Sheraton Panama Hotel & Convention Center, Panama City, Panama

I liked this one! The shower was like a tiny glass apartment.

•No flooding, even though it had glass doors!
•Great faux marble, recessed wall storage area. Classy!
•Flattering lighting, which is essential for a glass shower across from a mirror.
•Lots of nearby towel storage
•Good temperature and pressure
•Difficult to stay out of the way of the water when starting shower = hit in the face with cold water for first few tries

http://www.starwoodhotels.com/sheraton/property/overview/index.html?propertyID=3012

Hyatt Regency Sacramento, CA

Not bad, not bad at all. Not many other Sacramento hotels receive such a ringing endorsement from TSR.

•Good water pressure
•Good temperature
•Ample in-shower storage
•Safe, low tub walls

http://sacramento.hyatt.com/hyatt/hotels/index.jsp?null

The Dupont Circle Hotel, Washington DC

On an special adventure to the Dupont Circle Hotel, I bypass my favorite hotel bar, ride up the elevator, stroll down the velvet-lined halls of the 5th floor, and pay a visit to another watering hole—the shower in room 546.
• Fancy. It’s like a cocktail with pear vodka, honey, St. Germaine, lime, and cucumber (which totally works at the bar) when you really just wanted a rum and coke.
• Half wall. Someday, someone will invent a sexy shower curtain and put an end to this madness. They don’t have to be beige and plastic. They can make shower curtains with pictures of sexy people on them. Maybe sexy people taking a shower. Or useful maps! Sharks! Fall foliage? Anything but the half wall.
• Another shower for tall people. The showerhead had 3 settings. But that did not matter to the 5’4” people. It had 1 setting for us, and that setting was whatever the last 5’8”-plus guest left it on.
• Window in the shower. Really? Fortunately it was 102 outside so this wasn’t really an issue, but I would never take a winter shower there.
• Very narrow shower area. If I gained 10 lbs, I could not shower here.
• Tiny tiny tiny shelf. The window in the shower had a decent ledge that could hold showering products, but it clearly was not designed for that purpose.
• The bathroom had heated floors. Which I guess is something, but generally I am overheated leaving a shower and don’t need to be re-heated 0.5 seconds after getting out.
• The blow dryer had a retractable cord. Exciting!
• Good water pressure/temperature.
• No convenient towel rack.

The Mansion on O, Washington D.C.

When I left my apartment at the crack of dawn to watch the Royal Wedding at the Mansion on O, I had no idea what a boon it would be for the Shower Report! The Mansion is a hotel with 100 rooms, all of which were open to partygoers to watch the Royal Wedding. 100 rooms? 100 showers! And what showers they were!

http://www.omansion.com/hotel/

Wooden Shower, The Mansion on O

Lovely, but is it the best idea to keep books and art inside of a shower?

And, a shower with no curtain? Huh?

Elevated Telephone Booth Shower, The Mansion on O

I'm breaking all of The Shower Report rules for this one. Because, 3 pictures are needed to capture all that is amazing/confusing/dangerous about this shower.

• It is in a telephone booth
• That telephone booth is about 3 feet above the floor with no stairs or ladder
• Pull on the rail and out comes a set of steps! Hooray!

The Rainforest Shower, The Mansion on O

Never in my entire multi-month career of shower blogging have I encountered a shower that made me jump up and down and clap. It's that exciting! I have said that my own shower is the world's greatest, but it is not! The title belongs to this contraption.

The Rainforest Shower! It has a control panel!
• It's a shower!
• It's a bathtub!
• It's a whirlpool!
• It's a sauna!
• It's a tanning bed!
• It has a porthole so you'll feel like you're in a boat!

And, even with all this, you'll notice that it only has...1 knob!

Too many knobs shower! The Mansion on O

10! At least 10! I complain about 2. 10! Where do you even begin?

Renaissance Hollywood, CA

• Water temperature fine
• Water pressure fine
• Shower curtain okay
• Shower shelf--way too high! It is hard to use if you can't see what you are grabbing for...slippery soap, dangerous razors, heavy bottles of shampoo
• No nearby towel racks

http://www.renaissancehollywood.com/

The La Quinta, New Haven, CT

A very special Shower Report from Amy A. of In the Can (http://frominthecan.wordpress.com/)!

