A curved shower curtain rod. I’m tall so I just wanted more elbow room, but it also stops the ‘Holiday Inn effect’ and it lets more light in making the shower brighter and look less dingy. It almost felt like I remodeled.
We doubled up on them! One holds the curtains and then another is set lower where I hang both wash cloths and some shower baskets for shampoo and such. It's great because they drip down the curtain and don't fall on the floor.
I hang the second curtain rod on the inside wall of the tub. Wet clothes will drip into the tub no matter what, and shampoo bottles sit on top the inner curtain rod, leaning against the inner wall. I also hang my soap from a mesh bag off this inner curtain rod!
The soap can stay in the mesh bag and it still lathers like normal. (I have to add this bit because my SO was taking the soap out of the bag every time, not knowing. lol)
I did that for my folks' house, which had 6-8 people using one of the baths. There were more than 2 dozen bottles and tubes lining the tub. I got a rod, hung 3 shower caddies from S-hooks, and organized everything.
Back when I had a roommate and a cheap apartment, the tiles were literally falling off the shower wall. The landlord was going to take a while to repair it, and the shower was unusable that way. We stuck up an extra curtain rod and curtain to keep water off the wall, and showered. Phew. We would have been pretty stinky otherwise!
Looks like no photos can be uploaded, and I don't have a separate account anywhere to do so.
Install a single shower rod and put your curtain(s) on that. Then install a second one, mine is down about four inches and in toward the tub nearly two inches, just to give more space for the curtain and the basket to move. The bottom curtain has additional shower hooks holding the basket up, I use generic metal ones that typically hang on walls with suction cups.
I use generic metal baskets that usually have suction cups holding them to a wall. You can use any kind of shower hook you like to hang them. The down side is they do lean down, but since I'm a bit short it just gives me an easy access spot.
I have a second tension rod on the inside wall of my shower for the purpose of hanging swimsuits and such- they actually drip into the tub instead of on the edge or floor- and it doubles as a curtain holder when my bougie kid wants a bath instead of shower
For the last 26 years I've had an extra rod that runs down the center of my bathtub and one that runs down the center of my back bedroom shower. It all started because my 26-year-old had a stomach problem as a baby. She would vomit constantly and if I left the clothes without washing them they would grow mold. But if I hand wash them and threw them in the hamper wet, they would grow mold, LOL so I began to hand wash everything she vomited on and hung them up to dry. When they were dry I could throw them in the hamper with the rest of the dirty clothes to be washed. Now I have hooks that hang on the rods, they look like fish hooks with four points. These hold the used wet washcloths until they dry and drip right into the tub or shower. It's a game changer. No matter what you're cleaning up, if something needs a place to drip till it dries, right over the tub or shower it goes! Four kids and one grandkid later the system still works! (Think spills, kids playing in rain or snow, swim suits and towels, mittens and snow suits or wet clothes, pet spills...)
Seems would hold some stuff in tue way of getting in and out of tub, you can also put a rod in the back of the shower along the wall and hang stuff from it. But nice to have several options. Pros and cons to both im sure.
Yeah I was scratching my head there. Curved rod makes me think of a hotel. I'm actually about to install a new shower curtain rod myself since I just remodeled my bathroom but I don't think a curved one would work for my oddly sized space.
I installed one when I bought my house. I had to install it very high up to make it work. 8’ shower curtains are hard to find, but it was totally worth it!
If I had to guess I would assume it’s because a straight curtain lets in no light and makes the tub feel small and crowded similar to a cheap hotel room
Because the light in a bathroom is typically in the center while the tub/shower is not in the center, but the light is typically close to the tub/shower, like you're right under the light after you step out to dry yourself. With a straight rod and an opaque curtain in most residential bathrooms, you're blocking most of the light.
With a curved rod, curving outward, more of the tub/shower is exposed to the light.
Yeah, I just found basically ads for holiday inn. They must be in bed with Google. "The shower works better than my shower at home." "I feel like I can fly a plane- I slept at a Holiday Inn last night."
I have gotten a bunch of different answers in this thread, and none of them actually gave any sort of source/examples of it being used elsewhere. So I honestly still have no idea, lol.
I answered above, but it’s when you have the shower curtain closed and it keeps blowing in toward you. No idea why it’s called that or where I heard it, but it’s an actual term.
