Death of the American Bathtub?

When was the last time you used the bathtub? Unless you have kids or a compulsion to wash your pantyhose by hand, it's probably been a while. Showers are the personal hygiene method of choice these days, relegating the bathtub to dinosaur status.

More Americans are taking showers and fewer are taking baths these days.

(ABC News)

Some hotels have picked up on the trend by getting rid of their tubs and sprucing up their showers. Hilton, Marriott and Sofitel have begun renovations that include deluxe showerheads, multiple jets, expanded space, beautiful marble and glass doors. That last item helps eliminate the "ick" factor in our increasingly bacteria-conscious society. No one wants to brush up against a shower curtain that's touched some stranger's body, and no one wants to sit in a tub where someone else has sat.

Watch the full bathtub story tonight on "Nightline"

"They feel it's more modern, perhaps hygienic, although all of our rooms are clean," says Michael Hirsch, a regional manager at Hilton Hotels. "There is a mind-set there that a shower that someone hasn't been sitting in is cleaner than a bathtub would be."

The American bathtub isn't completely out of the picture. Hotels say they have to set aside some rooms with tubs for families with children and travelers from Europe and Asia. They apparently love a good soak.

Budget hotels like Holiday Inn Express are keeping their tubs, but the chain spent $20 million updating their bathrooms with curved shower rods, a specially designed Kohler showerhead, new plush towels and cinnamon-spiced bath products. The showerhead is so popular, Holiday Inn Express sells dozens on its Web site each week.

The emphasis on showers has influenced home design too. Homeowners want to create a spalike atmosphere in their own bathrooms. In the 1990s, that meant a large whirlpool tub with a minimal shower. Today it's all about the shower.

"Two-person showers have become commonplace," says architect Christian Zapatka. "It's all about speed. Our society's faster and faster, and we have less and less time.

"We want greater and greater luxury in a minute," Zapatka adds. "Rather than an hour of soaking in a tub, you have a few minutes in a shower and presumably, you have the equivalent experience by being surrounded by that multitude of jets that you would have had lying in a tub."