How Do You Make Airport Toilets Great?- 大数跨境

JOMOOinter

2021-07-17

One of the first things I was told when I started working with airports, was that ultimately passenger satisfaction is all about the toilets.

Washrooms at Beijing Daxing International Airport, supplied by JOMOO

While it’s true that there is a general correlation between overall satisfaction and the toilet experience, what is very clear is that poor experiences in the toilets are often very strongly linked to passenger overall dissatisfaction.

Creating a great toilet experience is something that is a headache for airports all over the world. At the heart of the problem is quite simply the basics – having enough washrooms in the right places and keeping the washrooms clean. If they are not clean then passenger reactions range from disappointment to disgust. If it’s disgust it often colours the passenger’s whole impression of the airport.

What interests me however, is how airports can turn the washroom experience from a negative or neutral-at-best to a positive impression.

Remove the door

The first step is often to remove the door and make passengers walk around the corner to create privacy. I can’t emphasize how much people appreciate not having a door in an environment as busy as an airport.

Brightening up the washroom entrance at Jacksonville Airport

Some airports such as Jacksonville (above) have then tried to brighten up the entrance suggesting you will be in the clouds; others such as Mumbai have looked to make the most of their history and culture by creating stylized men/women drawings to signpost the washroom.

Showcasing Indian heritage at Mumbai Airport

As if you were in a hotel

As so often in the airport industry, Singapore has taken this idea to a different level.

The toilets in terminal 3 frequently bear more resemblance to those of a 5 star hotel than an airport. This really does give the impression that when you travel through Singapore, you are travelling first class.

Washrooms at Changi Airport / source: the Internet

Other airports such as San Francisco have clearly spent a considerable amount of time with interior designers, making the washroom as light as possible, but not being afraid to use dark materials to try and conceal water around the sink areas. By putting the hand driers next to the sinks, drips are reduced.

Sober, classy washrooms at SFO Terminal 2

Making the best of difficult situation

Another very thoughtful airport is Chongqing in China. There they have both seated and squat toilets. While this is common in many parts of the world, most people tend to prefer one or the other and don’t like to change. The consequence of mixing the two is that splashed water and footprints all over the washroom is equally common.

Simple, useful signage on washroom doors at Chongqing Airport

The key issue is that users of seated toilets often find this mess unpleasant and believe it to be unsanitary. No airport to my knowledge has solved the problem of having to wet wash the floors. But Chongqing has simply labelled the cubicles to prevent sitters from seeing the squat area and hopefully to prevent squatters from using the sitter’s cubicles. A small thing, but the small items can add up to make a difference.

Like Singapore and San Francisco, Hong Kong has tried to provide a 5 star experience in its washrooms. The whole experience is bright and a tasteful picture of the city and the bay are there to break up the block colour of the wall, and perhaps provide encouragement.

Washroom with a view – Hong Kong Airport

Truly innovative

For me, though, the airport which appears to have given the most thought to its washrooms is Seoul Incheon.

While ICN’s attention to detail is legendary, I’d never seen cubicles designed expressly for children. Personally I think I’d feel a bit odd using it together with one of my children, but I loved the attention to detail and thoughtfulness of it.

Inside children’s washroom at Incheon Airport

ICN is currently upgrading its toilets around the airport and is apparently experimenting with different designs and styles at the end of the concourses.

Washrooms at Seoul Incheon Airport

For me this washroom really demonstrated how a creative imagination and a little planning can completely change a mundane aspect of the airport experience. It is also practical, with basins at different heights to cater for children as well as adults. To create a modern, but relaxed ambience there are tablets attached to the walls operating on slideshow showing different Korean landscapes to provide a relaxing ambience. Tablets seem an unlikely extravagance in a toilet so I did check to see if they could be taken out, but they are firmly locked in place and can’t be removed.

Pay for the best materials as you can

It is also essential that the facilities are well maintained and the best quality materials are used wherever possible. The reason is that as the materials age, they may crack, discolour or both. Unfortunately these facilities are then assumed by passengers to be dirty regardless of how clean they really are.

Poorly maintained washrooms damage satisfaction levels

Poorly fitted or damaged fittings around the washroom also give a very poor impression. Refitting the washrooms on the cheap inevitably rebounds on an airport with poor satisfaction ratings and shorter lifespan.

After all, the bathroom is an indicator of how clean, trendy and upscale an airport is, so it is essential that passengers have a good experience of it.

Source: dkma.com / Mark Adamson

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