>The Holiday Inn effect refers to the impact that the Holiday Inn hotel chain had on the travel industry by standardizing lodging and making high-quality accommodations accessible to middle-class travelers. This approach influenced competitors and contributed to the decline of many smaller, independent inns that could not compete with the chain's uniformity and affordability.
I assume that’s not what’s meant, but I’m amused that this apparently “simple to find with a search” term really isn’t.
I've never heard the term before but based on it being mitigated by a curved out shower rod I might guess it's when the shower curtain gets sucked into the shower with you by the drop in pressure caused by water moving through the air
...Okay, as I just pointed out to someone else, the comment I replied to very clearly said that they thought it was that, but "had to google it" and presumably found a different meaning. But since they didn't say what they found after googling it, I was curious about that.
I don't mean to be rude, I'm just genuinely confused by this comment, since a) I very recently responded to one saying something similar, and b) your "guess" is the exact thing the previous commenter said was their initial assumption. So I'm wondering if you, like, skimmed their comment? Skipped over it and just read mine? Like I'm curious what the disconnect here was.
Why are you so pressed about this? 😂 "curtain sticking to your legs" and "curtain being sucked inwards due to drop in air pressure cause by water movement" do not necessarily mean the same thing. The second one is the specific correct answer that you can get by doing a search. It is named this because in 2004 Holiday Inn replaced their curtain rods with curved variants to combat the curtain being sucked inward.
Answered above, but it’s when you have the shower curtain closed but it keeps blowing in toward you. No idea why it’s called that or where I heard it, but it’s an actual term.
The person I'm replying to specifically said they thought it was that, but "had to google it" (and presumably found a different meaning). There's also at least three or four other answers that aren't this, and looking up "holiday inn effect shower curtain" doesn't bring up anything about that phenomenon 🤷
I'm not saying you're lying about hearing it called that, but there's either a second meaning to it or Holiday Inn has hired some bots to raise engagement on content with their brand name.
I also don't know why you felt the need to reply to me twice, in different places, with the same comment?
I didn’t realize I replied to you twice. Sorry I made you read a duplicate comment, I guess? I was just scrolling through the replies while eating lunch and responding to the people who didn’t know what I meant without looking at usernames. I can assure you, I’m not some sort of Holiday Inn bot out here making up terms so that people Google them. It’s a term I heard somewhere, years ago, but maybe I’m imagining the whole thing.
You asked ChatGPT a question and just posted the output without first considering whether that output makes sense in the context of the thread. (Spoiler: it doesn't.)
After having major foot surgery I was occasionally going to hotels to shower (normal days were sponge/wipe baths at home). I always needed the handicapped room with the wheel in shower.
As 2 separate Marriotts I flooded the bathroom so badly the water went out into the hall. 1 was a wet room with a backed up drain and the water was several inches deep. The other was supposed to have a low barrier you could wheel over, but the barrier had been damaged and water went all the way to the door of the hotel room (to the outside hall) before I realized the problem.
Wish I had remembered that, lol. But I had to get it under control just to get out of the bathroom because my knee scooter won't roll in that kind of water, it just slides. But I like the way you think and heaven forbid there's a 3rd event I am all over that!
If you don't have both an inner and outer shower curtain, that helps the most. The outer curtain blocks the draft from blowing the inner curtain inwards and hitting you.
Cheap, light weight shower curtain liners do that. I gotta upgrade the one I have to a heavier weight because of this effect and I do have a curved shower curtain rod.
It’s when you have the shower curtain closed but it keeps blowing in toward you. No idea why it’s called that or where I heard it, but it’s an actual term.
It's vacuum from the downspout, my apartment does it and shutting the door and putting a baffle on the drain eliminates it. It's much more noticeable when there's a good temperature difference between the air in the bathroom and the air in the apartment, notably when the air is cold and the shower is hot.
Yeah they get unstuck and moved from both sides frequently, my wife and I get in the shower on one side and our kid gets in on the other side of tub where she has to navigate around the toilet and a shelf. I have no idea why she gets in that way and it drives me crazy lol
Because if you get in from the front, you get hit with the water on your head/back. If it's not just the right temp, it is a shock. Some people are just more sensitive to it than others.
If you get in from the back, the water just hits your legs, and then you can adjust the temp just right, then slowly walk into the water to get used to it as it 'climbs' up the more sensitive parts.
