Potty talk: Hotel people, please enlarge and design them better!

Byline: Tom Belden

Memo to the owners, designers and managers of hotels: The next time you plan a new one or renovate an old one, spend a little time in the bathroom first.

We're not trying to get personal here. What we mean is make sure that the bathroom has enough space in it so that a person of average size can use the sink, the toilet or the bathtub _ without repeatedly bumping a foot, knee or arm into the other fixtures.

This piece of advice flows out of a recent experience in one of Washington, D.C.'s grand old hotels, a sprawling place with a lobby, restaurant and meeting rooms that have been gilded and lighted to the point they rival the palace at Versailles. The guest rooms also have been overhauled and have some nifty new pieces of furniture.

But for $200 a night (that's the rate conventioneers pay; it could …