Your vacation rental preference - bathtubs

[china mom]

Please help me with a decision. I have a vacation rental house near Disney so it is an easy assumption that many of my guests have children. It has been a long time since I had small kids so I am turning to you for guidance. Here is my set-up and my question. It is a 3 bedroom/3 bathroom townhouse. First floor - queen bedroom with a walk in shower en-suite. Second floor, king bed with a tub shower combo with glass doors. Second floor two twin beds with a tub shower combo currently with a curtain.

The issue is that I am experiencing water damage to the ceiling below the twin room and my Property Manager believes this is because guests put the shower curtain on the outside of the tub when showering. He suggested I install glass doors. but I know that it is difficult to bathe small children in a tub with glass doors.

Full disclaimer - I don't think I ever bathed my children on vacation as I count swimming the in pool as a bath (and there is a pool)

 

[Christine]

Yes, having the shower curtain out for even short periods is going to quickly cause a problem. My son, when he was a teenager, was terrible at keeping the shower curtain closed in the right place and I did get tile erosion pretty quickly on one end of the tub/shower. Glass doors will solve that issue.

The only thing I will say about framed glass doors (which is generally what you're probably going to put in a tub area, though you don't have to), is they are a BEAR to keep clean. Your guests are likely not going to do the squeegee thing after each use and your hope is that your cleaning crew that comes in between guests is going to need to be super thorough on getting the glass and surrounding caulk and frame clean. It's a lot of upkeep.

 

[HopperFan]

We actually taught our kids to shower from age 2 because on the road we would not fill a strange tub with water for them to sit in.

Our first house with two kids birth to 7 years old, we had a tub with shower doors and never had any issues bathing them. And we didn't even have removable shower sprays back then. Totally workable.

I would add the shower doors, add shower heads with removable sprays if you don't have and make sure you seal all grout/cracks in and outside shower. At least if you still have leaks it might point to something else. Check if they sell shower doors with that protective coating to slow down the clouding. We just installed glass walls in our shower and paid extra for the protective coating.

NOTE: We renovated the two bathrooms in our FL townhome. Walk in shower downstairs and tub upstairs. I so bad wanted to rip out the tub upstairs but we didn't. With inflatable bathtubs a child can easily be bathed in a shower stall. I now regret it.

 

[Schneewittchen37]

As someone who remembers bathing babies and toddlers in the last ten years, I do remember appreciating tubs without glass doors for the little ones.

Anyway, before blaming your guests for water damage:
1. Is the tub properly caulked? I just had to deal with a wicked leak caused by loose caulk in my tub/shower combo.
2. How's the grout around the tiles doing? Any cracks? See above. This contributed to the issue.
3. How's the diverter doing? Or the actual plumbing? A bad washer or gasket can do bad things.
4. Does the house have gray polybutylene pipes? Those leak. It's another nightmare.

 

[disneychrista]

I hate shower doors when bathing a child or dog but it would not be a deal breaker for a vacation rental.

Do you have or have you considered a curved rod for the shower curtain? It is amazing how much more room it makes and might help eliminate people putting the curtain outside the tub.

 

[Aimeedyan]

We are odd in that our kid showers 95% of the time, and has since he was 3-4 months old. I am really squicked out by bath tubs that aren't in my house so there is no way I'd put him in an actual bath tub at a rental/hotel anyways.

That said, if you are a bath family I can see how it'd be a pain in the rear to access them with a glass door. Shower curtain would be easier (and easier to clean/replace). Glass doors are also challenging to clean and often look dirty.

 

[firefly_ris]

How is the caulk and grout? I get that there will be water leaking onto the ground when the curtain is not tucked properly but to me good sealing around everything should be holding water in that room. I would check that first.

My kids bathroom is a tub/shower combo with a curtain, 3 kids who are not always real careful or observant (and leave wet towels and crap everywhere) and haven't had leakage. We built the bathroom in 2013 and about 3 weeks ago I pulled up the caulking along where the tub meets the tile floor and re-caulked it. I also checked the caulking on the 90 degree corners inside the shower (still ok).

All that said if that all looks good, for me the shower sliding door was not a deal breaker at all but I didn't love them, and they can be difficult to keep clean. There was one in our master bath when we purchased the house and I got rid of it. But for a rental I would deal. As the owner though I would worry about nasty build up in the track and ease of cleanliness, especially if your place has a pretty steady booking rate.

