Microbathrooms - Love them, hate them?

[Ashley197]

Microbathrooms - share your pics and opinions!

Fellow host extraordinaires, 

For those of you who have microbathrooms, or who have used them, what have your or your guests' opinions on them been? Have they responded positively? Would you be willing to post pictures?

The story motivating my question: Our place could use more bathrooms, but we run into the space conundrum. I'd love to put in "microbathrooms" so that we could actually offer en-suite bathrooms. We have a 3-bedroom, 1 bath apartment that we rent out fully or that we rent 3 separate rooms in. It's my opinion that the shared bathroom keeps us from earning our max potential for the separate room listings, as well as the full 3-bedroom, 1 bath listing. However, I'm concerned that I'd put the work and money into putting the microbathrooms in and then find reviews like "the room was great, but the bathroom was so small I could touch both walls", etc. I suppose it could all be in the marketing, a la being clear and positive about the "micro" in the listing "if you like tiny homes, you'll love checking out the design of this microbathroom! It might just give you ideas for turning your own bedroom closet into an ensuite bathroom!" 

Thoughts? Pictures? Ideas? Warnings?  

[Willow3]

I personally am not a fan, but I also suffer from claustrophobia.  But on a practical level, as mentioned about, if one cannot bend to shave/clean oneself - it's a useless space.  Many years ago, our home had a shower that I couldn't extend my elbows to wash/rinse my hair.  I was never so happy to leave that house.  And as much as I enjoyed a trip to Italy, one of the things I ALWAYS mention to friends who will be visiting, is a warning about how tiny the shower doors were.  I'm plush size... as you can see in my photo, I'm not thin or super large... but a shower I had to squeeze into sideways may be novel, the first time one uses it... but looses it's novelty by the second use.  

But that is all personal opinion and as I'm localish to you, my opinion has virtually no value, lol.  

What I think is more important is long term value to the property.  I can't help but think that Airbnb in it's current manifestation is not going to last.  As more and more regulations about STRs are put into place, I think the best use of your improvement monies would be a single, larger bathroom.  A 3/2 would still be more desireable both for resale and rental purposes.  Even a 3/1.75 would help.  

[Ashley197]

@Willow3, thanks for your reply! Based on your great point, I've situated myself in the showers/spaces we're looking at putting in and I've pretended to shave my legs and wash my hair! It's a great point. And, in small spaces, there is a lot of awkward finangling. 

I also appreciated and have thought quite a bit about your comment on the long-term value to the property. I've asked myself, "would this bathroom design be good if this room were to go back to a long-term rental"?  I personally wouldn't want my personal shower, for more than a couple nights, to be one that I was constantly bumping into things.... 😕 . It's a good point that I'm still pondering.... and scouring design images for to see if I can't just find the design that meets both goals simultaneously. 😉 

[Huma0]

@Ashley197

I have three bathrooms in my house (plus an additional toilet/powder room) which are shared between four bedrooms, two of which are guest rooms. 

One of the bathrooms is a couple of floors below the guest rooms, so the guests don't use it. Near the guest rooms is a large, quite grand, bathroom with a walk in shower and roll top bath. Still, I'd say that more than half the guests opt to use the compact bathroom next door to it, with the 80x80cm shower cubicle. It goes to show that size isn't always the priority.

However, the example you've shown does seem slightly too small to be comfortable. It looks like you would have to open the shower door while standing outside in order to get into the shower. It looks too narrow for a sliding door to be an option, but maybe a bi-fold door would work.

I understand what you're saying re private bathrooms/en suites. I really do think they would make a difference to bookings/price. However, you do run the risk of guests complaining about their size if they are that small.

I've never had a guest complain about the size of my smaller bathrooms, but then they are different in layout and don't look so cramped. Also, they have the option of using a large bathroom if they want. 

[Ashley197]

@Huma0, thanks for your thoughtful comments! It is so interesting that guests choose to use a smaller bathroom, though the larger one is available to them. So, to clarify - are all the bathrooms, including the large bathroom, shared between all guests? Have you ever tried assigning one of the bathrooms privately to one room - and if so, did that make a difference in what a guest paid or how the room booked? We also have one big bathroom and I love the idea of keeping that available (shared) for any guest to use if the others are too small... but then I also wonder if the "shared" aspect would detract from people using it enough that it would just be better to assign it to one of the rooms, so that each of our rooms could have its own private bathroom (even if one of them wouldn't be en suite)... Hmm... you've got me thinking! 🙂 

[Huma0]

@Ashley197

My problem is that I have three bathrooms between four bedrooms, so it's a bit tricky to assign private bathrooms. One obvious solution would be for my housemate and I to share the downstairs bathroom and toilet, thereby freeing up the two upstairs bathrooms for the two guest rooms. However, that doesn't work because only one of those bathrooms has a toilet.

When the upstairs bathrooms were renovated, I had the option of having a toilet in both, or having a large walk in shower and bath tub in one but then no space for a toilet. I wasn't designing the space with Airbnb guests in mind back then, so didn't see the need to have a toilet in both bathrooms, which are next door to each other.

I do believe that private bathrooms would allow me to charge a higher price and perhaps get more bookings. It is also a factor in becoming eligable for Airbnb Plus. However, I don't generally have any complaints about the bathrooms being shared. There are enough of them that guests don't need to queue and often end up having one to themselves anyway. I think that guests who have a problem with sharing a bathroom simply wouldn't book my place.

However, I would say that this means I have to keep the bathrooms sparkling clean at all times. This isn't too difficult, except when I occasionally have guests who are very messy, in which case it is a bit of a pain. I have to really stay on top of it so that one guest is not put off by another guest's mess. In general though, if guests are presented with spotless, sparkly bathrooms when they arrive, they are more likely to be respectful and not leave them in a state.

[Ben205]

Got to say, I wouldn't want those plumbers to fit my bathroom. Without a hole in the floor, the water isn't going to drain away from the tray!

[Martha300]

I do not like micro bathrooms.
I recently renovated my bathroom by hiring bathroom renovation San Jose experts https://homequalityremodeling.com/bathroom-remodel-san-jose/ . They completed the renovation in a short span and now I have an updated bathroom of my choice.

[Daphne70]

We had a very compact space to work with. When we bought the house the toilet was where the shower is now and there was a huge bath under a much lower window. The space might be bijou but the 1200 X 900 mm shower 

is some compensation. We lived in the guest room for 6 weeks while other building work was done and found the bathroom to be more than functional.