Full Bathrooms or Seperate Toilets/Sinks from Showers?

Separate.
For the simple reason that the que will be shorter for facilities. If you put them together somebody is bound to complain that there were not enough showers.
And floor is cleaner in separate showers/Wcs

We're currently looking at a couple of spaces that would build our bathrooms to suit. Which do you prefer-- a full bathroom (shower, toilet, and sink), or divided-- a shower-only room and another with a sink/toilet?

To my mind, dividing them allows more people to use the facilities at once, and they probably stay cleaner-- you don't get the wet floors that come with having showers in the same room.

On the other side, guests may find it an inconvenience and prefer to get ready in the mornings in one room all at once.

To be clear, I'm not talking about a shower room that has a bunch of showers in one area-- each shower would have it's own room, and a small area outside of it for drying off/getting dressed.

Thoughts?

I feel that guests would prefer a full bathroom (shower, toilet, sink in same room) because it is more convenient for them. If I had the money and the space to build all full bathrooms in a hostel, I would do so. I would consider it as a competitive advantage to gain points against the competition.

But in the end, it all depends on how much money you can spend and how much space you have. As for myself, space is a limitation and I have to consider separate showers and toilets.

The trip to Portugal showed that shared bathrooms don't seem to have any affect on customer ratings if they are maintained well. I went to several of the top-rated hostels in the World and the ones in Portugal all had shared bathrooms.

Having shared bathrooms shouldn't negatively affect your ratings if done right.

(Though bad shared bathrooms are worse than bad ensuite bathrooms :))

If I were going to build a hostel from scratch, I think I would lean towards building shared bathrooms for dorms, with private bathrooms for private rooms.

It might be useful to have sinks in the dorm rooms though. There is a possibility that someone will come in late and make a lot of noise with the sink, but at the hostels I've stayed at with sinks in the dorms, it doesn't seem to be a problem.

I agree with you that shared bathrooms are ok. (In the end, all bathrooms, even bathrooms in private rooms are shared by its occupants, although by less people than in dorms.)

It is the idea of separate showers and toilets that I find less appealing if I were a guest. It has to do with being already naked in the bathroom and having the shower, toilet and sink all conveniently available; instead of having to get dressed if you are urged to use the toilet, which is at a separate room. I guess "convenience" and "all-in-one-place" are key words.

Those words, as opposed to "practical". For hostels and guests, it is more practical to have separate showers and toilets because with a same amount of separate showers and toilets you can achieve shorter queues than if full bathrooms were used.

At our homes, we usually have full bathrooms; that is what usually everybody around the world is used to. It is a nice touch to have facilities in a hostel with the same arrangements as we are used to in our home. But in hostels, enough money and space are not always available to provide that extra touch.

Fortunately, "practical" wins over "convenience". The small inconvenience of not having "all-in-one-place" is overcome by the benefit of having shorter queues.

Just wanted to express my opinion. The best solution in hostels I have stayed were communal showers. Separate males and femals. There were like one big room with 4 - 5 showers, so it was spacy, no queque, no trrafic, you can shower whenever, always 1 -2 free or you get your turn quickly and there were no small cabins you hit the walls who the most probably have some bacterias or so as many people shower in such a small space.

If you ask me. Build communal shower and guests will have no tension in waiting the row ;-)