 

[china mom]

As someone who remembers bathing babies and toddlers in the last ten years, I do remember appreciating tubs without glass doors for the little ones.

Anyway, before blaming your guests for water damage:
1. Is the tub properly caulked? I just had to deal with a wicked leak caused by loose caulk in my tub/shower combo.
2. How's the grout around the tiles doing? Any cracks? See above. This contributed to the issue.
3. How's the diverter doing? Or the actual plumbing? A bad washer or gasket can do bad things.
4. Does the house have gray polybutylene pipes? Those leak. It's another nightmare.

I can't blame the water damage on guests for sure. The other culprit is the AC unit which is upstairs. The drain is known to clog in those on a regular basis and that might have been the problem. In fact, I am very suspicious that this may have been the case since my PM quickly pointed out (unprompted) that they clean the drain every time they replace the filter as a precaution. It made me a little suspicious that they volunteered that so quickly.

 

[china mom]

We are odd in that our kid showers 95% of the time, and has since he was 3-4 months old. I am really squicked out by bath tubs that aren't in my house so there is no way I'd put him in an actual bath tub at a rental/hotel anyways.

That said, if you are a bath family I can see how it'd be a pain in the rear to access them with a glass door. Shower curtain would be easier (and easier to clean/replace). Glass doors are also challenging to clean and often look dirty.

Same. My kids adapted to showers pretty early but even when they were tub age, I do not recall ever putting them in a hotel tub. The idea skeeves me out.

 

[Colleen27]

How long is a typical guest's stay? When I had little kids, that would have been the key question. We stayed in plenty of shower-only hotel rooms or places with glass doors when the kids were still of baths-only age because it really isn't a big deal to keep a small child clean enough without the ideal of the at-home bath routine for a few days, especially if those few days include a swimming pool. My kids are such swimmers that when we travel, even now, the main purpose of showering is to wash off the pool chemicals. But some of the vacation rentals we've stayed in have been places we rented for several weeks to explore an area, and in that case, I'd look for a child-friendly bathroom arrangement.

 

[china mom]

How long is a typical guest's stay? When I had little kids, that would have been the key question. We stayed in plenty of shower-only hotel rooms or places with glass doors when the kids were still of baths-only age because it really isn't a big deal to keep a small child clean enough without the ideal of the at-home bath routine for a few days, especially if those few days include a swimming pool. My kids are such swimmers that when we travel, even now, the main purpose of showering is to wash off the pool chemicals. But some of the vacation rentals we've stayed in have been places we rented for several weeks to explore an area, and in that case, I'd look for a child-friendly bathroom arrangement.

Good question. My typical guest is there from 4-7 days. I have a few that are around 14 days and I have one regular who is here for 4-6 weeks every year.

 

[LuvOrlando]

Before I would take on that expense I would have a plumber check for leaks because the water may have nothing to do with the guests and if you aren't sure you could end up spending on the glass door only too need to fix something later with more damage. We were getting water and wrongly blamed our kids, it turned out that the toilet up there needed a wax gasket that had rotted, it was cheap to fix. SInk gaskets also rot too, I'd think in Florida all this stuff will age twice as fast.

 

[holden]

I picked "other" because from the time my kids were around 3 I showered them. If I was on vacation with a little one and didn't have access to a tub, I'd just take them in the shower with me. I say replace it with a shower.

 

[NotUrsula]

I'd have a plumber check to be sure before you decide, but there is the option of trackless glass; the ones with a fixed panel + hinged outer panel are a bit more, but not insanely so.

For a cheaper route, have you tried prominent signage? Some people just don't know that the curtain goes inside the tub (if they have doors at home, or fixed shower walls). It might be that putting up a very prominent sign that asks guests to please shower with the curtain INSIDE the tub (a drawing would probably help) will help mitigate the damage. You can also install clips on the end walls to help hold the shower curtain against those walls while in use.

Also be sure to put towel hooks within arm's reach of the shower user, and I'd also provide extra towel-type bathmats for that room, and request that they be hung on the side of the tub between uses. (Ikea sells some really large absorbent ones for a good price.) Not everyone will do as you ask, but if some of them do, that should help. Also, if there isn't an automatic fan/heat lamp in there, I'd add one; they are very helpful for quickly drying bathrooms that have been used by drippy people. (Yes, college roommate, I am talking about you.)