New World Hotel, New York, NY

This is the worst-reviewed hotel I’ve ever visited. But! The reviewers were wrong! The room was fine, we did not get bed bugs, and the shower…above average!!

• Good pressure. Good heat!
• Fully closing door.
• Good shower storage!
• Complicated system to start shower—I needed to pull down on a ring around the tap. Huh?

http://www.worldhotelinc.com/1752.html

Milford Plaza, New York, NY

• Very low water pressure
• Complicated system to start shower—the knob had to be at a certain angle and then pulled. I can’t explain it.

http://www.milfordplaza.com/accommodations

Birchwood Hotel & OR Tambo Conference Centre, Johannesburg, S. Africa

I was comped a room here when my flight was delayed. Bonus shower!

• The half wall says it all. Cold. Flooding.
• Good in-shower recessed storage though!

http://www.birchwoodhotel.co.za/accommodation/accommodation.html

Giant’s Castle Camp uKhahlamba-Drakensberg Park, South Africa

• Too much of a good thing.
• Highest pressure ever. And not really focused in one direction. This is the sawed-off shotgun of showerheads.
• Hot Hot Hot!
• Ow!
• Good doors.
• Decent storage—but try reaching any of your showering products through the high-pressure hot water bullets.

http://www.giants-castle.co.za/giants-castle-camp.html

Elangeni Southern Sun, Durban, South Africa.

• Good temperature and pressure.
• Tub wall high and dangerous
• Soap rack right in the water stream. Goodbye soap. Hello hotel shower gel.
• Good shower curtain—stayed away from me, and it had that window strip thing that I like.

http://www.southernsun.com/hotels/elangeni/pages/rooms.aspx

The Himeville Arms Hotel, Himeville, South Africa

I had huge doubts about this one. This is a very old hotel, with a very old bathroom.

• Handheld showerhead. But! Stayed in place just fine in its holder on the wall.
• Claw-foot tub (the stuff of nightmares!) but I was okay!
• No shower curtain. Lots of flooding.
• Good temperature and pressure. Both of which were unexpected.

http://www.himevillehotel.co.za/HHroom.htm

Sunway Putra Hotel Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

• Too big. Why is the back wall so far away? I need that for balance.
• Tub wall: High and dangerous.
• Soap rack in the line of fire.
• Senseless in-shower towel rack. I've found that drying myself with a dry towel is actually far more effective than drying myself with a wet towel. Hmm.

https://www.malaysiahotels.cc/accomadation.aspx?HotelRegID=HR00090

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/

Le Meridien Pyramids, Cairo, Egypt

• Half-wall shower! Why?? Why?? The entire bathroom was flooded from this.
• Towel rack in the shower
• High tub walls
• Good shower storage
• Broken showerhead, the water pretty much went wherever it wanted
• Handheld showerhead, but it stayed in place pretty well, typical of Egyptian showers
• Decent pressure and temperature
• 1-knob system for temperature

http://www.starwoodhotels.com/lemeridien/search/hotel_detail.html?propertyID=1807

MS Neptune, Nile River Egypt

The first TSR cruise ship shower review. And, the shower is shockingly good!

• Good shower storage
• The door sealed well and kept all water in the shower
• Handheld showerhead, but it stayed in pretty well, typical of Egyptian showers
• Good pressure and temperature
• 2-knob system for temperature

Fort Arabesque, Hurghada Egypt

• No real storage areas in the shower
• Surprisingly, the doors sealed well and kept all water in the shower
• Handheld showerhead, but it stayed in pretty well, typical of Egyptian showers
• Good pressure and temperature
• One-knob system for temperature

http://www.fortarabesque.com/

Iberotel Cairo Hotel and Casino, Cairo Egypt

• Dangerously high tub wall
• Towel rack in the shower, with no nearby alternatives
• Shower curtain kept touching me
• Dirty
• Leak in the showerhead spraying water out of the shower
• Handheld showerhead, but it stayed in pretty well, typical of Egyptian showers
• Good pressure and temperature
• One-knob system for temperature

http://www.iberotel.com/en/hotels/details.php?id=55

Old Faithful Inn - Yellowstone National Park

Shower had ok pressure. Newish fixtures, clean. BUT the shower curtain had these annoying little thingys which did not allow for smooth opening and closing. The bar had a groove where these little knobs holding up the curtain were expected to glide smoothly back and forth. NOT!

Otherwise ok. My bathroom had lots of light and cool views of hot springs and geysers.

