Why the second bathroom matters more than the second bedroom
For a group of six, the bathroom count decides more of the trip than the bedroom count does. Here's the morning arithmetic, and how to check a suite before you book it.
When a group books a suite, the conversation is about bedrooms: who shares, who gets the sofa bed, whether the teenagers will accept a rollaway. The bathroom count gets a glance, if that. That's the wrong way round. On most trips, bedrooms are a minor inconvenience and bathrooms are the schedule.
Sleeping happens at the same time. Bathrooms don't.
Six people can sleep in a two-bedroom suite at once. That's what the beds are for. Six people can't use one bathroom at once, so they queue.
Here's a rough morning for six people with one bathroom, assuming each person needs about fifteen minutes for a shower and getting ready:
| Bathrooms | Morning queue | If you need to leave by 9:00 |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | About 90 minutes | First person up at 7:15 |
| 1.5 | About 90 minutes for showers, with no wait for the toilet | First person up at 7:15, with fewer arguments |
| 2 | About 45 minutes | First person up at 8:00 |
| 3 | About 30 minutes | First person up at 8:15 |
These are illustrative numbers, and your group will be faster or slower. The shape doesn't change, though: every extra bathroom takes a large share off the morning, and every morning of the trip. A second bedroom saves a sofa bed. A second bathroom saves 45 minutes a day.
Bedrooms can bend. Bathrooms can't.
A missing bed can be fixed. Hotels have rollaways, cots and sofa beds, and families are used to doubling up for a week. A missing bathroom can't be fixed by anyone. There's no rollaway shower.
That's why, if you're choosing between a two-bedroom suite with one bathroom and a one-bedroom suite with two, the second is often the better trip for a group, even though it looks smaller on paper.
Not all second bathrooms are equal
- A half bath is a toilet and sink, without a shower. "1.5 bathrooms" takes the pressure off the toilet but not off the showers, so it helps in the evening more than in the morning.
- Check where it opens. An en-suite bathroom that can only be reached through someone's bedroom is a private bathroom for that bedroom, and a locked door for everyone else after 10 pm.
- Bath or shower. If there are small children, at least one bath makes bedtime easier. If everyone is an adult, two showers beat one bath.
The connecting-room shortcut
Two connecting hotel rooms each come with their own full bathroom. That's built into how hotel rooms are designed, so a connecting pair always gives you two. A two-bedroom suite might have one, one and a half, or two, depending on the building.
For groups of four to six, this is one of the most practical arguments for connecting rooms over a suite: you know the bathroom count before you look at the floor plan.
How to check before you book
- Read the bathroom count, not the bedroom count, first. On Suiteness, every suite lists both.
- Look at the floor plan, or ask. Can the second bathroom be reached from the living area?
- Search by it. Tell Ask Suiteness you need two full bathrooms and it will search on that, instead of returning every suite with enough beds.
The bedroom count decides where people sleep. The bathroom count decides when you get out of the door each morning, and on most trips that matters more.
Search connecting rooms where the door is on the reservation rather than in a comments field.