Anyone know about the porta potty business?

[Rick Lee]

A former co-worker called to catch up today. He's miserable in his new job, but he's just doing the online chat for sales and rental quotes. They deal in "luxury" toilet rentals. He said it's a pretty good business and one day's or weekend's rental can easily cover the monthly payment on one of these trailers. I had never thought of this, but have been to a few weddings and parties with really nice porta potty trailers that were just about as nice a those in a clean house. Obviously, I have a ton of research to do, but I'm certainly not afraid of this kind of work. I'm a little concerned about how to market things and get the business. My buddy (on the east coast) says they get calls all the time for stuff in AZ, but they don't have any ops here, so the market is not saturated. Any of you guys know about this stuff?

[motion]

I'm pretty sure this type of business is in the toilet these days.

[LWJ]

I know a guy that insures more porta potties than anyone in the US. He owns some as well. I could connect you if you want to get connected. I am sure there is an association somewhere.

[Rick Lee]

Yes, please. I am in the research phase and am a sponge for this crap.

[Arizona_928]

I've seen them at ranch style backyard wedding in buckeye, and other places. Allot of people do them so they don't have guests go through the house, and utilize those toilets.

It's a ****ty business, and wouldn't want to do it.

[rusnak]

I think the money is in the cleanup/ servicing. You have to have the trucks.

Why "luxury" though? Those are not going to make you more than the single and HC ones. What I'd do is look at renting out the toilets, wash sinks, handicap units, 6' chain link fence panels (post driven and pad mounted), and rolloff dumpsters. Target the construction businesses. Save your nicer units for carnivals, farmers markets, festivals, pumpkin patch, tree lot, and the occasional rich person party. Talk to party rental places about the wedding season.

[craigster59]

I've used the blue plastic "Porta-Potty's". Worked okay, but the sinks are too low and there's no paper towels.

[dad911]

Originally Posted by LWJ

I know a guy that insures more porta potties than anyone in the US.......

Show him this.... all that was left of one on my jobsite after hurricane Sandy.

[Gogar]

Those luxury trailers are great;

I think you would have to brainstorm pretty hard and be creative marketing-wise if you had a company that ONLY has those.

I think at music festivals and street fairs etc. someone bids on the whole shebang and throws in the fancy model in the bid.

Your market would have to be an outdoor wedding or a high-end outdoor birthday party or something where they don't want any green or blue squares.

[rrental]

Can be good business. You will pay anywhere between 30-50K depending on size and quality. Here we get about $1200/weekend for a small one. (3 stalls). Yes, there is a big difference between the plastic ones and washroom trailers.

We are building some right now. Pm if you want more info. Not to sell you any btw. We building some for our self due to the weak exchange rate.

[WPOZZZ]

These are nice and air conditioned.

[Craig T]

The industry is booming, and ripe for consolidation. I have a good friend doing M&A for the largest site services (aka porta poties) company in the country. They just took a huge private equity placement (aka lots of cash) and are focused on acquiring small regional players. If you can grab some good clients now, I can hook you up with a 6x multiple on EBITDA....maybe even so pre-IPO shares.

[porsche4life]

Parents have a customer that has those and regular ports crappers. Makes good money with them but it's a lot of manual labor at crappy hours and have you seen what people do to a public bathroom?!

One of the big rental companies here in AZ is in the game already. They have one outside our office while our bathrooms are down for the remodel.

[look 171]

Will the part of AZ be able to support that type of high rent bathrooms week after week? Storage is also a concern, but you have a ton of room in AZ. Interesting idea. I have never been to one or even seen one. the nearest bush is cheap and easy.

[Rick Lee]

Starting out, I obviously have no room or money for lots of units. And I figure the large volume jobs probably already belong to a few established players who handle the big outdoor events. But events for up to 300 people are more private or small time corporate and probably less controlled by the big players. Keep those ideas coming.

[on2wheels52]

[ckelly78z]

We went to an outdoor (heated tent) wedding in October last fall and had to use one of those luxury trailer jons. Everybody was commenting how nice it was with a sink/mirror/flushing toilet. For a wedding, it added an element of class that doesn't exist in the green "Port-o-lets".

[Mark Henry]

A friend does the porta potty's to them it's a side business to septic pumping and water delivery. Just the blue plastic jobs.
You have to pay for water, dumping, supplies etc. So I'd figure out all your costs, like any business you have to have a business plan before you start.

Personally if you were to do the upscale trailer like in the pic I'd want the interior to be 100% waterproof, so that you could go at it with a power washer. I'd build it so one wall pops off and that wall has all the electrical and maybe even the ductless split AC on it. Then you can easily remove or open the wall and power wash the rest of the interior. The woman's tanks will have tampons, both will have baby wipes etc., things that you can't just dump. Sometimes you can't scrub that poop off, gets in all the nooks and crannies.

Just because your clients are likely well to do doesn't mean they're not total pigs.

[Arizona_928]

Originally Posted by Rick Lee

Starting out, I obviously have no room or money for lots of units. And I figure the large volume jobs probably already belong to a few established players who handle the big outdoor events. But events for up to 300 people are more private or small time corporate and probably less controlled by the big players. Keep those ideas coming.

The largest company I have seen for them is pro-em.
It's just up the venues you plan to market.

[JD159]

Would be cool if you could customize it specifically for the event with some sort of theme, both outside and inside.