Serving the American Liquid Waste Industry Since 2002
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| Special Event |
| Attendants |
| By: Carol Brzozowski |
When people want an attendant onsite for special
events, money isn’t a concern, Connie Riley told
Sanitation Journal last month.
events, money isn’t a concern, Connie Riley told
Sanitation Journal last month.
Riley, a Certified Special Events Professional and the International President of the International Special Events
Society (ISES), stated her company, Orlando, Florida-based T. Skorman Productions, has always had an on-site
attendant for special events and furthermore, an operations person to deal with problems.
Throughout the United States, portable sanitation operators who provide units for special events agree that an on-
site attendant can be an asset not only in providing premium service to clients, but adding to the company’s bottom
line and image.
Consider the approach of the Charmin company, which manufactures toilet paper. The company has a special
events restroom trailer called the Party Palooza, which has traveled throughout the United States at festivals and
other events.
Society (ISES), stated her company, Orlando, Florida-based T. Skorman Productions, has always had an on-site
attendant for special events and furthermore, an operations person to deal with problems.
Throughout the United States, portable sanitation operators who provide units for special events agree that an on-
site attendant can be an asset not only in providing premium service to clients, but adding to the company’s bottom
line and image.
Consider the approach of the Charmin company, which manufactures toilet paper. The company has a special
events restroom trailer called the Party Palooza, which has traveled throughout the United States at festivals and
other events.
| Lorraine Wardy, Sariba's Portable Jons, |
A few years ago at the Fort Lauderdale Air & Sea Show, the
Party Palooza was set up in an area near the beach, complete
with attendants dressed in tropical shirts, dancing to calypso
music. It was a hit with the crowd, with many people not
minding the wait in line because it had been a portable
sanitation experience outside of the box.
Ellie Madrigal, vice-president of Eagle Portables in Lynwood,
California, says she believes it does make a difference to
have attendants at special events.
“I think it really helps in case there’s an emergency, like an
overflow or the toilet seat needs cleaning – then we’re there
to clean it up on the spot as opposed to our company looking
Party Palooza was set up in an area near the beach, complete
with attendants dressed in tropical shirts, dancing to calypso
music. It was a hit with the crowd, with many people not
minding the wait in line because it had been a portable
sanitation experience outside of the box.
Ellie Madrigal, vice-president of Eagle Portables in Lynwood,
California, says she believes it does make a difference to
have attendants at special events.
“I think it really helps in case there’s an emergency, like an
overflow or the toilet seat needs cleaning – then we’re there
to clean it up on the spot as opposed to our company looking
bad because we’re not there,” says Madrigal. “It helps us with the customer, because we’re on site; we’re not
looking bad as far as the service.”
The events for which Eagle Portables typically provides attendants include movie shoots, premiers and other high-
end events.
On occasion, the attendant will be dressed in a tuxedo, handing out towels.In addition to utilizing a “host” or
“hostess” attendant, Eagle Portables also has a service attendant on standby in case of need, such as an overflow.
“They would be there with a smile to ask if everything is okay,” says Madrigal, who has done the job herself.
Company employees take turns serving as attendants.
“We know which one of us is better at customer service than the others,” she adds.
Eagle Portables creates a separate billing for the service attendant.
Sara Bertran, a sales representative for the Florida division of Black Tie Event Services, a manufacturer and service
provider of luxury restroom trailers – the company upon which Riley’s company relies – says she believes it makes
a difference to have attendants at special events “because you don’t want to have to rely on someone who is not
making that their first priority.”
“A lot of times they think they can ask a group of volunteers who wants to do potty duty and no one does,” she
says. “Their fear is it’s a portable toilet, so that’s why you can’t rely on them to be able to do the same job that
someone will do who is being paid to do it. When they come with the intention that this is their job and this is how
they’re going to get paid, then that’s what they do.”
There are times when having an attendant are unnecessary, Bertran says.
“Perhaps if you are just having a small gathering at home and maybe you are only going to have 50 to 75 people
and are just going to put out a small restroom trailer with a couple of restrooms and you’re only going to be there a
few hours, then that’s no different than your own restroom in your own home.
“It’s going to get messed up, but it’s not going to be so bad that somebody’s got to be on top of it all the time. But
anytime you have 100 or more people, someone has got to be in charge of the bathroom all the time.”
For Black Tie Event Services, the male attendant also serves as the technician that will handle any problems with
the restrooms’ functioning, says Bertran.
The company utilizes a male and female attendant at gatherings.
