Please don't stand there holding the sauna door open!

[Raintree]

There's a sauna in my building. I have lived here only a few months, and a few days ago I decided to try it for the first time, as I was cold from being outside.

As I entered, I noticed an older (70-something*) man using the pool table in the adjoining community room, and we exchanged hellos in passing. The heat in the sauna was off, so I turned it on, but since I had nothing else to do down there, I just got in there right away (in my swimsuit) and figured I could just let it heat up while I was in there.

It was JUST starting to get to a comfortable temperature (but not sauna-toasty yet) when the man I'd said hello to in the rec room knocked and opened the door. He then stood in the doorway with the door open and said, "Hi, I was just wondering how long this sauna takes to heat up." I replied that I didn't know, since this was my first time using it, but that it was starting to get warm now. He then continued, while standing in the open doorway, saying he and his visitors had been discussing it a few days prior to that, thinking they should try it out and wondering how long it took to heat it up. While he was talking I could feel a cold draft coming in the open door and I really wanted it to get warm.

I wanted to say, "A lot longer when somebody's holding the door wide open!!!" But I didn't know how to politely request that he shut the door, so I just cheerfully answered his questions and hoped he'd either come in or leave.

He ended it by saying, "Thanks!! I was just curious as I have never used it. I wasn't just coming in here to take a look!" (That final statement indicated to me that he was).

(*I mention his age only because I'm trying to portray him as a harmless older man who thinks a 40-something woman with figure flaws (me) looks pretty good, but not creepy at all.)

What would e-hellions have done? "Excuse me, can you shut the door?" It seems kind of abrupt.

[Yvaine]

Honestly? I'd probably have said exactly what you wanted to say.  Delivered with a smile and a light tone, I don't even think it's inherently rude.

[WillyNilly]

I probably would have said what you wrote here "well its just starting to get warm... although now with the door open I feel a draft." Its not only the truth, it was a legimate answer to his question about the temperture.

[MrsCrazyPete]

I like WillyNilly's phrasing. It's the truth and can be said in a friendly tone of voice.

[QueenofAllThings]

Sounds to me like a one- off situation.  I wouldn't worry about it unless it happens again, in which case I'd invoke WillyNilly.

[25wishes]

I spend winters in a complex with a sauna and a steam room. Same problem with both, although as there is a transient (weekly rentals) population, it is usually people wanting to see what they look like. Although in the steam room it is kind of hard to see anything when it is full of steam.

Doesn't stop them though.

I have been known to ask "Please shut the door".

[weeblewobble]

I only get to go to my favorite spa every once in a while (it's four hours from my home, near my parents' place).  One of my favorite things about the spa is that they have an awesome sauna and those programmable showers with the fancy settings.  The technicians insist that you're supposed to follow up body wrap treatments with both the sauna and the shower to get the full experience. It's heaven.

The sauna is more of a steam shower, tile walls and benches and CLOUDS of steam pumping into the space.  And it seems like every time I'm sitting in it, some woman opens the door, sputters and coughs and waves her hand in front of her face, exclaiming, "Oh my GOSH, how are you sitting in here?  It's so STIFLING!"  while the steam pours out the door behind her. 

Once, I was sitting in the sauna with another lady, chatting about this very phenomenon when it happened again!  A woman stuck her head in the door and exclaimed how hot and awful it was and her delicate system could NEVER handle it.  My sauna partner called (through the steam) "But you could be polite and shut the door so those of us who CAN handle it, enjoy it!"

The lady huffed, "So rude!"  And slammed the door.

But she didn't come back.  I looked to the other lady and said, "Teach me your ways."

[bloo]

I only get to go to my favorite spa every once in a while (it's four hours from my home, near my parents' place).  One of my favorite things about the spa is that they have an awesome sauna and those programmable showers with the fancy settings.  The technicians insist that you're supposed to follow up body wrap treatments with both the sauna and the shower to get the full experience. It's heaven.

The sauna is more of a steam shower, tile walls and benches and CLOUDS of steam pumping into the space.  And it seems like every time I'm sitting in it, some woman opens the door, sputters and coughs and waves her hand in front of her face, exclaiming, "Oh my GOSH, how are you sitting in here?  It's so STIFLING!"  while the steam pours out the door behind her. 

Once, I was sitting in the sauna with another lady, chatting about this very phenomenon when it happened again!  A woman stuck her head in the door and exclaimed how hot and awful it was and her delicate system could NEVER handle it.  My sauna partner called (through the steam) "But you could be polite and shut the door so those of us who CAN handle it, enjoy it!"

The lady huffed, "So rude!"  And slammed the door.

But she didn't come back.  I looked to the other lady and said, "Teach me your ways."

And then share those 'ways' with me! 

[Raintree]

The sauna is more of a steam shower, tile walls and benches and CLOUDS of steam pumping into the space.  And it seems like every time I'm sitting in it, some woman opens the door, sputters and coughs and waves her hand in front of her face, exclaiming, "Oh my GOSH, how are you sitting in here?  It's so STIFLING!" while the steam pours out the door behind her. 

I went to a spa a couple of weeks ago where nobody's allowed to talk. It was heaven.

[weeblewobble]

The sauna is more of a steam shower, tile walls and benches and CLOUDS of steam pumping into the space.  And it seems like every time I'm sitting in it, some woman opens the door, sputters and coughs and waves her hand in front of her face, exclaiming, "Oh my GOSH, how are you sitting in here?  It's so STIFLING!" while the steam pours out the door behind her. 

I went to a spa a couple of weeks ago where nobody's allowed to talk. It was heaven.

Ha!  There are signs up near the treatment rooms stating the same, but in the ladies changing room, where the sauna and showers are located, it's understood that your privacy and quiet will be intruded upon.  (If nothing else, the running hair dryers will do it.)