• While this shower may be nothing to look at, it meets some of your criteria...though it falls short in some respects.
• Note the safety handrail, and the tub is a reasonable height to step over (in my opinion).
• All towels are in easy reach!
• The water pressure was good; no need to spend extra time rinsing that last bit of shampoo.
• Storage...well, for me it was enough to have a little three inch corner shelf. For someone with more supplies, it would have been woefully inadequate! There is a little strip of shelving over the toilet that you could use for some extra bottles, but it's not very convenient.
• Rounded shower curtain rod keeps the curtain away from my clean skin.
• Interesting feature...the shower curtain had a clear strip that ran across at about head-height. It was textured so you couldn't see through clearly, but created a little window. So you could see someone brushing their teeth while you are showering? I can't imagine wanting to make use of a window into your private shower time!

Exciting news from another corner of the bathroom!

"TSR," you say, "Yes, all of this information about showers is great, but, sometimes I'm in the bathroom for other reasons. How will I know where to go?"

Fear not, dear reader! Going where no blogger.com or wordpress.com blog will go, my friend Amy A. tells you how it is In the Can!

http://frominthecan.wordpress.com/

Holiday Inn Express Boston, Waltham, MA

Photo credit: Heather H.

• Not great water pressure—felt kinda soapy after showering
• Good temperature
• Efficient, one-knob system for temperature
• Good in-shower storage
• Insufficient towel racks
• New shower curtain engineering marvel! This was a 1-piece shower curtain that did a 2-piece shower curtain job. It was one transparent layer on top, which at about head height split into two layers (one transparent layer to hang outside of the tub wall, and one opaque layer to hang inside of the tub)
• Round shower curtain bar would seem to provide enough space in the shower, but the shower curtain was a bit too flowy and kept touching me

http://www.hiexpress.com/hotels/us/en/waltham/wtmma/hoteldetail/photos-tours

Courtyard Boston Waltham

• Good water pressure and temperature
• Efficient, one-knob system for temperature
• Good in-shower storage
• Soap rack in line of shower flow
• Shower curtain too short
• Insufficient towel racks


Unrelated, but important note: This hotel has an excellent hot tub!

http://www.marriott.com/hotels/hotel-rooms/boswm-courtyard-boston-waltham/

Millenium Resort, Scottsdale AZ

• I am 5’4” and this shower was too short for me. Everything was just too low!
• No shelves, and the tub wall was inconveniently low to be holding shower products that need to be accessed multiple times during the shower.
• Soap holder in direct line of the shower flow.
• Shower curtain sticks to your arm
• Weird water flow. Very spray-y. Really unpleasant to reach through the spray to adjust the shower temperature.
• Pressure and temperature otherwise okay.
• Flooding.
• The shower walls seemed to be unfinished. Visible streaks of glue or caulk.
• Good towel racks!
http://www.millenniumhotels.com/millenniumscottsdale/rooms/index.html

Coming soon!

Amy A. of In the Can (http://frominthecan.wordpress.com/) reviews a whole new area of the bathroom when she tells us how things went at The La Quinta New Haven!

Hotel Seybouse in Annaba, Algeria

Guest reporter Ben stayed at this hotel, built late 50's/early 60's, as a luxury hotel for oil business men. See how the wealthy showered back then!

• Handheld shower head, with no place to rest it!
• No shower curtain??
• Towels are within easy reach...but you'd probably spray them with the showerhead while awkwardly trying to shampoo your hair!
• Very high tub is a trip and slip hazard.
• The tile pattern could hypnotize you into a daze and you could slip and fall.
• No storage, but the sink is right there...

Yoga Center in Negril, Jamaica

This shower exists purely for utilitarian purposes and nothing more. It has water that comes out of a pipe located above your head and that's about it. I guess when you are paying $40.00 per night at a place called the Yoga Center, you can expect little else. It got you clean and thats all that really mattered... particularly when you get back to your room at 3am after having spent some time in a hot tub at a nudist resort where unspeakable and definitely traumatizing things were occurring (by others of course). And if you were lucky, the shower would surprise you and treat you to hot water as opposed to its cold water standard. At the very least, it wasn't a boring shower!

