Hotel showers

Yes, it recently happened to me in a Lake District hotel, couple of weeks ago. The shower was a large glass affair, but the side screen wasn’t long enough and the cleaners had left the hand holding bit facing the gap. Fortunately I hadn’t any clothes in the bathroom as the floor was so wet it seeped thunder the door!
I usually send DH in to try a shower out first and report back, as they all seen to have different controls.

Under*

My dear late friend had a similar experience at an airport lounge while they were stopping over on their way back from S Africa. She ended up completely soaked as did her clothes and the shower room. Flooding into the corridor. No one to help apart from a cleaner who she had to beckon in from round the door while drenched in a wet towel.

When she finally got back to her DH, who had also had a shower, but uneventful and pleasant, she wasn't too pleased for him to be saying "well wasn't that lovely".

She said there were so many controls in the shower cubicle and once started she couldnt switch it off.

Glad it's not just me !

In a hotel or other unfamiliar shower I check it out first visually with my glasses on, trying to fathom it out, as without my specs I am stuck. Doesn’t always work. I hate showers for this reason, as well as awful memories of school showers.

I'm sorry, I can't tell the story it's too long and won't sound funny, but I literally have tears running down my cheeks thinking of my best friend, in a hotel in Niagara Falls, in a jacuzzi bath, with a shower, water everywhere her husband and me with towels and bath robes, light switches and jacuzzi switches.

Oh my, I'm going to have her call her in Canada later and remind her.

Thanks for starting this thread, gave me a good laugh.

Yep! That is me all over!

Would be nice to just have a control saying on/off and hot/cold. The shower I used had two knobs with no indication as to what they did. One of my daughters has a state of the art shower with controls that again indicate nothing, when I went there to stay just after my GS was born I could only get the shower to emit lukewarm water and because they were too taken up with the baby and I didn’t want to bother them I ended up having lukewarm showers for several days. They have since explained but I still find it tricky to regulate the temp is either lukewarm or red hot.

And me 🤣

Ferry23 when my friend told me her story, we both could hardly speak for laughing. I would view a similar shower with great trepidation and prefer a bath. Less to go wrong. Fingers crossed.

I've recently stayed in a hotel where the controls worked either for the bath or the shower. There was no mixer tap and I was there for ages shivering trying to balance the water temperature which was a choice of being scalded or frozen.

Stayed in a hotel recently where the shower attachment just kept falling on my head. Wasn’t best pleased.
Another bugbear is notices by taps warning you of Very Hot Water, which invariably turns out to be stone cold.

Join the club we make sure we figure it out before we get in, all part of the adventure of travel

David49

Join the club we make sure we figure it out before we get in, all part of the adventure of travel

But how do you figure it out without getting soaked in the process?
I try to look at the controls before getting in but usually can only fiddle with them whilst directly under the shower, which means things can and frequently do go wrong.

Another very comforting thread. It's not just me then!!

I always have this problem. By the time I’ve sorted out which lever to press or turn I’ve been drenched in cold water. The controls should be accessible on entering the shower, ie not under the actual shower. Every one is different and my poor pea brain can’t cope! 🚿

Oh this is me! I usually send DH to work out the controls as I'm as blind as a bat without glasses/contact lenses.
On one occasion we were staying in a Travel Lodge on the M6 overnight to break up a long journey. Mr CJ was already showered and dressed and as I stepped into the shower and turned it on a very loud alarm went off. What on earth had I done? As I leapt out of the shower, terrified, Mr CJ burst through the door saying it was a fire alarm. He grabbed our, still sleeping, young daughter and I quickly pulled on just enough clothes to cover my modesty!. When we got outside it was discovered someone had burnt the toast but we all had to wait until the fire brigade arrived and checked everything before we were allowed back in - about half an hour! Fortunately it wasn't raining.

Not a hotel shower tale but….
We have a rainfall type shower with a handheld head on a riser rail. There is just a sheet of glass, no door.
When our granddaughter came to visit I gave an extensive tutorial. I know how far the water will spray so I could turn the lower head on and demonstrate the temperature control.
All was well until “shower time”. She went for a shower before DH’s bedtime, and as time passed (15 mins) I was sent to ask if she was OK. 15mins later she emerged!
Mum has a very small hot water tank so the water goes cold, ours is instantly heated so infinite! She “just took the opportunity”. Moral, remember to tell them how you turn the shower off as well as on.

Ha ha we have a combo boiler so our shower can run and run without going cold.
It also has a pretty easy control, a central lever you pull out towards you and move to the left to get warmer and to the right to go cold. There is also a knob you push in or pull out depending upon whether you want the monsoon shower head or hand held smaller head. I always explain this to visitors and all of them manage perfectly.
Surely hotels can put an idiot proof diagram on the bathroom wall.

Correction combi boiler

Every time I stay somewhere I have to get my daughter to show me how to work the shower I get in a terrible muddle ( even sometimes after she’s shown me )
I thought it was just me so comforting to find others are the same
Mine at home is so unsophisticated just turn it on, hot or cold

David49

Join the club we make sure we figure it out before we get in, all part of the adventure of travel

You put your arm through the curtain or door, divert the shower away if you can and change the controls so that it’s running hot BEFORE you strip off and get in.

Nice to have a laugh to start the day!
I don't often stay in hotels but was forced to recently. I tried to figure out the shower controls before using it, and ended up drenched. Would it be too much to ask for the establishment to place instructions on the wall?

Not possible with fixed screens.