“If you can only have one, it needs to be a female, because a female can usually hold off the guys for just a few
minutes and say, ‘Hey, let me go in and check everything’ and they can run into the restroom and right back out,
but a guy has to stand in the door and say, ‘You’re going to need to guard the door for me and don’t let anybody in
- there’s a man in the restroom’. So if you can only have one, then it generally needs to be a female. But most of
the time it needs to be male and female,” Bertran says.
While everyone from drivers to Bertran herself has done the job of attendant, the company will sometimes hire help
from a temporary agency.
“One of our experienced employees can show them what they need to do until they get the hang of things,” she
says.
Black Tie’s attendants are akin to the type one would find in a restroom at an upscale establishment.
“But those people are doing that for tips and I never allow my attendants to put out like a tip jar,” Bertran says.
“They are being paid. If someone wants to tip them, they can accept that tip, but it’s not good policy to do that.
Especially if I’ve rented that trailer out to someone and tell them it’s going to be an additional charge for attendants
and then they see the attendants collecting tips from their guests. That’s not good, so I simply do not do that.”
The attendants’ job function also includes maintaining a presence near the restroom to offer assistance to anyone
who may need it: going up the steps, opening the door for them.
“In an event of a large group, such as 300 or 400 people, I call the first hour of the event ‘potty training’,” says
Bertran. “Most of these people have never seen one of these trailers, so they go in and come back out and say
‘Well, it’s a nice trailer, but there’s no water’. The attendant asks if they pushed down on the water faucet because
that’s how you get the water. They say they turned it instead, and then they’ll go back in. On their second trip to
the restroom, they’ve been trained.
looking bad as far as the service.”
The events for which Eagle Portables typically provides attendants include movie shoots, premiers and other high-
end events.
On occasion, the attendant will be dressed in a tuxedo, handing out towels.In addition to utilizing a “host” or
“hostess” attendant, Eagle Portables also has a service attendant on standby in case of need, such as an overflow.
“They would be there with a smile to ask if everything is okay,” says Madrigal, who has done the job herself.
Company employees take turns serving as attendants.
“We know which one of us is better at customer service than the others,” she adds.
Eagle Portables creates a separate billing for the service attendant.
Sara Bertran, a sales representative for the Florida division of Black Tie Event Services, a manufacturer and service
provider of luxury restroom trailers – the company upon which Riley’s company relies – says she believes it makes
a difference to have attendants at special events “because you don’t want to have to rely on someone who is not
making that their first priority.”
“A lot of times they think they can ask a group of volunteers who wants to do potty duty and no one does,” she
says. “Their fear is it’s a portable toilet, so that’s why you can’t rely on them to be able to do the same job that
someone will do who is being paid to do it. When they come with the intention that this is their job and this is how
they’re going to get paid, then that’s what they do.”
There are times when having an attendant are unnecessary, Bertran says.
“Perhaps if you are just having a small gathering at home and maybe you are only going to have 50 to 75 people
and are just going to put out a small restroom trailer with a couple of restrooms and you’re only going to be there a
few hours, then that’s no different than your own restroom in your own home.
“It’s going to get messed up, but it’s not going to be so bad that somebody’s got to be on top of it all the time. But
anytime you have 100 or more people, someone has got to be in charge of the bathroom all the time.”
For Black Tie Event Services, the male attendant also serves as the technician that will handle any problems with
the restrooms’ functioning, says Bertran.
The company utilizes a male and female attendant at gatherings.
“If you can only have one, it needs to be a female, because a female can usually hold off the guys for just a few
minutes and say, ‘Hey, let me go in and check everything’ and they can run into the restroom and right back out,
but a guy has to stand in the door and say, ‘You’re going to need to guard the door for me and don’t let anybody in
- there’s a man in the restroom’. So if you can only have one, then it generally needs to be a female. But most of
the time it needs to be male and female,” Bertran says.
While everyone from drivers to Bertran herself has done the job of attendant, the company will sometimes hire help
from a temporary agency.
“One of our experienced employees can show them what they need to do until they get the hang of things,” she
says.
Black Tie’s attendants are akin to the type one would find in a restroom at an upscale establishment.
“But those people are doing that for tips and I never allow my attendants to put out like a tip jar,” Bertran says.
“They are being paid. If someone wants to tip them, they can accept that tip, but it’s not good policy to do that.
Especially if I’ve rented that trailer out to someone and tell them it’s going to be an additional charge for attendants
and then they see the attendants collecting tips from their guests. That’s not good, so I simply do not do that.”
The attendants’ job function also includes maintaining a presence near the restroom to offer assistance to anyone
who may need it: going up the steps, opening the door for them.