Hilton, Fort Collins, Colorado.

• A shower! Oh thank heavens, a shower! (This hotel night was at the end of a trip spent in a trailer at a remote research station. The trailer shower gets no separate review, but, if you are invited to a trailer in a remote part of Colorado, don’t go.)
• It was a shower! With soap!
• There was a blow dryer!
• Safe, low, tub walls.
• Good water pressure and temperature.
• No shelf, but enough space on the tub ledge.

http://www1.hilton.com/en_US/hi/hotel/FNLCOHF-Hilton-Fort-Collins-Colorado/index.do

Doubletree--Reid Park, Tucson, Arizona

• Clearly there were not enough towel racks. Well, 3 people x (2 shower towels + 1 hot tub towel) = okay, maybe the problem was too many towels.
• The shower wall was too dark. I didn’t trust it.
• I don’t think there was a shelf in this shower at all. The horror!
• Oh, and that window! It gets surprisingly cold in Arizona! Don’t put a window above the shower! Excessive heat loss.
• Water pressure and temperature were okay!

http://doubletree1.hilton.com/en_US/dt/hotel/TUSBTDT-DoubleTree-by-Hilton-Hotel-Tucson-Reid-Park-Arizona/accommodations.do

Marriott Marina Del Rey, California

• Good water pressure, for California!
• Not great heat.
• Tub walls too high.
• Showerhead too high.
• Insufficient towel racks.
• Fun fact: They use the same type of shower curtain as the Renaissance in China. I know this because they both had a tag that read “Hospital Shower Curtain.”

http://www.marriott.com/hotels/hotel-rooms/laxmb-marina-del-rey-marriott/

Tangla, Beijing, China

Remember all of those great things I said about China the other day, loyal reader? Well, not every Chinese hotel is the Tianjin Renaissance…

• This shower also featured the handheld showerhead/rain shower combo. But, the rain shower was the only real option.
• Massive, massive flooding.
• The handheld showerhead would only stay on the wall if it was pointing its weird high pressure vertical strip of water directly at a hole in the glass shower sealing.
• The rain shower also floods the bathroom, but not as badly.
• So, no real choice but the rain shower! Which is just stupid for actual showering. It’s not like you can stand under the entire thing. In order to be in any position that allows the occasional breath, you’re only going to be under a small fraction of the water. Which means it essentially becomes a regular showerhead, only it pours directly down--usually at low pressure, is inconveniently right in the middle of the shower, and you can’t move it.
• Tiny, tiny shelves (note my collection of showering products on the floor).

http://www.tanglahotels.com/en_kf3.asp

Sheraton Grand Sacramento, Sacramento, California

• I remember nothing about this shower. I only remember wanting to leave Sacramento as soon as possible. And that I bought really great sunglasses on this trip!
• So, it was okay I guess.
• Unless anyone remembers me complaining about it.
• Anybody?
• Anybody?

http://www.starwoodhotels.com/sheraton/property/features/index.html?propertyID=1247

Renaissance Tianjin Lakeview, Tianjin, China

All the proof you need that China will one day overtake us is in this shower!

At first glance, it is everything I hate about showers: handheld showerhead, rain shower, glass doors that probably leak. Look again!

• The handheld showerhead stayed in place! And, more importantly, it stayed in the place I put it. I finally understand what every other hotel has been trying to do with their adjustable showerheads! The Chinese may lack certain freedoms, but they are free to choose the height and angle of their showerheads. (If they are staying in luxury hotels.)
• Rain shower. Optional! After taking an effective and efficient shower with the abovementioned showerhead, you can turn on the rain shower! The Chinese get it! It is not for getting any actual showering done. The rain shower is just for fun!
• Glass doors. Actually contained all of the water. Credit is also due to the floor ledge—perfect height!
• See that shelf in the shower that is holding all of my stuff? It’s at the perfect height for me!
• See that handle? Great location! Also note my hanging loofah. It can completely dry out from that position. It’s not touching the wall!
• And! It had a separate GIANT bathtub (not pictured).

http://www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/tsnlv-renaissance-tianjin-lakeview-hotel/