Radisson - Rapid City, North Dakota

Clean, functional, liked the curved bar for the shower curtain. Water pressure was good too.

Hotel Maritim, Bonn, Germany

I've always had a problem with those two-knobbed showers: How do I decide whether I want the water to be more hot or less cold? That's a lot of thinking for 7 a.m. Once the hot-cold one-knob system was invented, it should have been the end of two knobs. Well, two-knobs lives on, and I just met its evil friend--the four-knob system. WHAT? Germany, your showers continue to baffle me. It gets worse:

• Hand-held shower head. So, of course it slowly moves away from you and towards the floor throughout the shower.
• Towel rack in the shower, and no nearby alternative.
• Soap ledge directly in the line of the water.
• Dangerous high-walled tub, with little truly flat surface inside.
• Random metal bits protruding from the wall. They seemed to have some kind of shower-related function that I could not identify. I tried hanging each of my shower-products on them and none fit. It remains a mystery.
• Not-so-great water pressure.
• And, those 4 knobs? Any sort of combination of hot and cold (knobs 1 and 2) meant alternating hot and cold water. No warm. Maybe next time I will try knobs 3 and 4.
• On the plus side, it had an excellent shower curtain.

http://www.maritim.com/en/hotels/germany/hotel-bonn

Doubletree, New York

The room smells like a locker room.

The shower has mold.

I feel like I need a shower after my shower. Please someone rescue me.

Hotel Capital, San Salvador, El Salvador

Imagine the scene: Your alarm goes off. You spring out of bed, excited to begin a landfill gas workshop, complete with a tour to El Salvador’s largest landfill! You jump into the shower, turn on the water and everything is bien. When suddenly, mid-shampoo…there is no water! ¡Ay dios mio!

Do you want to avoid having to run to your co-worker’s hotel room wearing only a soapy towel at 8am? And then ruin her day by stealing all of her water (Sorry Victoria!!)?

Fortunately for all, the showers were fully functional on our return from the landfill.

The hotel’s shower system is just not equipped to handle simultaneous showering by multiple guests on the same conference schedule. If you can deal with showering at night, the hotel is fine. And, it is located directly across the street from Mister Donut. They may not have shower design down, but what the Salvadorans do with donuts will blow your mind.

http://www.hoteleselsalvador.com/hotelcapital/index.html

Park Plaza Wallstreet, Berlin, Germany

As excerpted from an email from European showering expert Denison.

Typical of modern bathrooms: Looks really awesome, modern, and hip, but suffered from significant functional deficiencies. The bathroom had 2 glass walls, one of which was actually a sliding door with a basketball-sized hole "handle," providing a clear line of sight from anywhere in the room to the toilet, even with the "door" closed.

The shower was nice looking: fancy dark stone on the floor, nice looking large white tile walls going up 14 feet
• No mold. At least yet-the hotel was new
• Good water pressure
• Removable shower head
• Big sized tub you could probably fit 3 people laying down comfortably, etc.
• Tub wall was so high it was like jumping the hurdles trying to get in there
• No curtain or shower doors so as you showered you managed to flood the entire bathroom
• Hazardous exit from shower-- the stone floor was totally wet and you had to jump out of the tub onto the wet floor

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g187323-d596310-Reviews-Park_Plaza_Wallstreet_Berlin-Berlin.html

La Noria, Angkor, Cambodia

The hotel website looks all modern French bungalow, but it's a lie! The shower mysteriously comes with "antique Cambodian cisterns of water for your use," but it's just a breeding ground for mosquitoes. Too freaked out by plague-carrying mosquitoes to shower at all.

Seriously, there's dengue and malaria here. Dengue's called breakbone fever the first time you get it, and the second time your veins start leaking and you die.

The only thing to do is to spray the rock-hard bed with OFF and cower until morning, then switch hotels immediately.

The Standard, LA

Painfully hip, and to get to your room you have to walk a gauntlet of beautiful people in the hotel bar, not good if you're coming off a cross-country flight in sweats-and-luggage style.

The shower is smack in the middle of the room! The toilet and sink are wedged in a microscopic closet, but the shower is the size of a formal dining room. The room is bed + shower, and the shower has no walls.

Side 1 has the showerhead, Sides 2 & 3 are curtains, and Side 4 is open to the room, opposite a full-length mirror. Which is why I could take this picture. Did they put anti-fog on half the mirrors so you could watch yourself shower? Yes yes yes.

