the bathroom door. 0:11:58.920 --> 0:12:01.199 It's interesting what she was saying about the hotels and 0:12:01.240 --> 0:12:05.160 not receiving any complaints because I thought about it and yeah, 0:12:05.160 --> 0:12:06.600 I've never recalled up a hotel. 0:12:06.679 --> 0:12:07.440 What am I going to do? 0:12:08.520 --> 0:12:10.680 The reason being, I think, becase I know that they're 0:12:10.679 --> 0:12:12.920 not going to come and install a door. Yeah, like 0:12:13.040 --> 0:12:14.240 on my trip. 0:12:14.080 --> 0:12:18.160 You know, like hey, and apologies, you didn't know that 0:12:18.200 --> 0:12:20.160 this room had the sexy shower. We're gonna put up 0:12:20.160 --> 0:12:21.239 a curtain for you. 0:12:21.280 --> 0:12:21.600 Now. 0:12:22.320 --> 0:12:25.480 I think in terms of the real reasons this is happening, 0:12:25.800 --> 0:12:29.480 it all comes down to cost, and like I said, 0:12:29.840 --> 0:12:34.360 hotel rooms are getting smaller. What's happened is that the 0:12:34.440 --> 0:12:38.319 hotel chained. Their margins are already pretty raise the thin 0:12:38.679 --> 0:12:43.559 after the pandemic. There have not been the pick back 0:12:43.640 --> 0:12:46.600 up in business travel that there was before, and group 0:12:46.679 --> 0:12:49.160 travel those are still down. Leisure travel is pretty much 0:12:49.160 --> 0:12:53.360 better what it was now, but so they're still losing 0:12:53.800 --> 0:12:57.160 a little bit of that that very large proportion of 0:12:57.200 --> 0:13:01.360 their income. And at the same time, instruction pricing has 0:13:01.400 --> 0:13:04.840 gone up, labor costs have gone right up. So if 0:13:04.880 --> 0:13:09.520 they can create new spaces that involve light less concrete. 0:13:09.559 --> 0:13:13.200 Concrete is very expensive and they don't have to hire 0:13:13.240 --> 0:13:17.480 people to come and build would work and adore. Then 0:13:17.679 --> 0:13:21.000 that saved money. And it's all even down to the 0:13:21.040 --> 0:13:25.560 fact that if you enclose a room to from natural light, 0:13:25.800 --> 0:13:27.240 you need a light bulb. 0:13:28.000 --> 0:13:29.440 And that might. 0:13:29.320 --> 0:13:33.520 Sound like pennies to these chains, but if you have 0:13:33.600 --> 0:13:36.960 a light bulb in every single hotel room for a bathroom, 0:13:37.559 --> 0:13:40.640 that means that that light bulb will break. At some point, 0:13:40.920 --> 0:13:43.640 it will fail and they will have to pay the 0:13:43.760 --> 0:13:46.400 labor of someone to come in and fix that light 0:13:46.440 --> 0:13:50.520 bulb and it goes and you know, the CFO at 0:13:50.559 --> 0:13:53.240 these companies is going to be analyzing all of these 0:13:53.280 --> 0:13:55.360 tiny things and if they just go, well, why don't 0:13:55.400 --> 0:13:57.760 we just try and get rid of this one thing 0:13:57.840 --> 0:14:01.640 and see what happens. We can save some money and 0:14:01.800 --> 0:14:04.160 we can protect some of our profits that we've been 0:14:04.240 --> 0:14:07.800 losing thanks to all of the above, plus the rise 0:14:07.840 --> 0:14:08.479 of airbnb. 0:14:09.679 --> 0:14:13.480 So there's your why, you know, to sort of two 0:14:13.559 --> 0:14:17.439 things there, making the room look a bit bigger because 0:14:17.440 --> 0:14:19.880 you have this open concept, you know, like we call 0:14:19.920 --> 0:14:24.760 it on my side of town, the hgtving of the 0:14:24.880 --> 0:14:27.800 world where everyone wants to knock down walls and make 0:14:27.840 --> 0:14:31.480 everything feel a bit more open. And then you also 0:14:31.600 --> 0:14:36.040 have this you know, idea of like, Okay, by removing 0:14:36.280 --> 0:14:39.520 