Hotel bathroom light switches outside the bathroom?

June 21, 2007 6:26 PM

Why do some hotels have the bathroom light switch outside the bathroom?

I've only seen this in hotels, and I can't come up with any reason for why this would be.

posted by kiltedtaco to travel & transportation (34 comments total)

My bathroom is like this, actually (old building/Brooklyn). It's pretty inconvenient. Though, if you don't know if someone is in the bathroom, you just turn the light out and see if they yell.
posted by unknowncommand at 6:28 PM on June 21, 2007 [3 favorites]

It's this way in my apartment... dunno why (probably because the wiring worked better that way.)
posted by wyzewoman at 6:29 PM on June 21, 2007

I imagine it's a safety/liability issue... If a hotel guest is able to turn on the light before entering the bathroom, there's less chance of them falling or bumping into something from fishing around on the wall for an inside-the-bathroom light switch.
posted by amyms at 6:31 PM on June 21, 2007

It's a safety practice to keep the light switch away from the moisture, to lessen the chance of electrocuting yourself when you use it.
posted by chrismear at 6:31 PM on June 21, 2007

(In Britain, it's compulsory even in homes to wire your bathroom light switch like this.)
posted by chrismear at 6:32 PM on June 21, 2007

this is also a very common feature in hospitals and nursing homes.
posted by lester at 6:33 PM on June 21, 2007

Just playing it safe. Same situation with pull-cord switches in bathrooms and kitchens - the switch is safely out the way in the ceiling. Modern waterproof switches can be obtained for conventional placement, but in older hotels and houses that wasn't an option.
posted by normy at 6:36 PM on June 21, 2007

Nearly all bathrooms built more than a few years ago in New England are like this.

(It's compulsory in the UK? Really? I hate it.)
posted by rkent at 6:39 PM on June 21, 2007 [1 favorite]

So you can turn the light off on your sweetheart when s/he's in there.
posted by mendel at 6:44 PM on June 21, 2007

My bathroom is like this because the door swings inward to the right, so it can't be on that side, and it can't be on the left because then it would be 6 inches from the shower.
posted by djb at 6:44 PM on June 21, 2007

(In Britain, it's compulsory even in homes to wire your bathroom light switch like this.)

Compulsory to wire it that way if you're building a new house, that is.
posted by Aloysius Bear at 6:46 PM on June 21, 2007

So you can see without opening the door if you left the light on?
posted by QueSeraSera at 6:49 PM on June 21, 2007

I've noticed it happens a lot in ensuites, and not so much in main/only bathrooms in .au qld houses, of various ages.
posted by ysabet at 7:12 PM on June 21, 2007

I'd actually like to have this in my house - so I can turn the light on before entering the room. The cat's would appreciate it too, since they tend to get stepped on if I can't see them...
posted by blaneyphoto at 7:17 PM on June 21, 2007

this seems to be in houses of all ages in France too.
posted by DefendBrooklyn at 7:18 PM on June 21, 2007

It's most common in houses in southern Europe, although not compulsory. It's always been.
posted by carmina at 7:22 PM on June 21, 2007

In .au it's a legal requirement (part of the electrical / building codes) that electrical fittings be a certain distance from wet areas - IIRC, for switches on the same wall, 1.5m; on an adjacent wall, 0.75m; on an opposite wall, 0.5m. I think power points are different distances again.

(I'm not at all sure on those numbers - I'm not a licensed electrician - but that's the gist of it. Look at the building / electrical codes for your state if you need to know exact numbers for sure.)
posted by Pinback at 7:27 PM on June 21, 2007

Pullcord switches are still allowed inside bathrooms in the UK, I'm told.
posted by Freaky at 7:35 PM on June 21, 2007

i've noticed it's common on the west coast (of the u.s. of a.) but never really see it in the midwest, no idea why. sorry, not an answer, it's always just intrigued me.
posted by andywolf at 7:52 PM on June 21, 2007

I've only ever seen it in city apt buildings. I never once saw it in the northwest growing up, but in SF, Boston, & all of France its been pretty common. I hate it.. I always forget to turn the light on or off, so I either have to turn around and go back out, or it stays on for an extra 20 minutes before I realized I never turned it off.
posted by devilsbrigade at 7:55 PM on June 21, 2007

Nthing that it reduces various forms of liability.

