Touchy Subjects

As cost and performance issues are addressed, hands-free bathroom technology gains stronger foothold.

By Derek Gale, Associate Editor -- Restaurants & Institutions, 5/15/2007

If bathrooms aren’t spotless, guests may not return to a restaurant, no matter how much they liked their entrée. R&I’s Consumers’ Choice in Chains research ranks cleanliness second in importance only to food quality, besting service, value, menu variety and other variables, in consumers’ selection of a dining destination.

Owing in part to guest concerns about food safety and sanitation, hands-free bathroom technologies are slowly taking hold in foodservice. Touchless sinks are growing in use and motion-detecting towel dispensers are becoming more common, but few restaurants have automated toilets.

An executive with a major bathroom-fixture manufacturer complains that some vendors incorporate inexpensive and unreliable hands-free components. He notes that motion sensors have varying ranges of detection; models with a narrow range can frustrate users and dissuade operators from adopting the technology. Higher purchase prices (hands-free faucets can be twice as expensive as conventional ones) also give operators reason not to invest in hands-free bathrooms.

Additionally, bathrooms are among the first areas to see budget cuts during construction or remodeling. Hands-free-technology proponents counter that the water saved using a motion-sensing faucet eventually will pay for the device.

Shanghai Bistro in Honolulu has shifted completely to hands-free fixtures. Its bathrooms are equipped with motion-sensing toilet-seat-cover dispensers, auto-flushing toilets, touchless faucets, hands-free soap dispensers and motion-activated paper-towel dispensers. Owner Li May Tang says the hands-free technology is more environmentally friendly and that customers are pleasantly surprised when they visit the bathrooms.

"They tell their friends and other customers that they have to check out the bathroom," she says. "I’m not sure that will increase my business, but the bathrooms are clean and environmental."

Tang rents the bathroom equipment from her linen provider, which also maintains the fixtures, and she has been happy with it. But because of the added cost involved, she has yet to consider installing hands-free bathrooms in either of her two other restaurants, she says.