A Bad Bathroom Can Ruin a Trip

Am I overstating my case? No! A bad bathroom can ruin an entire trip. I went to a conference in Philadelphia in January 2008 and arrived late afternoon. The hotel was overbooked and the only room that was available was a handicapped room. It was dark. It was January. It was a big city. What else could I do but grab the room? It never even crossed my mind that it would be a nightmare. I didn't understand that handicapped bathrooms do not have tubs or even show stalls. There is a shower (with a curtain for what that's worth) in the corner of the bathroom with a drain in the middle of the floor. The theory being that you can just roll your wheelchair under the shower head and away you go. The theory is good, in practice, not so good. Apparently my bathroom floor was not leveled correctly because instead of water going into the drain, it covered the floor. I don't mean a little dampness on the floor, I mean an inch of standing water all over the entire bathroom floor. I had to use every towel I had to blot up the water after every shower. I was afraid if I dried my hair standing in an inch of water, I would electrocute myself! No matter how briefly I showered, all the water pooled onto the floor and I had to go through the towel blotting exercise. After four mornings of this, I could not wait to come home to a functional shower. Other people come back from Philadelphia with memories of Reading Market. I will never forget the standing water covering my bathroom floor every morning.

I was recently at a conference in Chicago. The hotel front desk asked me whether I would accept a handicapped room. Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

Follow Bathroom Blogfest on Twitter at #ladiesroom09 or check out the website http://www.bathroomblogfest.com/.

You can visit the participating bloggers for Bathroom Blogfest ’09:

Susan Abbott at Customer Experience Crossroads http://www.customercrossroads.com/

Reshma Anand at Qualitative Research Blog http://onqualitativeresearch.blogspot.com/Shannon Bilby at From the Floors Up http://fromthefloorsup.com/

Shannon Bilby and Brad Millner at My Big Bob’s Blog http://blog.mybigbobs.com/

Laurence Borel at Blog Till You Drop http://www.laurenceborel.com/

Jeanne Byington at The Importance of Earnest Service http://blog.jmbyington.com/

Becky Carroll at Customers Rock! http://www.customersrock.net/

Leslie Clagett at KB Culture http://www.kbculture.blogspot.com/

Iris Shreve Garrott at Checking In and Checking Out http://circulating.wordpress.com/

Julie at Julie’s Cleaning Secrets Blog http://cleaningsecrets.greatcleaners.com/

Marianna Hayes at Results Revolution http://www.resultsrevolution.com/

Maria Palma at People To People Service http://www.people2peopleservice.com/

Professor Toilet at Professor Toilet’s Blog http://www.professortoilet.com/

David Reich at My 2 Cents http://reichcomm.typepad.com/

Bethany Richmond at The Carpet and Rug Institute Blog http://www.carpet-and-rug-institute-blog.com/

Carolyn Townes at Becoming a Woman of Purpose http://spiritwomen.blogspot.com/

Stephanie Weaver at Experienceology http://experienceology.blogspot.com/

C.B. Whittemore at Flooring The Consumer http://flooringtheconsumer.blogspot.com/ and Simple Marketing Blog http://www.simplemarketingblog.com/

Linda Wright at Lindaloo.com: Build Better Business with Better Bathrooms http://lindaloo.com/