I'm always grateful for this arrangement, though, because then I don't have to worry about a monster grabbing my hand when I reach through the pitch-black doorway.
posted by treepour at 8:11 PM on June 21, 2007 [3 favorites]

I have friends with a home in Berwyn IL (Oak Park area) with a light switch outside the bathroom. Growing up in Chicago I'd never run into this until they bought this house a handful of years ago.

My place here in the Boston area has this. I hate it.
posted by FlamingBore at 8:40 PM on June 21, 2007

So you don't have to feel around in a dark unknown hotel bathroom to find out where the hell the switch is and inadvertently knock the stupid attached-to-the-wall hairdryer off its case smashing onto the floor or your foot (not that I've ever done this).
posted by kch at 9:28 PM on June 21, 2007

Some of my houses have had this; mostly built before 1960.
posted by LobsterMitten at 9:30 PM on June 21, 2007

I never saw a light switch outside of the bathroom until somewhere in Massachusetts, I think. And I'm pretty sure that any that I've encountered since then have only been in Mass. I get the whole idea about keeping it away from moisture and what have you, but I still hate having someone shut it off (or offonoffonoffonoffon turning it into a rave) while I'm mid-business.
posted by lisawin at 9:35 PM on June 21, 2007

I've rented about a dozen apartments in central European countries, and all of them have had the light switches outside, so it's not just a hotel thing. Half of the apartments I've rented in the US have had them and half haven't, but strangely, none of houses I've lived in had switches outside the bathroom. It's a mystery. I like the switch outside because it's far more convenient than have to do some twisting and turning to flip an interior switch.
posted by cmonkey at 11:30 PM on June 21, 2007

chrismear wrote "(In Britain, it's compulsory even in homes to wire your bathroom light switch like this.)"

If it is, they only introduced that very recently. Most houses in the UK actually have a pull-cord light switch in the bathroom, presumably to prevent electrocutions. My mother's house is about 4 years old and it has a pullcord in the bathroom.
posted by EndsOfInvention at 12:02 AM on June 22, 2007

Kind of common over here too (on the subcontinent that is).
posted by hadjiboy at 12:11 AM on June 22, 2007

Having the light switches outside the bathroom that is
posted by hadjiboy at 12:13 AM on June 22, 2007

If it is, they only introduced that very recently. Most houses in the UK actually have a pull-cord light switch in the bathroom, presumably to prevent electrocutions. My mother's house is about 4 years old and it has a pullcord in the bathroom.

Sorry, I wasn't clear. A pull-cord is allowed inside the bathroom, because your hand is insulated from the actual switchy part; it's only the standard kind of wall-mounted switch that's not okay.
posted by chrismear at 12:19 AM on June 22, 2007

It's to stop you from killing yourself accidentally by mixing water and electricity.

Just spoke to an architect friend and she says that in hotels it's pure safety. It would be embarrassing and not good for business if guests were electrocuting themselves. It's also easier when designing and constructing the building.

There will be variations for houses from place to place depending on the local/national building regulations and the age of the building, but the primary reason is safety.
posted by Nugget at 12:58 AM on June 22, 2007

It's so you can switch the light off from the outside while your wife is on the can. That just drives her nuts!!. Guys are so juvenile.
posted by worker_bee at 5:34 AM on June 22, 2007

Just another data point - Growing up, our house had the light switch outside the bathroom. I grew up in the Midwest, in the Chicago suburbs.
posted by BuddhaBelly at 12:50 PM on June 22, 2007

My sister and brother-in-law live in an old apartment building in Jamaica Plain, Boston area. They have the outside-the-bathroom light switch. I thought it was just the apartment's being old.
posted by bad grammar at 4:13 PM on June 22, 2007