“In an event of a large group, such as 300 or 400 people, I call the first hour of the event ‘potty training’,” says
Bertran. “Most of these people have never seen one of these trailers, so they go in and come back out and say
‘Well, it’s a nice trailer, but there’s no water’. The attendant asks if they pushed down on the water faucet because
that’s how you get the water. They say they turned it instead, and then they’ll go back in. On their second trip to
the restroom, they’ve been trained.
“Those kinds of questions always come up in the beginning and then
after that, it’s a matter of replenishing the paper towels, making sure
the trash stays empty, wiping up any spells that may have occurred,
replenishing the toilet paper and just taking care of any concerns that
may be there.”
Generally, clients are not willing to pay the extra cost for an attendant,
Bertran notes.
“In the beginning, you have to sell it,” she says. “You have to say to
them, ‘You’re going to have enough going on with taking care of your
guests and the party. You really don’t want to be thinking about the
restrooms. If I can even sell them on one, sometimes I’ll send two,
because I want to make a really good impression with everyone there.
I do my very best to incorporate that cost into it.”
While special events units in and of themselves speak well of a
company renting them, the presence of an attendant who does their
job in an exemplary fashion also reflects the company’s reputation.
“It becomes turnkey if you go all the way and have the attendants, so
that nobody has to be thinking about the restrooms - they’re there and
they become the hit of the party,” Bertran says.
after that, it’s a matter of replenishing the paper towels, making sure
the trash stays empty, wiping up any spells that may have occurred,
replenishing the toilet paper and just taking care of any concerns that
may be there.”
Generally, clients are not willing to pay the extra cost for an attendant,
Bertran notes.
“In the beginning, you have to sell it,” she says. “You have to say to
them, ‘You’re going to have enough going on with taking care of your
guests and the party. You really don’t want to be thinking about the
restrooms. If I can even sell them on one, sometimes I’ll send two,
because I want to make a really good impression with everyone there.
I do my very best to incorporate that cost into it.”
While special events units in and of themselves speak well of a
company renting them, the presence of an attendant who does their
job in an exemplary fashion also reflects the company’s reputation.
“It becomes turnkey if you go all the way and have the attendants, so
that nobody has to be thinking about the restrooms - they’re there and
they become the hit of the party,” Bertran says.
Mike Pauling, Biffs, Inc. Shakopee, Minnesota
Biff’s, Inc. in Shakopee, Minnesota automatically includes an attendant for large high-end special events that
involve restroom trailers, notes president Mike Pauling.
“We tell the attendant what their duties are, what their hours will be, and what they’ll be looking for. We give the
client an option of having a truck onsite also,” he says.
“At some of these events, we’ll have a man and woman,” he adds. “They will go in and check paper levels, make
sure the counters are wiped and the paper receptacles are cleaned out, on occasion do a cleaning of the bowls as
needed and wiping off the doors and the handles on the urinals.”
The job description of Biff’s attendants also entails making sure the soap dispensers are full, sanitizing the sinks,
and checking antibacterial sprays.
“It’s becoming, on certain events, something people are willing to pay for,” says Pauling.
If clients decide they’d prefer to take care of those functions themselves, Biff’s advises them on what needs to be
done.
“But for the most part, attendants are almost standard,” says Pauling. “In an event that has flushing units and
standard special event units for the VIP area, we also make available stand-by people for just about all of our
events that are something other than a football game.
“If it’s a corporate event or a fundraiser, we make attendants available and in almost all cases, clients buy it. We
charge an hourly rate and then we also charge if they would like to have a truck on site, but that is not a very
common occurrence.”
Biff’s factors the cost by taking the direct costs, considering the overtime rate of time and a half and calculates
that from once the employee comes into the shop and takes one of the pick-up trucks used for that type of thing
with supplies and towels.
“We’ll start paying him when he gets here and then he gets paid until he comes back and that’s what we charge
the event back,” says Pauling. “We take all of the direct costs and double it. The perception of the value of that is
becoming more accepted.”
Biff’s has a number of seasonal employees trained to do attendant-type work on a regular basis for various-sized
events. They will work the full duration of each day on the weekend, are provided a cart and supplies and are paid
on an hourly basis.
Biff’s uses an Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant unit with a lock on it for paper and various supplies that
might be needed.
Biff’s attendants operate ‘in the background’ as opposed to those that might have more of a presence in the
restroom, complete with a basket for tipping.
“We believe we should be invisible,” says Pauling. “I’ve been to high-end places that have done that. It’s pretty
invasive and generally, with the crowds we have, it wouldn’t be something that would be expected.”
