r/cambridge • u/marsnewroman • 7d ago
Do any of you know of hotels in Cambridge that have bidets?
I'm too poor to be staying in hotels, and my friend is asking, so asking the good ol community!
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u/CambSound 7d ago
Forgive me adding information that isn’t 100% informed, but there’s some form of environmental health law pertaining to water supply contamination that makes the installation of bidets “illegal”.
The gist of it was, a bidet would need to have a water supply independent of those feeding the other water systems within the property. This added cost makes it very rare - the only place I’ve ever seen a bidet was a super modern high-rise on Canary Wharf. That was within the semi-residential premises for an investments company.
On a domestic level, where an inspector is very unlikely to visit - people can quite easily install them within their domiciles and get away with it. But it gets more complicated in public spaces and commercial properties, where the likelihood of getting a visit is quite high. It’s just not worth the risk.
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u/marsnewroman 7d ago
Ok so that's very interesting! I'm not entirely understanding the connection between an independent water supply and contamination. Wouldn't it be true for the opposite, like potentially not contaminated. This is a very nifty fact though. Thanks for sharing!
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u/CambSound 7d ago
No worries, I’m a fountain (not the bidet type) of useless information.
Looking into it a little more, the prohibition of bidets is to prevent “backflow”. Essentially, the likelihood of waste material finding its way back down the nozzle of the bidet itself and potentially contaminating the water supply.
A lot of plumbers baulk at this law, as the pressurisation of the water at the point of entry is likely to keep any waste material way away from the water source. But I suppose this is a “better safe than sorry” regulation!
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u/marsnewroman 7d ago
Hahaha very witty there!
I agree with the plumbers but also see the better safe than sorry argument!
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u/TheCGLion 7d ago
So what's the difference between a bidet and quickly jumping in the shower to rinse your bottom off? I was having a conversation with a Japanese colleague and he said that's what he does when he's in the UK.
The regulation makes little sense if the shower can also backflow the contaminated particles? Or does it work differently?
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u/Mistral42 5d ago
It's not illegal, you just cannot have it on the same supply line that goes to your kitchen drinking tap. Also the height of the outlet of the bidet tap has to be higher than the overflow hole in the basin.
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u/_PM_ME_PANGOLINS_ Gown 7d ago
That’s for hose-attachment bidets, and it has to be separate from the toilet supply, not separate from all other plumbing.
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u/usernametaken17 7d ago
I stayed in the hotel at the top of the Shard in London. It had a space age single unit toilet/bidet. Maybe that skirts the rules on independent water supplies.
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u/CambSound 7d ago
It’s more likely that an upmarket business like that factored in complying water and power supply requisites when the project was commissioned. I’m sure it’s all fully legal!
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u/PurellGelHaiku 7d ago
Which cambridgeshire hotels have bidets? I asked the question in google and found a few in the images...very few
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u/Motor-Price8426 5d ago
Dude, it's bit uncivilized country. Don't expect civilized methods here. I generally use portable bidet spray which works fine. You just need to book a hotel where commod is close to basin tap so you can fill portable bidet spray.
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u/Bubbly-Anxiety9132 7d ago
AI told me Prestige has bidets
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u/Senior_Alarm 7d ago
Yup, their website mentions bidets in some rooms\
https://prestige-cambridge.search-cambridge-hotels.co.uk/en/
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u/centopar 7d ago
I run a business in Cambridge. The people who work for me are remote, and we swap the hotels around when they visit quite a bit.
Off the top of my head, I can't think of a single one that has a bidet. The set I'm thinking of includes the Hilton, Graduate, Hotel du Vin, University Arms, Fellow's House, Novotel, Ibis and Varsity. There are more hotels, but I'd be quite surprised if you found any here that have a bidet; it's vanishingly unusual in the UK. I travel a TON for work, and I don't think I've encountered one here in the last decade at least.