Bathtub to Huge Shower Remodeling Trend: What do hotels think they are doing?

There is a trend in hotel bathroom remodels. They eliminate the bathtub (often a bath-shower combo) and put in a tiled large shower instead. This, they believe, makes the whole en-suite bathroom much more desirable.

Budget Travel.com, as early as 2011, noted this trend. They pointed out that Holiday Inn has gone from 95 percent of its newly built hotels having a bathtub 10 years ago to only 55 percent of new hotels featuring them now. Marriott, they said, plans for 75 percent of the chain's rooms having a shower only.

And these larger walk in tiled showers are supposed to be the "in thing." If you want a luxury room, you can expect a large shower. Don't look for a bathtub. It won't be there.

So what are we bath lovers to do? What are families with little children to do. After all, bath time with a rubber ducky is a family tradition, no?

Don't travelers enjoy luxuriating in a warm bath after a hard day on the road any more? I, for one, consider a bathtub a necessity. I'm disappointed when a hotel cannot accommodate my request for a tub (if I remember to inquire.)

If you want to please me, have a clean bathtub available and a fluffy bathrobe in the closet to use when I emerge, relaxed, from my bath.

What do you think? Shower, bath or both?