Note: Showers without walls are chilly. Maybe sexy (but still chilly) on a romantic stay? Unless you get hookers for your business trip. Maybe 4 or 5 hookers would make it less chilly.

Aerlie Center, Warrenton VA. Another Perspective: Room 20.

Special guest Brian, on his Aerlie Center experience. For the facts on Room 7, see posting below.

After a long, sweaty day returning kickoffs and running button-hooks against the best athlete's that EPA's climate science and economic modeling branches have to offer, I was certainly looking forward to a fine showering experience in Aerlie Center's Farm House room #20. What I found, would cause even the bandits from home alone to think twice before entering to wipe the tar and feathers from their unsanitary bodies.

First off, the door to the shower, while present ... would not close. This caused splash and leakage to seep onto the bathroom floor, causing the potential for slippage upon my eventual exit. The threat of such a calamity weighed deeply upon my conscious, not allowing me to fully enjoy the shower experience.

Secondly, there was no "ease-in" period. The shower had insufficient standing room and my experience began with a rush of fluid to the face, never a good way to begin an evening.

Lastly, the towels were waaaaay too far from the shower stall. Meaning, I had to leave the warmth of the shower in order to dry myself ... this hampered my ability to ease back into the real world ... the splendors of the shower were instantly ripped from my grasp, and the cold rush of reality consumed me, not unlike the cold breath of Scott Loomis himself asking me to engage in a trust fall.

Rating: 2 bars of soap.

Villa Montana. Isabela, Puerto Rico.

• An excellent shower
• Good water pressure
• Low tub
• Ample storage
• Safety note--watch out for the shower guard crab!

Coming Soon!

Special guest contributor and showering legend Heather tells us about her stay at the Borgata in A.C. It’d be hard to go wrong with a comped room, but, is she taking a gamble on the casino’s showers?

http://www.theborgata.com/Main.cfm?Category_1=2000&Category_2=2100&Category_3=2110

Aerlie Center. Warrenton, VA.

• Shower was clearly built for tall people; there was nowhere I could stand without a constant stream of water in my face.
• Insufficient room to maneuver. Like showering in an upright coffin.
• Slippery, inward sloping shelves, so everything just keeps falling.
• Good shower lighting.

http://www.airlie.com/accomodations/index.htm

Marriott Marquis. San Francisco, CA.

The hotel shower that started it all. Marriott, you should know better!
• Low water pressure.
• Inflexible shower head.
• Dangerously high-walled bathtub.
• Inadequate shower curtain—lets in cold air and out water.
• Inadequate shower lighting.
• Inward-sloped ledge (soap falls off, razor falls off, shampoo falls off).
• Nowhere to hang up towels near shower, or anywhere for that matter.
• Blow-dryer that shuts itself off mid-drying.

http://www.marriott.com/hotels/photo-tours.mi?marshaCode=sfodt&pageID=HWGRD&imageID=5

NH Krystal Palace, Cancun, Mexico.

I don’t remember this shower, which means it was fine. Or that I had too many drinks at Coco Bongo. Or I forgot to take a shower?

What I do remember though, and much appreciate about this hotel, is that they have “hospitality suites,” actual hotel rooms that you can use for free after check-out if you want to take a quick (or long) shower or nap in between the beach and heading to the airport. Is this a common hotel feature? I’ll be asking about this from now on. Anyway, about the shower. Drumroll please…..The hospitality suite had A Perfect Shower—just like home!! So maybe the room I stayed in did too? It remains a mystery.

http://www.nh-hotels.com/nh/en/hotels/mexico/cancun/nh-krystal-cancun.html?type=photos

Hotel LunaSol. Playa Del Carmen, Mexico.

This was a cute hotel—they folded the towels into crocodile shapes!—but! I was deceived into staying here by false talk of a Jacuzzi. It was an oddly cold week (70’s---brrr!) in the Yucatan, and I just needed to thaw out a bit. Apparently, in Mexico, “jacuzzi” is a word that means a non-heated part of the frosty cold pool that has some water movement. But, onto the shower. And this was a very important shower, because I had not showered for days beforehand, due to a combination of laziness and other circumstances (see entry for Diamante K below):
• Not fully enclosed—cold air in, hot water out (major flooding issues).
• Modesty issues—no bathroom door, and partially open shower.
• No in-shower storage.
• Inflexible shower head.
• Insufficient towel rack space to hang our de-crocodiled towels after use.

http://www.lunasolhotel.com/English/rooms.htm

Diamante K. Tulum, Mexico

Okay. If you have even one eco-dork bone in your body, you will love this hotel. Bungalow on the beach! Organic oatmeal! Hammocks! But, if you are really into high-environmental impact showering, you can only stay here for as long as you can go without a shower.
• No hot water

http://www.diamantek.com/ImageGallery.html

Fiesta Americana Cozumel Dive Resort, Cozumel, Mexico.