Scott House is vice president of operations for Outdoor Event Services in Fenton, Michigan, a company that
strictly rents restroom trailers, of which there are eight used for special events, weddings, and corporate events.
The inventory is moved in the wintertime to warmer climates in Florida or Arizona and in the summer is dispersed
throughout the United States. The units are stored in storage areas.
“We fly people in and have trucks and then wherever the job is, we’ll just drive from there to the venue,” says
House. Local pumpers provide servicing and the drivers from Outdoor Event Services act as attendants, pulling
double duty as a technical service provider as well as a unit attendant.
In serving as a special events unit attendant, an employee of Outdoor Event Services must dress in a casual, yet
professional manner – much like golf attire, says House. They always wear slacks, not shorts.
Their job includes wiping down the countertops, restocking paper products as needed, taking out the trash and
sweeping rugs or floors as needed every half hour during an event.
The units of Outdoor Event Services have a men’s and women’s side and House concedes it’s a challenge to get to
the women’s side when it’s busy. Attendants will knock on the door to make sure it’s cleared out before they enter.
“Usually they can get in and out of there within three to five minutes to restock the paper and take the trash out,”
notes House.
For large events, such as the Woodward Dream Cruise – a Detroit-based muscle car street cruise party - or
corporate functions, Outdoor Event Services will supply two attendants – one male, one female.
Clients are usually “more than willing” to pay for attendants, House says.
“We include it as a separate line item and if they choose to do it themselves, they can,” he says. “We charge
between $200 and $400 depending on the length of the event for an attendant. On these large events, we’ve never
had anybody say that they don’t want that.
“We do a lot of weddings and corporate events, and I give them the option. Nine times out of 10, people prefer the
attendant role for their events because they don’t want to have to worry about restocking the paper and taking out
the garbage.”
Lorraine Wardy, president of Sarabia’s Portable Jons in El Paso, Texas, provides an attendant with her company’s
high-end trailer, which often goes to special events and weddings and provides sanitation services for men and
women.
“People love it,” she says. “I include the attendant in the price for four hours - anything after that is extra. I send
my attendant nicely dressed with a company shirt. He helps people in and out of the trailer. He also goes in the unit
and checks for trash. He makes sure the toilets aren’t overflowed and he’ll change the paper.”
The employee is cross-trained to do both attendant work and perform technical service.
“We have a small slide-in unit we take on a pick-up and that’s what he drives himself to the event,” says Wardy.
“Sometimes he hitches a trailer at the end of the event and sometimes he just waits until the next day to do the
servicing.
“We’ve had fabulous events where sometimes the lights go out or the generator doesn’t work,” says Wardy. “We
want to avoid that at all costs. People tell you they are going to have 100 people and they end up with 500, so we
want to make sure that everything runs smooth, that we give them first class service.”
Wardy will not send the company’s high-end trailer out without an attendant.
“I purchased my trailer four years ago and it’s still like new,” she notes. “I have other trailers that are less fancy
that I don’t mind if they go out by themselves. People are happy to have them if they don’t want to pay; they pay a
lot less for the trailer and don’t have to pay for the attendant.”
In choosing the appropriate person for the job, Wardy looks for someone who can speak both English and
Spanish, who can be trusted, who is unlikely to drink alcohol at the event or nap in his truck.
“That happened once,” Wardy notes. “We’re very specific and strict about how we want him to handle it because
he’s the only guy they see from our company. The trailer can be beautiful, but he’s not doing his job if he’s
nowhere to be found. People are very kind to him - usually they offer him dinner and sometimes drinks, but we’d
rather they don’t.”
And while the employee is not offered tips, Wardy is fine with it if her driver/attendant takes a tip that is offered.
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Having an attendant at a special event is akin to having a good Maitre
d’ at a party or a good caterer, Wardy says. And clients willing to pay
for an upscale special events trailer also are willing to pay for an
attendant, she adds.
“They want the bells and whistles and want to show off with it,” she
says. “I recently sent my trailer to a three-year-old’s birthday party.
They were having all of the grandparents and the friends, about 100
people. Our trailer accommodates 1,000. We had other units available
for them, but no, they wanted the attendant, they wanted him dressed
a certain way, and they wanted the big trailer there. If they’re willing
to pay, I’m willing to send it. I think it all appeals to the ego, too.
“You want the best food and the best service, and since this trailer
really only goes to those events, people are happy to have the
attendant,” she says. “They don’t have to pay extra for him. It’s
included for four hours. The Mexican weddings we service usually
last 12 hours, so they have to pay extra. My driver sometimes does
fall asleep at 3 a.m., but oh, well, he did his job.”