Washrooms in the great outdoors
Many will flock to outdoor attractions this summer: but how do cleaning staff at these venues cope with the extra pressure on washrooms? Stuart Hands from Tork manufacturer Essity investigates.
Open-air venues such as theme parks, amusement centres and zoos make for a great day out during the school holidays.
And they are becoming more popular all the time: Alton Towers and Thorpe Park – both of which appear in the list of Europe’s top 20 theme parks – increased their growth in 2018 by around 5% with visitor numbers for each approaching the two million mark.
Attractions such as white-knuckle rides, animal displays, soft play places and petting zoos will keep children of all ages occupied for hours at a time. And kids will expend a great deal of energy walking the often-lengthy distances between the attractions and other facilities.
Unfortunately, the same is true of the cleaning staff. The sprawling nature of theme parks and zoos means that cafés, restaurants and washrooms tend to be spread out over a wide area. And this obliges cleaners to undertake long treks between each facility to check whether extra cleaning is required or if the soap and paper dispensers need to be refilled.
This is just one of the many headaches involved in cleaning outdoor visitor attractions. Another is that it can be hard to predict when sudden spikes in washroom traffic will occur.
Some zoos and theme parks have their own visitor flow projections that predict where visitors are likely to head first. But there are no such predictions for washroom visits which means these facilities could be suddenly swamped with visitors at any time.
A certain level of queueing is expected for exciting rides and attractions at theme parks and zoos. But visitors will be less willing to queue for the toilets where they will waste precious time that could be better spent at the attraction itself.
And it is surprising how easy it is for a bad washroom to spoil a day out. Review sites such as TripAdvisor are filled with reports from outraged customers about dirty or unhygienic washrooms where they have been forced to queue for substandard facilities. Issues such as soap and toilet paper running out are a particular cause for complaint since this basically makes the washroom unfit for purpose.
Washroom queues also spell bad news for the venue: besides leading to negative press they can also keep customers away from the restaurants, cafés and gift shops where they would potentially be spending money.
Queues can also lead to further problems if groups of teenagers become frustrated and bored and decide to take out their irritation by vandalising the washroom units. Congestion in the washrooms could also lead to some people leaving the facility without washing or drying their hands – and hand hygiene is crucial in outdoor amusement attractions.
Most visitors will be staying the whole day and will either picnic on sandwiches or buy fast food such as burgers, hot dogs and chips – all items that are eaten with the hands. If people are skimping on hand hygiene to avoid the toilet queues, it could lead to cross-contamination, stomach bugs and a miserable summer holiday.
Hand drying is often a tipping point for queues because even the fastest air dryer takes at least 10 seconds to dry hands – and the washroom user will need to remain rooted to the spot while this occurs. Meanwhile, a queue will be building up behind them.
36 | LEISURE & HOSPITALITY
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