Female urinals developed to eliminate festival queues
Historically, equality at festivals has fallen over when it comes to fans answering a call of nature. While male attendees are often catered to with urinal installations, their female peers have to endure waiting times of up to 30 times longer to use the facilities.
However, a number of companies are addressing the situation with the introduction of female urinals, designed to vastly cut queues for festivalgoers, which could, in turn, result in higher concession sales, with ladies able to spend more time waiting for food or drink without having to meticulously plan their day around toilet breaks.
At the Green Events and Innovations Conference in March, the order books of Lapee became busier after numerous festivals were impressed by its advantages, while the latest operation to enter the market is Peequal, which is making a similar system available to event organisers.
Former University of Bristol students Amber Probyn and Hazel McShane developed their hands-free Peequal after interviewing 2,000 women in focus groups and spending their summers working at music festivals. According to McShane, during their work breaks they had to choose between going to the loo or getting food, because the queues for the toilets were so bad.
“Peequal has been created by women, for women”
As a result, the pair took on the challenge of designing a better toilet solution as part of their master’s degree project, and the outcome could very well be seen in a field near you soon.
Like Lapee, Peequal provides users with a degree of privacy, and delivers a much greener solution for toilet facilities at events.
The standalone, touch free Peequal units claim to be six times quicker to use than a lock-door loo. The design is flat-pack and its developers say it is six times quicker to pack, as well as being made from 100% recycled material and they produce 98% less CO2 than portable toilets. The unit can be configured in three ways, making it easily adaptable to different environments.
“Peequal has been created by women, for women,” say the inventors. “We have been endorsed by WaterAid, Glastonbury and many more customers, who also see this problem and want a solution. Initially we intend to rent to early adopting and influential customers, and then scale up to reach the global market where we have identified a demand.”
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No one returning to your venue? Blame the loos…
Substandard lavatories are a leading cause of customer attrition at businesses such as restaurants and music venues, new research suggests.
A recent survey of 1,042 Americans by Bradley Corporation found that toilet facilities are a key consideration in deciding whether to return to a business, with more than half (56%) of respondents saying they would not make a repeat visit, or would think twice about doing so, if the facilities are unclean or unpleasant.
Conversely, pleasant, well-maintained WCs can be customer magnets, with 92% saying they see a direct relationship between the quality of a company’s services and the cleanliness of their loos, and nearly three quarters of respondents saying they are more likely to visit a business if its toilets are of a high quality.
“Depending on their condition, public restrooms can become significant business liabilities – or ringing endorsements,” comments Bradley’s director of global marketing and strategic development, Jon Dommisse.
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