Photo Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily Beast
Social media is flooded with beautiful hotel bathtubs. With views overlooking the city, or in the heart of the jungle, or even filled with flowers in Bali, it’s easy to get swept up in bathtub wanderlust. And while I often fall victim to these images, one thing always pulls me back to reality: the idea that these tubs, while beautiful, are likely disgusting.
My interest in hotel bathtubs began two summers ago, when I was in Alaska. In the small town of Valdez, I checked into my hotel, and noticed a sign, with a little fish on it, perched atop the front desk. In a computer-generated cursive font, it read “Please Do Not Process Fish in the Bathtub.”
At first, I thought it was a gag—I had spent so much time around silly signs like that in gift shops that I didn’t think much of it. But a few minutes later, the front desk manager pushed a contract printed on formal letterhead in front of me. It was an agreement, promising that I wouldn’t clean, gut, or store any fish I caught in the mini fridge or in the bathtub of my hotel room.