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Comedian Chris Parker seems to have struck a travel nerve once again.
Following up from his recent video asking just how early people should get to the airport before catching a plane, the Celebrity Treasure Island winner has tackled another travel topic: frosted or transparent glass on hotel room toilets.
In a short video on Instagram, Parker plays both roles as a couple on a “sexy romantic hotel getaway”, only for one to be horrified at the sight of the toilet in the corner.
“We have to go. We can’t stay here! This hotel room has a toilet with a transparent door.”
Cue histrionics.
“We’re in love we can deal with that,” says optimistic Parker.
“It’s too much. No couple can survive this,” comes the response.
“You’ve never seen this side of me before.”
“I’ll look away.”
“It’s not enough. You’ll hear everything. You know I suffer IBS (Irritable bowel syndrome ).”
The couple, who “were going to grow old with each other”, face breaking-up because of the “faint outline” of one “taking a dump in the morning”.
The video certainly resonated with viewers with many sharing their own transparent traumas.
”We had one like that in Amsterdam. What is worse, only the glass from waist level down was opaque and the room (on a corner) had two huge windows with no curtains!!” wrote one commentator.
”A few years ago, left booking accommodation in Chch to my husband, he booked this weird hostel type place where it was like futuristic themed, extremely cramped, and the bathroom was honest to God half a metre from the bed. Awkward poops ensued,” wrote another.
chrisparker11/instagram
Stuff of nightmares?
“Stayed in a hotel on a work trip to Korea, with a co worker. The bathroom door was glass … unfrosted. And the bathroom was floor to ceiling mirrors on all walls and on the ceiling. Showers and toileting was awkward. I mean … no one needs to see themselves from every conceivable angle while sitting on the loo,” was another comment.
“My first weekend away with my (current) husband was to an airbnb in the coromandel (sic) – we got there and there was NO DOOR AT ALL on the toilet/shower ‘alcove’. He had to go and sit in the car if ever I needed the facilities,” wrote an Instagram user.
So why are toilets designing like this? Dr Emilio Garcia from the School of Architecture and Planning at the University of Auckland said that is a question for hotel owners.
“Maybe they wanted to make a room look bigger, lighter and brighter. Something that can be done with a decent window. If you have a glass bathroom, privacy will be compromised,” Garcia told Stuff Travel.
“However, if privacy is the priority, why use glass at all? It is one of those situations that gets unnecessarily complicated because the design of a private room was done with a naturally revealing material.
“The concept of privacy, morals and habits change across cultures, families and even members of the same family.”
He has a simple solution: “Perhaps, letting people know in advance that bathrooms in the hotel have frosted glass might help.”
While the issue of hotel toilets becoming more see-through is on the rise, some other countries take it to a whole new level.
Carl Court/Getty Images
The toilets in Tokyo are designed by Japanese architect Shigeru Ban and are intended to allow users to check cleanliness and occupancy from the outside.
In 2020, a new toilet tourist attraction was opened in Tokyo, Japan.
The cubicles were designed to light up “like a beautiful lantern” in the evening.
The “smart glass” goes opaque once the door is locked, but for those inside, they won’t notice if the glass has changed or not, giving them a full view out while they go about their business.
Meanwhile in Thailand, a theme park installed a toilet with two-way mirrors. The men’s loo had reflective silver glass on the outside that allows park-goers to pose and check their appearance.
But on the inside are several urinals, which men use while looking out over passers-by at the Dream World theme park in Pathum Thani, central Thailand.
Let us know in the comments below of the hotel design features that annoy you.
Chris Parker starts his New Zealand Tour on May 17 in Tauranga and around the country (hopefully, as he says “avoiding any hotels with P.D.E – public displays of excretion”.) Tickets at chrisparkercomedy.com
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