these things, we no longer have to build walls in 0:14:39.640 --> 0:14:42.600 hotel rooms, or you know, putting up a glass partition 0:14:42.720 --> 0:14:45.280 is a lot cheaper than an actual wall. So it's 0:14:45.320 --> 0:14:50.160 like these little ways to cut costs that maybe, like you said, 0:14:50.120 --> 0:14:53.000 we're not asking for it this necessarily. But if we 0:14:53.080 --> 0:14:55.360 go into a room like oh, look, it is like 0:14:55.520 --> 0:14:57.600 you know, from the shower, I can sort of get 0:14:57.600 --> 0:15:01.360 a view of outside, some nature light in the shower. 0:15:01.440 --> 0:15:05.640 Now it's not in closed dark space. That's their justification. 0:15:06.120 --> 0:15:11.600 And I wonder if hotel reservations is becoming increasingly like 0:15:11.680 --> 0:15:17.200 a solo venture like our family's opting for airbnbs. 0:15:16.480 --> 0:15:18.640 More and more larger groups. 0:15:18.880 --> 0:15:23.120 Yeah, in situations where you won't you don't care if 0:15:23.120 --> 0:15:26.080 the bathroom is a glass partition because you're staying there 0:15:26.080 --> 0:15:26.680 by yourself. 0:15:26.920 --> 0:15:30.240 Well, let me said this. There's and uh Katie mentions 0:15:30.280 --> 0:15:32.560 this in her article When I the last night I 0:15:32.600 --> 0:15:35.560 stayed in London, I was by myself, so I booked 0:15:35.560 --> 0:15:38.240 this place. It's called like citizen m there's very little 0:15:38.280 --> 0:15:40.320 sort of like hotel staff. You kind of check in 0:15:40.360 --> 0:15:42.800 by yourself and the rooms are very small, but you 0:15:42.840 --> 0:15:45.240 get like a huge, king sized bed. But the bathroom 0:15:45.320 --> 0:15:47.080 is just kind of like a little out there in 0:15:47.120 --> 0:15:49.160 the open, like the sinks out in the open, and 0:15:48.920 --> 0:15:51.160 the shower is like it's just like a glass partition 0:15:51.160 --> 0:15:53.760 and toil it's sending a glass partition. Yeah, and it's like, yeah, 0:15:53.800 --> 0:15:57.240 for solo travel, that's perverty fine, I don't need to hide, 0:15:57.480 --> 0:16:00.640 you know, for myself in the bathroom. Yeah, but it's 0:16:00.680 --> 0:16:02.720 just sort of things like, yeah, that's not a group 0:16:02.840 --> 0:16:05.680 room or even like someone about one other person that 0:16:05.880 --> 0:16:07.800 even a couple would be taking a room like that. 0:16:08.520 --> 0:16:12.280 So you know, maybe that's some of the reasoning. But 0:16:13.760 --> 0:16:16.240 I noticed this when I was booking that same trip 0:16:16.240 --> 0:16:18.040 to London with my family. I'm with my mom and 0:16:18.120 --> 0:16:20.000 my brother, and I was trying to book us, you know, 0:16:20.160 --> 0:16:23.000 one room, and I kept coming across these rooms where 0:16:23.000 --> 0:16:26.960 I was like, this room doesn't really work for a group, right, 0:16:27.080 --> 0:16:31.080 And Katie mentioned that there's a theorius to why this is, 0:16:31.320 --> 0:16:34.480 and it's maybe another reason why hotels are now moving 0:16:34.520 --> 0:16:36.680 to these open concept bathrooms. 0:16:37.200 --> 0:16:40.760 It will come as no surprise that the hotels have 0:16:40.960 --> 0:16:44.360 never confessed this, but there is an argument that they 0:16:44.440 --> 0:16:47.640 do this because they can then charge for two rooms 0:16:47.680 --> 0:16:50.480 as opposed to double occupancy. So if you and your 0:16:50.840 --> 0:16:54.880 your mom or your brother were traveling and you were like, 0:16:54.960 --> 0:16:56.800 oh my god, like I really don't want to deal 0:16:56.800 --> 0:17:00.680 with this bathroom situation, you go, shall we just did? 0:17:00.680 --> 0:17:05.520 We just get three rooms instead? And then that's that 0:17:05.560 --> 0:17:07.280 would be fantastic for the hotel. 