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"Start drawing your bath until it gets to the temperature you want. Meanwhile, remove clothing. Carefully insert your big toe in the waters..."
So wrote the poet John Ashbery in his by turns facetious and saucy guide, "How To Take A Bath." In the UK and the U.S., such instruction is barely needed: nothing could be simpler than repeating variations on a ritual that we first experience at just one day old.
But in many countries, tub time is a rarity, whether due to economic or cultural factors. In such places, locals tend to use a shower and/or bidet to stay clean and fresh. Meanwhile, show the average Brit or American a bidet, and they're likely to look around for a user manual or a poet to explain how to get started.
This bathroom hygiene culture clash tends to occur most often when a traveller checks into a foreign hotel or rental property. But where is that most likely to happen? To find out which countries most commonly include a bath, shower or bidet in their holiday accommodation, QS Supplies analysed thousands of listings on Booking.com.
What We Did
QS Supplies analysed thousands of Booking.com listings, using reservation filters to find the percentage of accommodations (hotels, apartments, holiday rentals, etc.) that have baths, showers and bidets in every country, every U.S. state and major UK, U.S. and global cities.
Key Findings
- Cambodia is the country with the most showers: they feature in 89.57% of rental accommodations.
- Japan is the world's bathtub hotspot (you'll find one in 66.22% of rental accommodations).
- Italy is the world's bidet hotspot (76.28% of bathrooms).
- Alaska is the state with America's highest proportion of showers (66.15% of bathrooms), and Idaho has the most baths (59.89%).
- San Francisco is the U.S. city with the most showers (71.15% of bathrooms) and bidets (3.93% of bathrooms).
- The UK city with the most showers is Newport, Wales (89.52% of bathrooms).
Italian Cities Are Among the World's Top Shower and Bidet Providers
Our guide to the global cities with the highest proportion of baths and bidets is a good indicator of our international results in general. Japanese cities have the most baths, while Italian cities have the most bidets. The Italian cities of Salerno and Catania are so hygienic that they appear in both the shower and bidet top ten; the wider province of Salerno is known for its thermal spas.
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Asian cities dominate among the global cities with the most showers. However, the top ten countries where you're most likely to find a shower in your rental are mostly European. Still, Cambodia leads the way, with nine out of ten Cambodian holiday rentals having shower facilities.
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Next up, you'll see the countries where you're most likely to find a tub in the bathroom. Japan leads the way by more than 8% - as reflected in our global city guide above - and Asian countries account for half of the top ten. Despite the premium on space in Japanese accommodation, homes often have an entire room devoted to bathing, with changing and toilet facilities quite separate. Japan has a long and rich bathing tradition, and aside from the phenomenon of public baths, bathing at home is felt to be a relaxing luxury.
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The modern bidet was most likely invented in France in the 17th century, and the name comes from a French word for a small horse - because of the position one takes upon it. Despite this, today only 1.86% of French rentals feature a bidet today, with precious bathroom space instead devoted to bathtubs and washing machines.
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Italy is the only country where more than three-quarters of bathrooms have a bidet, one of only four countries where more than half have a bidet; and the only European country to be in the top ten. Bidets have been a legal requirement in newly-built homes in Italy since 1975 - and besides, Italians like them. "They're so multifunctional," as one Italian told the BBC. "They also work for cleaning babies off, for rinsing the floor mop and, in a very busy household like the one I grew up in, with five people and one bathroom, even for peeing in, if the toilet was taken!"
San Francisco Has Most Hygienic Bathrooms for Travelers in the U.S.
The U.S. has resisted the call of the bidet, perhaps put off by association with "France's hedonism and sexuality" - after all, the bidet has traditionally been used as an (ineffective) form of post-coital contraception. It's a shame because a bidet is good for your health and the environment, as those who turned to it as a pandemic-era alternative to toilet paper discovered.
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Today, San Francisco is the city you're most likely to find a bidet (3.93%). There appears to be a tech element to San Francisco's love of the device: Larry Page famously had them added to the Googleplex in 2003, and one SF start-up even hit 430% of their Kickstarter goal in a bid to bring the bidet into the 21st-century American smart home. But even here, fewer than one in 25 bathrooms offer the option. And the state-wide bidet stats were too feeble even to warrant their own map. Here, instead, are the state maps for showers and bathtubs.
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In most U.S. states, between half to two-thirds of accommodations have a shower. There are six exceptions (Texas, Massachusetts, Indiana, Tennessee, West Virginia and Oregon). Perhaps the rain in Oregon is more than enough for most visitors: just 44% of the hotels and other rooms to rent on Bookings.com offer a shower.
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It gets chilly in Idaho, and travellers appreciate a soak in the tub. At the other end of the scale, a bathtub can be somewhat surplus to requirements in the likes of Florida and Hawaii - the state with the fewest tubs. Temperatures in the sea around Florida have actually reached hot tub levels this year.
London Lacks Baths, Boasts Bidets
While our previous study revealed that British cities overwhelmingly prefer a bath to a shower, those on a getaway in the UK may need to make do with a stand-up wash. Among the top ten cities for showers, you can expect between seven and nine out of ten hotel rooms to have a shower. Only around six out of ten at most are furnished with a bath. Notably, few of the top ten for baths or showers are in the south of England, and none are in London.
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Sat in the heart of the Midlands, the city of Leicester is the place to go if you’re hoping to find a bidet. However, it may still be a struggle as only 2.64% of accommodations have one. Unfortunately, Brits have similar reasons to Americans for turning their nose up at the bidet: "It seems to produce one immediate response in British minds," suggested a bidet advocate from the Council of British Sanitary Pottery Manufacturers, in 1963: "Continental Sex Life."
A Suite with a Sparkle
With an open mind and a bit of practice, the bath, the shower and the bidet are all bathroom devices that can prove both hygienic and pleasant to have in the bathroom. Whether your concern is your family's health and happiness or the challenge of attracting customers to your AirBnB, each option has advantages - and a full bathroom suite can leave everyone with a sparkle.
Do check out our full data in the interactive table below.
METHODOLOGY & SOURCES
To determine the bath, shower and bidet hotspots around the world, we calculated the percentage of hotel bookings in each country, state and city that have showers, baths or bidets. We used Booking.com to determine the total number of accommodations (hotels, apartments, holiday rentals, etc.) in each geography and then found the number of accommodations in each geography that have either baths, showers or bidets using Booking.com filters. We searched with no defined check-in and check-out dates that would otherwise affect the accommodation counts. We gathered data for all countries, U.S. states and UK cities, as well as the 100 most populous U.S. cities and the most populous cities in every country.
This analysis is correct as of August 2023.
