No extractor fan in hotel bathroom

[WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll]

We stayed at a chain hotel last weekend - got a good deal and had a very nice stay; supremely comfy bed. However, the one big glaring omission that we noticed was that there was no extractor fan in the bathroom. It's a modern purpose-built hotel, so obviously designed that way - we're not talking about an adapted old castle or anything.

I was always under the impression that you legally had to have a fan in a windowless room where there's a toilet - is this wrong, or is it true but only for private homes? They're often wired in to the light, so you can't not activate the fan, unless you deliberately do your business in the dark.

Obviously, being a hotel, it's en-suite - meaning that all bathroom smells waft straight into the bedroom. We're not a squeamish family in that way (we had an extra bed for our DS), but I imagine it would rather kill the mood if you were on your honeymoon, in the first flush (no pun intended) of romance with a new partner or just one of those couples we read about on MN a lot who insist on driving to the next county refuse to poo or fart anywhere there's the slightest chance that their spouse/partner might hear or smell it.

Looking online, it appears that this is not unusual - even in quite expensive hotels. AIBU to think that it's seriously grim to deliberately design hotel rooms to stench throughout, every time one of the occupants leaves their calling card - and apparently believe that's just fine? At places that serve full English breakfasts, with their very well-known after-effects, too! <boak>

Isn't an extractor necessary to prevent damp when there's no window? That would be a major concern, I would have thought.

It probably gets cleaned so often they don't worry about damp.

If English breakfasts give you the shits there's something a bit odd about you.

They don't really work for smells anyway. I'm sure people can just flush on impact like everyone else.

No extractor fans in the bathrooms at the big spa/wedding venue hotel we were in this weekend either

If you're eating such a huge breakfast that it's messing with your bowels, I'd advise cutting down, or maybe trying the porage?

My bathroom has an extractor and believe me it does nothing for the smell and is just to prevent dampness. It can be turned off as well if you don’t want it waking up the house at night, there is an isolator switch bc and I’ve see those in hotels too.

There are spotlights with extractors built into the mechanisms, almost invisibly. I’d take a guess they have those if it was a modern hotel.

Is it not a hidden one that turns on when you switch the light on?

Was there no fan? Or was it just not working? I doubt ANY hotel with bathrooms with no windows would have no extractor fan.

Also, yeah I know what you mean about those really odd people who won't poo in the same county as their husband, (and haven't in 35 years,) and the ones who go into the garden to fart, and stay there 10 minutes to make sure the smell has gone. How do these people get through life? Serious question. (Bet they shag under the duvet with the lights off too, with marigolds on, and ONLY shag when they're trying for a baby. Then it's in and out in 30 seconds, no foreplay and no cuddles - just get on with it man!!!)

If there is a hidden one, then it doesn't seem to work at all.

Are they not supposed to mitigate the pong as well as keeping damp at bay? I've seen them with brand names like 'Whiffaway' and similar.

I'm not saying that fried breakfasts lead us all to some kind of Vesuvial bathroom devastation - just that they do have a tendency to work their way through quite efficiently in the normal course of things. Why on earth would I forego a wonderful big fried breakfast when at a hotel - that's one of the best bits of the whole experience?!

Was there no fan? Or was it just not working? I doubt ANY hotel with bathrooms with no windows would have no extractor fan.

No, there was no fan at all. Apparently, the room designer felt it wholly unnecessary as well as seemingly believing that humans have square buttocks and also prefer a square, flat, non-draining basin.

It's not normal for hotels to have extractor fans any more than it's normal for hotels to have bidets. They are both rare luxuries that are quite useless and pointless and have never been standard. I've never come across an extractor fan in any hotel room or motel room. It's just not the done thing. They all have airconditioning though.

Yabu for not intending that pun because it was obviously a good one.

MenaiMna

I did chuckle a bit, as I was typing it

They don't really work for smells anyway. I'm sure people can just flush on impact like everyone else.

What is 'flush on impact'?

It's not normal for hotels to have extractor fans any more than it's normal for hotels to have bidets. They are both rare luxuries that are quite useless and pointless and have never been standard. I've never come across an extractor fan in any hotel room or motel room. It's just not the done thing. They all have airconditioning though.

It just seems so odd that they go to the trouble of including largely pointless fripperies and gimmicks and Heath-Robinson-type multi-lighting set-ups- but don't stop to think that guests might not want their rooms to stench. A bidet is different as it doesn't really do anything that you couldn't do by using the shower if need be.

There was a standalone desk-type fan in the wardrobe (along with an ironing board) - maybe they just expect you to rig that up in the doorway of the en-suite to blow the niff across the room and chase it out of the room window - that is carefully designed to only open a maximum of two inches.

What is 'flush on impact'?

Sounds quite an elite acquired skill to me, especially as the flush buttons were behind your back and the toilet lid.

What is 'flush on impact'?

It could equally be the next film in the Star Wars film franchise

There will be a central extract from the rooms, running all the time - generally a group of rooms depending upon the size of the hotel. An individual extractor fan for each bathroom is very energy inefficient.

There will be a central extract from the rooms, running all the time - generally a group of rooms depending upon the size of the hotel. An individual extractor fan for each bathroom is very energy inefficient.

That's all well and good, but it doesn't solve the pong problem at all.

Meh!

We have an extractor in our en suite.
Doesn’t stop the stink of my Dh bowels. they can actually permeate our entire 3 storey town house!

geeze, it’s an extractor, not a miracle worker!

sort his diet out.

ps my dh has IBS so I have zero issues.

All the air is ducted / ac no need for an extractor.

If sharing a hotel room I generally visit the public toilets if needing a dump in order to avoid opprobrium from my companion.

The modern rooms we have stayed in have what seemed to be a central extractor system rather than a clunky individual fan.

AIBU to think that it's seriously grim to deliberately design hotel rooms to stench throughout, every time one of the occupants leaves their calling card - and apparently believe that's just fine? At places that serve full English breakfasts, with their very well-known after-effects, too!

What are you even talking about?

Of course it's not illegal to have a toilet without an extractor fan! As pp have said, extractor fans aren't designed to remove smells, they remove the damp from the shower/bath, nothing to do with the toilet at all. You say you're not a squeamish family who avoid pooing anywhere near each other, but you are coming across that way. I've never even noticed if hotels have extractors or not. My husband is fully aware that I poo and that sometimes it smells. I'd always shut the door afterwards so the smell doesn't permeate the bedroom too much but it's not that big of a deal if one of us gets a whiff of the others poo