Neither is more difficult to squeegee as long as they don't have texture or bevels, etc., and you choose a good high performance grout. The difficult comes in from choosing natural stone over ceramic or porcelain.

If you are deep cleaning keep in mind the number of grout lines that will have to be scrubbed. Larger tiles of any kind will have fewer grout lines than smaller sized tile.

Neither IMO the fewer grout lines in a shower the better and never white grout either . I use 12 x24 tile on both bathroom floors and shower walls to keep grout to a sensible min.

What Jan said, and also if you have hard water like I do, you can have the shower professionally cleaned periodically. Our water is very high in iron, which leads to an orange-y buildup. Yuck. I have a fabulous tile cleaner--he comes usually once a year to deep clean all the tile and grout and recaulk the shower. Usually takes about 1 1/2 hours and costs $200-300. Well worth it to have a shower looking like new again.

Customers ask this on every bath project; the grout issue. It's usually a problem because of lack of ventilation in the bath. Take care of that and it will go a long way to solve any problems that come up.

^^ yes to all above. If there is any issue or I want to refresh WHITE grout I apply Soft Scrub with Bleach and leave for like 15-3O minutes. No scrubbing. Later I just remove with wet sponge or white rug. Also works really well on white caulk in the bathroom. But like everyone mentioned ventilation is everything. I always open the bathroom window after every shower, too. I have white tiles, but if you have different color, pls check in case it doesn't change color of tile.

Would it help to have the grout professional sealed in the bathroom after it is tiled? I remodeled another bathroom once and the contractor told me that with the newer type of grout that he used it didn't need to be sealed. We wipe those walls down after every use and don't have an issue but this new bathroom will be for guests so can't count on what will happen.

Whether you think grout is easy or hard to clean, it does have to be cleaned occasionally. LARGE SCALE tiles will requrie less grout.

Another detail: Avoid white-white tile and/or grout. Mid-tones will always hide dirt better.

Agree with all the above. Larger tiles with non white grout will be the best route.

A guest bath is by definition , of guest? Not an often enough occurrence to be worrying on mold or mildew. It's a door that will be open 90 % of the time. Mold doesn't take up residence that quickly. If a "guest" is two months of unbroken stay? the answer is still ventilation!!

The single factor in prevention is VENTILATION.

As to "avoid white",.... this is a load of B.S.. You don't "hide" dirt, you remove it, or have someone else remove it.

Soap scum? That is not really different.....avoid cheap bar soap. It's the culprit major league and use shower gel instead. A weekly cleaning of shower walls with any reasonable amount ( minimal ) effort keeps a shower sparkling. I know, because mine IS white and sparkling. All white...including grout.

I don't know why so many people have bad experience with white grout. As I mentioned Soft Scrub with Bleach keeps my white grout like new. Colorful grouts on other hand, might show dirt o stains less visible but than you have to be very careful when trying to remove any stains and not discolor. And I don't need to scrub anything. I just apply, leave it for a little time and wipe off with wet rug/sponge. And I do it only once in awhile.

No one should have to scrub a modern high performance grout any more than they do the actual tile, if the bath is squeegeed after use, and there is proper ventilation. And no bar soap gets used. Once a week spray down with a pH neutral tile and stone cleaner, and wipe down with a microfiber. That's it. I think that more than half the people worried about scrubbing grout are living in 1972, with a failing 1930 bath, and no ventilation.

Thank you @Minardi, is there a specific pH neutral tile and stone cleaner you like?

I am always surprised by how many people avoid white grout in a tub/shower surround due to cleaning issues!!!

I agree with Jan - there is no reason to avoid white grout. The tile surround of the (dreaded) jack and jill bathroom between my two daughters' bedrooms was the 4x4 white square tiles with white grout. My daughters learned to take care of their bathroom at a fairly early age (my mom had taught me and my sisters to take care of our bathrooms at an early age).

When the surround was cut out, it was in perfect condition still - and that was with plain old grout from 1996 (there have been a lot of advances in grout since back then). There also was zero mold/water intrusion in the walls behind the green board (moisture resistant dry wall) that was used as the tile substrate (and the long wall was an exterior wall).

We have a good exhaust fan - which I taught my girls to use every time they showered (although I'm sure there were times that they didn't). They didn't use a squeegee on the walls after every shower - they left the fan on while they finished getting ready + the shower curtain pulled over the the side + doors to bathroom open. No grout scrubbing ever.

We also used body wash instead of bar soap - that makes a big difference when cleaning the tub.

FYI - the new tile surround is Bedrosian Cloe White tile - with white grout.