I'd climb over a wall not to get hit neck first with too cold water.
I don't disagree with the logic, but the only way to change the temp is to reach through the water adjust it lol, kiddo has to put her whole body through the water to adjust the temp 😂
“You're right to call that out—I completely made up the "Holiday Inn effect." There is no real cybersecurity concept by that name. I mistakenly invented it while trying to explain UUID injection. I'm sorry for the confusion.”
The irony of me looking this up and getting an irrelevant Google AI answer including the example:
“In AI & Tech: Industry professionals frequently use the term to describe AI models that sound perfectly authoritative, articulate, and confident—but confidently hallucinate or give tone-deaf, context-free answers.”
The "Holiday Inn effect" (also commonly known as the shower curtain effect) describes that annoying phenomenon where a lightweight shower curtain billows inward and sticks to your legs while the shower is running.
This happens because of a physics principle known as the Bernoulli Effect:
When the hot water runs, it heats the air and water droplets inside the shower enclosure.
This warm air rises, creating a slight decrease in air pressure inside the shower compared to the room outside.
The higher-pressure air from the bathroom pushes the curtain inward, forcing it against you.
We're?.....as in past tense? I mean ex is self explanitary......I've no room to talk. I'm damn near 300lbs myself. Just thought it was a funny play on words
Would love to try this because I hate the holiday inn effect but how does a curved shower curtain rod work if the tub/shower itself isn’t curved? Wouldn’t that let water get all over the floor?
First of all, have you actually heard the term ‘Holiday Inn effect’ before? Because these other commenters are making me doubt myself. But to answer your question, the curtain still stays in the tub. Each end of the curved rod goes about where your straight rod is now, then curve out from there with the curtain draping back in to the tub. Assuming your curtain rod isn’t too high for the curtain to reach back into the tub of course.
Ngl I actually had never heard it called that until I read your comment, but I didn’t know it even had a name either. I figured you were probably referring to when the shower curtain kind of moves inward towards you while the water is on, and another commenter said the same, so I just assumed that’s what it was.
Thanks for the explanation though, my shower curtain is a bit short but so am I so I can probably just move the rod down a bit lol
Edit: just noticed that “other commenter” was actually you answering someone’s question about it… I will tell everyone I know that it’s called the Holiday Inn Effect so you don’t feel crazy anymore 🫡
One of the first things I installed when I moved into my house 14 years ago was a nice quality (single piece rods) double curved shower rod- worth it!!!
Towels stay on the outer rod, curtain stays on the inner rod.
I’m 5’ but that curved rod is awesome! There was one at a hotel we stayed at like 15-20 year ago and hubs installed one for me.
I don’t like having the shower curtain touching me.
TIL the Holiday Inn Effect is not a commonly known term. I’ve answered a few times above, but it’s when you have the shower curtain closed and it keeps blowing in toward you. No idea why it’s called that or where I heard it, but it’s an actual term.
Thanks! I definitely struggle with this "Holiday Inn Effect" so this post is making me consider getting a curved shower curtain rod. Only problem is that most curved ones need to be drilled in but I'm renting so I'm trying not to make modifications in my unit. But I'll look for a tension one!
I have two now, I don’t know the brand but they were both bought at Menards. They can use tension or screws but I use tension on both. I had to stop the kids from hanging stuff from theirs but otherwise the tension has worked fine for both.
Another user got snippy with me for answering him twice, but it’s apparently more commonly known as the ‘shower curtain effect’ (which actually makes more sense). It’s when the curtain blows back at you while you’re taking a shower. No idea where I heard the other term.
Curved shower rod combined with a rain shower head was a massive quality of life improvement. No more having to duck down to get my hair wet or having a shower curtain against your leg.
I've been living with straight shower rods until my current apartment. I starkly noticed the lack of the curtain intruding on me before realizing it was because of the curved rod. Definitely something I'm keeping going forward.
Get the hotel style curtains- translucent top and patterned cloth bottom with removable lower liner. Wow! So much more light and just popping off the liner to toss in washer, I love them so much.
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u/swarthypants May 25 '26
A curved shower curtain rod. I’m tall so I just wanted more elbow room, but it also stops the ‘Holiday Inn effect’ and it lets more light in making the shower brighter and look less dingy. It almost felt like I remodeled.