I hate bathroom attendants because I don’t think they provide any service to me at all. I’m really good at operating a sink and drying my own hands. I know how warm I want the water, and I know how much soap is appropriate. I have my own hair products, breath mints, etc. so I don’t need any of those.
I also don’t like being made to pay a buck every time I take a wiz, but I’d rather pay 1$ at the bathroom door for the privilege of draining the main vein, and not have to deal with the guy inside manning the sink, if the venue is intent on making the revenue.
I think the place thinks that a bathroom attendant makes them seem classy, as the only place I’ve seen it is in “hip” clubs in Vegas, NYC, and other party places. Strip clubs also have them a lot, even those far from classy. Aside strip clubs, I never see bathroom attendants in dance clubs in Denver, Houston or KC (Cities I frequent)
I’ve been to many very nice restaurants in these “Midwestern” cities and don’t recall men’s room attendants in them. I have never been to a fancy restaurant in NYC or Boston or the like, with lots of “old-money”. Do Old-money types like having an attendant? My guess is that even Bill Gates or Paris Hilton would rather handle hand washing themselves, but I may be off base. I do you all feel about the issue?
I was in a strip club last weekend and overheard the attendant griping about the percentage of patrons leaving tips. I wanted to tell him that’s what happens when you are selling a service that the market doesn’t want, but I just put a dollar in the bowl instead, and took a jolly rancher so I’d feel like I was getting something at least.
I don’t go to clubs, or to actual nice restaurants. I’ve only seen bathroom attendants at the Hard Rock in Chicago when I was 12, and I thought it was cool back then that a lady would give me a towel, spray me with perfume, and had Altoids and Winterfresh for my use.
But I don’t see the point. And who the hell wants to hang out in a bathroom for their job, of all places? Especially in a men’s room? Gross…
I would go out of my way to find a bathroom that did not have some guy standing in its entry, who wanted me to give him money for… I dunno. What do they do again? I want to go to the bathroom myself. Not with friends, not with strangers if I can avoid it, and absolutely not where you have to pay to get out.
I’ve never seen it in the States, but I’ve seen it in other countries, but to tell the truth, when I’m in another country I’m prepared to take a dump with someone sitting on my lap if that’s the custom.
Usually when I’ve seen it, it’s kinda like mom just sitting there, making you feel guilty if you don’t wash your hands.
You are more adventuresome than I.
I hate attendents. It’s one more uncomfortable social situtation that provides an opportunity to make an ass of myself. I can wash my own hands, and probably manage to locate some drying apparatus, all by my lonesome.
At my current club, we hire them primarily to secure the bathroom rather than to provide customer service. If I asked one of our bouncers to stand there all night, he would quit. If I leave the bathrooms unguarded, which has unfortunately happened several times, the bathrooms will be trashed by the end of the night as men are pigs and it’ll cost the club $100s to replace sinks, soap dispensers, etc. The women’s room will be even worse, as they are pigs too. I will admit our club is not the most upscale operation in town, but we are one of the most popular clubs in the city and we draw mainly from the middle class. Furthermore, because they are contracted tipped employees we pay them nothing, we pay the agency they are from a nominal administrative fee, but its nothing compared repair costs to fix the restroom once, let alone several times a month.
That’s the first sensible reason I’ve heard for having an attendant. But I think I’d rather have CCTV (only in the hand-washing area, obviously!) if it’s security you’re worried about. When I encounter an attendant, I usually avoid the problem by leaving without washing my hands. I simply refuse on principle to pay for a service I’d do better myself, in a similar way that I will not pay for bottled water over tap water, on principle. Since the attendant only makes money from the tips, he then tries to make me feel guilty, of course, which just increases the general discomfort with the whole situation. So I say, if you have to employ them, pay them proper wages, please!
I too hate attendants - I feel that I am now capable of going to the toilet without adult supervision, and I don’t like having some smarmy git basically panhandling while I’m taking a whiz.
The only time I’ve encountered them when they were OK was during big events in posh hotels, where they basically just have people to hand you little hand towels, dump them in baskets, and generally optimise the throughflow of people draining out their cocktails.
In most ‘club’ venues I have always assumed they are there as Yogurt says to keep an eye on vandalism or to prevent (or maybe facilitate) drug dealing/humping in the cubicles - its generally an indicator of a pretty dodgy establishment, IMO.
This past year I was at the Wisconsin State Fair where the public restrooms get very high traffic and can get trashed relatively quickly.
They must have been trying something new because the bathroom I used had an attendant who was collecting tips but was running around constantly wiping down the sink countertops, cleaning the mirrors, making sure the stalls had paper, making sure there was no paper or trash on the floor, etc.
I have to say it was the cleanest mass use public restroom I was ever in.
If the fair was giving these guys minimum wage plus tips to man the restrooms I think the expirament was working.
If they’re there for the club’s benefit and not for mine, the club should pay them.
If the club can’t afford to provide a clean, stocked and sketch-free bathroom without depending on me tipping the attendant, they should up the cover or the price of drinks.
Well, I guess it’s a good service for people who are worried about touching germy things. But no thank you. I’m from the UK, but I don’t like the idea, and find it very strange to tip someone for it.
CCTV? Yes, but I can just see someone not getting it, and having to prosecute them or something, which would be too much hassle.
Why not have a guy there doing something else? Hand out breath mints. Provide clean towels. Play a musical instrument so you can’t hear people dumping. Then the club has a fake bouncer, the patron gets something at least a very little bit useful, and the guy gets tipped.
I was under the impression that it was a free service (all the hairspray and stuff). I used the hairspray once and didn’t tip. And when I went back a while later to use the hairspray again, the woman wrenched it out of my hand and told me, “NO HAIRSPRAY FOR YOU. ONE YEAR!”
Back when Saturday NIght Live was still funny they had a fantastic skit on this. The attendant was in the stall with some poor guy who was obviously uncomfortable with the whole idea.
“Will you be dropping anchor sir?”
I always assumed strip clubs had attendants so often simply to discourage men from getting all hot at the strippers and going into the men’s room to polish the bishop.
Trust me, if it was up to me I would. I work at the club and I go out of my way not to use the public bathroom. One more than one occasion we have had an off-duty employee and sometimes on-duty get into altercations with the attendants because they refuse to tip the attendant. On one occasion, we had to throw the attendant out because he got very irate when we ejected a male patron who had promised him a large tip, who when we found him was nude from the waste down in the middle of the bathroom.
You have also hit the nail on the head. On college nights, we occasionally catch them selling wristbands to underage patrons. In addition, I am sure some are facilitating the “pharmaceutical” trade as we call it, but because they see us coming, we are yet to catch them.
Essentially, you get what you pay for. We are not willing to pay them anything, so we keep the bar very low.