Anon Inn said:
A public area restroom is just a good idea, for earlybirds, for friends of guests (if your situation allows it), for teas, for.....just a bunch of reasons.
If you are in the planning phase, make that part of the plan!
I cannot stress how important this is. And the closer to the door the better. You will have guests showing up at 9:30 AM thinking they can just go to their room and use the facilities. If you let them into the inn they don't want to leave. Breakfast smells so good, can I just have a coffee and a muffin. Oh, you don't mind if I just sit down here to eat. And where should we go for lunch? And what time is check in? What are you doing for the rest of the morning? I'd love to chat! Are those the guests who were in my room? They're gone so just show me where it is and I'll get my suitcase out of the car. (If they haven't already hauled the 45 lb behemoth to the door and deposited it in the entryway where everyone is now tripping over it.)
So, if you have a rest room right by the door (kind of where you would put a coat closet in a house) the better off you are.
Because, seriously, are you going to stand outside the bathroom door to escort them back out the door? No. You are a busy person who is making breakfast or cleaning rooms or taking reservations or baking goodies for the afternoon. They will get away from you. They will go into vacated rooms and poke around. They may walk off with the housekeeper's tip. Or the towels. Or whatever because you'll never know, will you?.