• On the whole, a good shower.
• Good water pressure—but perhaps too good. After my first shower, about half of my spray tan was left on the shower floor, turning my Jersey Shore-ready tan into giraffe spots.

http://www.fiestamericana.com/portal/p/en_MX/FA/FDR/5/FDRmenuizquierdo.html/virtualtour/FDRvirtualtour.html?id_seccion=M5

The Hotel at Mandalay Bay. Las Vegas (THESuite)

What’s not to love about a room featuring 1.5 bathrooms when 5 girls are sharing a room?
• Good water pressure
• Shower-only, so not quite enough leg space
• Enough in-shower storage to hold 2-3 girls’ shower supplies
• Would be improved if the walls weren’t clear, so we could use the mirror and sink while someone else is showering (without them having to wear a bathing suit)

http://www.mandalaybay.com/accommodations/THEhotel.aspx

Mespil Hotel. Dublin, Ireland.

• Blow-dryer hidden in, and fixed to, a desk drawer nowhere near the bathroom.

http://www.mespilhotel.com/index.php?id=bedrooms

Madagascar—All Hotels

Madagascar as a whole is not known for its showers. But, whatever, it’s Madagascar, I’m not mad. Developed countries that can’t get their shower act together? That’s another story (see entries below for The Netherlands and Germany).
• Hand-held shower heads
• No tub/rim, anything to keep the floor from flooding
• Rare hot water

Madagascar—One very special hotel whose name I’ve long forgotten

• Creepiness--Eww, gross. There’s mud on the shower curtain. Oh wait, that’s not mud. It’s a leech.

Gunnewig Hotel Residence. Bonn, Germany.

Germany, I don’t get you. Were all of your bright young engineers lured away from work in the shower-design field by the siren song of the Volkswagon factory, or your sexy sexy wind farms and solar installations?
• Tub wall waaaay too high.
• Inadequate water pressure.
• Showerhead located in the corner of the shower. This makes things very very difficult. There is no escaping the water, there is no redirecting the water. You are at the mercy of the water.
• Oddly angled tub floor. You’re on a slant no matter where you go.
• Inadequate in-shower storage.
• Inadequate towel racks.

http://www.guennewig.de/bnreside/homepage_e.php

Hotel Director. Santiago, Chile

I was very worried about this shower at first. It was chillier in Chile than I was expecting, and it took around 20 minutes for sufficiently hot water to kick in on my first shower. After that, no major problems. Instant hot water everyday.
• Good water pressure
• Tub wall a bit too high
• Unbeatable view of the Andes out of the bathroom window (see picture)

http://www.director.cl/suites/rooms.asp

Mdluli Concession. Kruger Park, South Africa.

Though there are serious safety and storage issues here, this is actually my favorite shower on the planet.
• Safety issues. Must leave safe-seeming enclosed tent and walk to shower in the darkness (I am not getting up pre-safari to shower. Out of the question.) knowing full well that any number of poisonous snakes can fit under the electrified fence surrounding our camp.
• Good water pressure
• No towel racks, no lighting
• But! No roof and amazing (Amazing! Amazing!) star views! And horrifying, but awesome animal sounds.

http://www.ecoafrica.com/Africa/South-Africa/Kruger-National-Park/3-day-Classic-Kruger-Safari#Itin

Mar Del Plata, Argentina. Friend’s friend’s grandmother’s apartment. So, not technically a hotel. But, notable.

• Creepiness--Bottle of Holy Water hanging in shower.

Netherlands--residences

What I am about to say must not be shared with the Dutch, for they pride themselves on being better than everyone at everything. They may speak better English than us, and know more about American politics than we do, but the Dutch do not know how to build a proper shower.

• Water pressure, fine.
• Water temperature is not maintained long enough for an American showerer.
• Insufficient shower curtain coverage. Why all Dutch shower curtains are missing about a foot of width, I’ll never understand. Cold cold cold Dutch air in, tepid Dutch water out.
• No floor ledge. Automatic flooding. Why?