0:17:07.400 --> 0:17:08.800 Right they were gonna get. 0:17:08.880 --> 0:17:12.560 One for for a one room and now they're getting three. 0:17:13.040 --> 0:17:15.760 I haven't seen any evidence to support that. That's sort 0:17:15.760 --> 0:17:17.560 of the more nefarious argument. 0:17:18.040 --> 0:17:22.520 Katie mentioned that she sees this whole door situation as 0:17:22.560 --> 0:17:24.800 a reflection of a larger trend. 0:17:25.240 --> 0:17:25.879 It always is. 0:17:26.240 --> 0:17:28.600 It kind of goes back to why I'm interested in 0:17:28.600 --> 0:17:31.320 this story, and like, you know, it is funny, right 0:17:31.480 --> 0:17:35.520 toilet humors. It's always gonna be a fun one to report. 0:17:35.600 --> 0:17:43.920 But it truly just does speak to how little corporations 0:17:43.920 --> 0:17:48.560 seem to take on the customer experience in terms of 0:17:48.640 --> 0:17:53.560 how they're operating their businesses and what we now put 0:17:53.680 --> 0:17:57.280 up with. And I first started when I came to 0:17:57.320 --> 0:18:00.320 the journal, I used to report on customer experience and 0:18:01.280 --> 0:18:04.120 at the time, it was right before the pandemic and 0:18:04.359 --> 0:18:07.600 all these companies, it became like a buzzword. It became 0:18:07.760 --> 0:18:11.080 very trendy to say, we're customer focus, we're customer first, 0:18:11.200 --> 0:18:15.119 and we hired all these chief experience officers and chief 0:18:15.160 --> 0:18:18.439 customer officers and I was reporting on that, and then 0:18:18.520 --> 0:18:22.200 like over time, that's kind of I think I've anecdotally 0:18:22.520 --> 0:18:27.119 seen that die down. We've seen what's happening with the economy. 0:18:27.200 --> 0:18:30.000 We've seen this absolutely, and I think it starts with 0:18:30.040 --> 0:18:36.240 the tech industry, this absolute decision to squeeze margins as 0:18:36.320 --> 0:18:39.760 much as possible and operate a business with as fewer 0:18:39.800 --> 0:18:43.720 people as possible. And now we have AI And what's 0:18:43.800 --> 0:18:46.880 happening in the middle of that is like our experiences 0:18:47.080 --> 0:18:49.520 as people like trying to live in this world. 0:18:49.520 --> 0:18:53.639 It is just getting more and more difficult. The way these. 0:18:53.600 --> 0:18:56.200 Rooms are presented to us, we're meant to accept them 0:18:56.720 --> 0:18:59.879 as something that we should be grateful. 0:19:00.200 --> 0:19:02.800 And it looks nice and yes there's lots of natural light, but. 0:19:03.680 --> 0:19:07.479 It's just sort of every margin has squeezed and until 0:19:07.720 --> 0:19:11.920 people outright riot and say I will not be giving 0:19:11.920 --> 0:19:14.560 you my business, I don't think anything is. 0:19:14.520 --> 0:19:15.240 Going to change. 0:19:16.680 --> 0:19:19.159 That was Katie Dayton from a Wall Street Journal in 0:19:19.240 --> 0:19:27.080 Sadie from Bring back Doors. All right, so next up 0:19:27.760 --> 0:19:31.080 on Devin's Design a week, I couldn't do a whole 0:19:31.119 --> 0:19:35.639 episode on bathrooms. I folt talking about bathroom sensors and 0:19:35.680 --> 0:19:41.760 how much they sucked. So you know there's a lot 0:19:41.800 --> 0:19:43.800 of different sensors in the bathroom, right, You got the 0:19:43.840 --> 0:19:48.040 toilet sensors, yeah, which, God forbid you're ever in a 0:19:48.080 --> 0:19:53.080 public restroom and you got a shit with an automatic 0:19:53.119 --> 0:19:56.359 sensor yep, Because the thing's going off while you're on 0:19:56.480 --> 0:20:00.359 the toilet, and that especially you're in the airport or 0:20:00.400 --> 0:20:03.560 some public place, those toilets. 