Airport restrooms - do we need attendants?

8/26/2010 Charlotte Airport.
I was flying  USAirways which is a rare occurrence, so I was in a different area of the airport than usual. In the "ladies room", I was surprised to find a female attendant. She had a little folding table set up with an assortment of “ladies things”, Kleenex, a dish of peppermint candy and, you'll notice, a large tip jar.

She was also dispensing paper towels. She would go to the paper towel dispenser, pump the lever to get a couple feet of paper towel and then she would fold it and place it next to each sink, replacing them as travelers used them.

If you’ve read a few of my other blogs you know how I feel about the lack of cleanliness in public bathrooms. So I wasn’t impressed that she was laying paper towels out for use…on the surface of the sink counter.  I also wasn't sure about her hand hygiene as it appeared she was checking out the individual stalls and keeping them tidy. 

She also was dispensing mouthwash. There was a large bottle with a pump top.  Alongside the bottle, she had dispensed individual cups of the mouthwash.

You’ll notice the cups were sitting on the sink top which is right across the walking aisle from the toilets. As I noted in my “Hotel Room Coffee Makers" blog earlier this year, when you flush a toilet, there is a spray that potentially goes 20 ft. in the air. With the stall doors closed, this might not be a problem, but the spray really goes up not sideways, so I’m wondering if every flush generates spray particles that go over the doors and land on the sinks….perhaps near (or in?) those little cups of mouthwash.

My coworker says attendants are in all the bathroom at the Charlotte airport. Apparently their primary purpose is to help direct traffic as the bathrooms can become congested.  Indeed, this bathroom attendant would see someone come in and then she would walk to an open stall and signal the passenger to use that stall….and apparently I wasn’t there at a busy time because most of the stalls were empty.

I did ask my coworker if there were attendants in the men’s room and learned there are. So, while I’m wondering what “products” they dispense,  what I'd really like to know is if the attendants guide the incoming male  travelers to a urinal. (that seems like it would be a little weird).

Why am I writing about this?   Well, its the first time I've encountered bathroom attendants in an airport ...and I travel coast to coast and have been in many different airports.   Are they really necessary to minimize congestion in the bathrooms?  Have there been complaints about having to wait for a bathroom? 

O'Hare doesn't have them and they have a much higher volume of flights and passengers.  (actually I'm thinking maybe O'Hare needs these attendants out on the runways to reduce air traffic congestion!)

I'm also curious who is paying these attendants.   Is it the airport?  Or the airline?  Either way, I assume we travelers are footing the bill somehow.

I guess it’s good they have a job especially given the unemployment situation today.   However, its one more thing that I am expected to pay for which I think should be free!   If I want to pay to use a bathroom, I will move to Europe where I had to pay in almost every situation.

I chose to dispense my own paper towel (never saw her wash her hands) and didn’t use any products, so I didn’t leave a tip. Should I have left one? After all, she’s employed to do this job.   Or is it ok to draw the line at having to pay a buck to ...well, you know.