Context:
Passengers on the Titanic pay significantly different prices for different accommodations. The suites and cabins on the Titanic cost passengers no small sum for the time. At approximately $100,000 a pop in today’s dollars, you can see why the world’s richest and most elite sail on the Titanic — only they could afford the parlor suites. For the immigrants who traveled in third class, the cost of a berth is no small sum either. The immigrants were poor, and raising that kind of money (approximately $350 to $900 in today’s dollars) for passage to America was difficult in the early 1900s.
First-class parlor suite: £870/$4,350
xxx[Estimated cost in Today's dollars: $100,000]
Berth in first-class cabin: £30/$150
xxxx[Estimated cost in Today's dollars: $3,500]
First-class accommodations are located amidship, where the rocking of the ship was less keenly felt and passengers were less likely to get seasick. They were decorated opulently in different period styles: Queen Anne, Louis XVI, and Georgian.
The parlor suites come with wardrobe rooms, private baths, a sitting area, and in some cases, private promenades. All first-class accommodations are equipped with telephones, heaters, special gimbal lamps that are designed not to tip over in choppy seas, table fans, and (of course) call bells for summoning the steward.
If the parlor suite didn’t suffice, a wealthy family could purchase several first-class cabins adjacent to one another and open the interconnecting doors between the cabins to have a suite of their own.
Berth in second-class cabin: £12/$60
xxxx[Estimated cost in Today's dollars: $1,375]
In second class, passengers sleep in berths built into the walls of the cabins. At two to four berths per cabin, privacy is hard to come by, although a passenger could close the curtain around his or her berth. Each second-class cabin has a washbasin and a chamber pot to be used in case of seasickness. Second-class passengers use communal bathrooms. The picture on the left shows a drawing of the comfy, homelike atmosphere of a second-class cabin. As you can see second-class passengers had little room space compared to the first-class passengers.
But, you must remember that second-class members were often treated no differently than those of third-class during this time-period. They are the inbetweeners, and it is difficult for them to gain popularity within first-class members because they were not considered "rich enough" to mingle with them.
Berth in third-class cabin: £3–£8/$15–$40
xxxx[Estimated cost in Today's dollars: $350–$900]
Unlike, the first-class and second class passengers the third-class passengers found themselves sleeping below deck where the boiler rooms are located. Captain E.J Smith had made sure that they remained unseen by those who were considered prominent passengers on the luxury ocean liner.
Third-class passengers sleep on bunk beds in crowded quarters at six to a narrow cabin. Like second-class passengers, they shared bathrooms, but the number of people sharing a bathroom is much higher in third class: Only two bathtubs are available for all 710 third-class passengers, one for the men and one for the women.
In those days, many of the poor believed that frequent bathing could cause respiratory disease; therefore, most third-class passengers likely didn’t lament the lack of bathtubs.