0:20:03.359 --> 0:20:08.520 Flush, you're feeling it there is you better hold onto something. 0:20:15.160 --> 0:20:17.600 So if it accidentally flushes while you're on that toilet, 0:20:17.840 --> 0:20:21.240 you're getting slash. You You're it's like you're at a 0:20:21.880 --> 0:20:25.640 water park. Right, That's one issue. And then a lot 0:20:25.640 --> 0:20:27.399 of times with those when you actually wanted to flush, 0:20:27.720 --> 0:20:28.359 not flush. 0:20:28.119 --> 0:20:29.720 Because then it's like, all right, it's waiting for a 0:20:29.760 --> 0:20:30.560 certain amount of times. 0:20:30.680 --> 0:20:34.439 Ay man stuffing in Now, let's I'm standing by the 0:20:34.480 --> 0:20:38.159 door hoping like all right, maybe then we got the 0:20:38.240 --> 0:20:44.800 sink sensors. As a black man living in this world, 0:20:45.280 --> 0:20:47.399 let me tell you something, A lot of times these 0:20:47.400 --> 0:20:53.240 sink sensors do not work for me. Specifically, it does 0:20:53.280 --> 0:20:56.560 not read my hands to the point where at times 0:20:58.800 --> 0:21:01.639 if there are paper towels, I have to get a 0:21:01.720 --> 0:21:05.920 paper towel to hold in front of the sensor so 0:21:05.960 --> 0:21:08.760 that the sink can turn on so I wash my hands. 0:21:09.000 --> 0:21:13.240 Yeah, the idea being the sensor is not really built 0:21:13.280 --> 0:21:16.520 to go off for darker skin tones. And I tested 0:21:16.520 --> 0:21:20.520 this once, actually tested this once with the paper towel 0:21:20.640 --> 0:21:26.919 dispenser sensors. As you guys know, got brown skin, but 0:21:27.440 --> 0:21:31.200 on this side it's a lot lighter even Yeah, the palms. 0:21:31.600 --> 0:21:33.639 So what I would do is try to get a 0:21:33.640 --> 0:21:36.159 paper towel like this, and it wouldn't work with my 0:21:36.280 --> 0:21:38.879 topic back of my hand up. And if I flip 0:21:38.920 --> 0:21:39.960 to my palm. 0:21:39.920 --> 0:21:41.480 The whiter side of your hand, the. 0:21:41.480 --> 0:21:44.600 Lighter side of my hand, the paper towel will come 0:21:44.600 --> 0:21:46.200 out discussing, yeah, you're. 0:21:46.040 --> 0:21:49.680 Putting on white face, essentially just to get white face 0:21:49.720 --> 0:21:52.080 on my hands. But the sensors to say, oh we 0:21:52.080 --> 0:21:53.000 can serve you, sure. 0:21:54.520 --> 0:21:57.360 We can, we can win, we can, this will do. 0:21:57.800 --> 0:22:02.959 We will allow street those hands to be washed. And 0:22:02.960 --> 0:22:04.879 it's sickening because you know a lot of times this 0:22:05.000 --> 0:22:10.000 happens post movie. You know, everyone's using the bathroom. I'm 0:22:10.040 --> 0:22:13.679 seeing all the white people real quick wash their hands. 0:22:13.800 --> 0:22:16.439 I'm standing there looking like an idiot. Put my hands 0:22:16.440 --> 0:22:18.240 not working, not working, I get the paper towels. 0:22:18.240 --> 0:22:20.240 The whites in the line are judging you. It is 0:22:20.280 --> 0:22:23.000 this god doing doesn't even know how to wash. 0:22:22.920 --> 0:22:28.679 The damn hands security And then we have, uh, you know, 0:22:28.800 --> 0:22:33.920 the paper towel, the Spenser's same issue. Yeah, but even 0:22:33.960 --> 0:22:38.000 worse than the paper towel. The spencer sensors or hand 0:22:38.040 --> 0:22:43.919 drivers mm hmm. Half the time they don't work. But 0:22:44.080 --> 0:22:49.440 even worse. It's just like, especially if you get along 0:22:49.480 --> 0:22:53.240 line of people, right, you're talking sporting events, we're talking 0:22:53.280 --> 0:22:57.480