This Website Shows Whether Your Hotel Room Has a Bathroom Door

It’s gone viral for the wrong reasons–TikTok clips of hotel rooms with showers placed right in the middle of the bedroom, or bathrooms that open straight into the sleeping area with barely any separation. Some travelers have even found themselves in rooms with frosted glass partitions or sliding panels that leave little to the imagination, turning what should be a simple check-in into a moment of confusion.

It makes for an awkward situation when traveling with friends and family members, but one internet user has helped travelers narrowly escape these travel woes, all thanks to a database called Bring Back Doors.

Bring Back Doors is a crowd-sourced online database that documents hotel rooms based on one very specific detail: bathroom privacy.

The project was created by Sadie Lowell, a digital marketer who launched the site after years of travel across Europe and repeated encounters with unusual hotel bathroom layouts, as described on the platform itself.

The idea took clearer shape after a 2024 trip to London with her father, an experience Lowell has recounted in interviews with outlets including CNN and The Wall Street Journal. They had booked a twin-bed room, but found what she later described as a setup with “no semblance of a bathroom door,” a moment that made the issue feel like a recurring design trend worth tracking.

From there, the project evolved into a way to help travelers anticipate bathroom layouts that might not always be obvious at the time of booking.

As outlined on the website, hotels in the database are categorized based on privacy levels: 0% privacy for spaces with no doors, no walls, or walls with windows; 50% privacy for glass doors or see-through partitions; and 80% privacy for partial barriers such as barn-style doors or slatted panels that block sight but not sound or smell.

The platform also notes that submissions are global and continue to grow through user contributions, with listings spanning multiple cities and countries as new reports come in.

Using the site is straightforward. Travelers can search or browse hotels to check whether previous guests have reported bathroom doors, partial privacy, or fully open layouts.

Each listing is based on submissions that are verified through available photos or, when possible, direct confirmation with hotels about their room designs.

Check out the full website on bringbackdoors.com.