Golf Course Restrooms

EVERYONE NEEDS RESTROOM ACCESS, ESPECIALLY WOMEN.

Ratliff Ranch Golf Course Restroom

Ratliff Ranch Golf Course Restroom, Odessa, TX

Restrooms are a universal need. When discussing this topic with golf course superintendents, many of them will immediately mention their worries over losing female golfers due to poor restroom accommodations. They have good reason to think so, as this issue is hardly under the radar for female golfers.

PGA vice-president Donna Orender once said at a Golf Industry Show: “If women consider restrooms in their spending decisions for retail stores and restaurants, they will certainly consider them if a restroom visit requires a trip to the clubhouse and an interrupted golf game.” A fifth of golfers in the U.S. are women.

It’s not just women, either. Green Flush conducted a survey of 63 male golfers at a local driving range.

HERE IS WHAT THEY TOLD US ABOUT GOLF COURSE RESTROOMS:

84% of men surveyed said their opinion of a golf course was affected by the quality of the golf course restrooms.
Over half of the men surveyed were willing to pay $5 or more to play on a course with “clean and spacious restrooms instead of porta-johns.”
Not surprisingly, the women’s survey results were even more favorable toward flush facilities.

**For more detailed survey results, download the survey of male golfers and the survey of female golfers. A copy of the combined survey results is available and can be requested by emailing info@greenflushrestrooms.com.

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These findings are consistent with those by other studies regarding public restrooms. Cleanliness matters. According to The National Association for Continence, only 20 percent of people are very comfortable using bathrooms or restrooms besides the ones in their own home, while 38 percent of men said they always use a seat cover in a public restroom (49 percent of women), and 40 percent of adults ages 30 to 70 have one or multiple problems with bladder control. Add it all up and you begin to see why clean, hospitable, and available restrooms are important.

Restrooms are a key investment for your course

Though some golfers tough it out and return for future business despite poor restroom accommodations, there will always be a percentage of the customer base that will insist on quality restroom service and golf elsewhere. This opportunity cost is effectively an invisible tax on golf courses that lack sufficient quality restroom options.

A real restroom experience on the green increases the capital value of your course, can justify higher green fees, and will help lure those restroom conscious golfers you’ve been missing out on. A one dollar increase in green fees would pay for the restroom in five years or less, and the restroom will last many decades.

Unfortunately, many (if not most) golf courses settle for porta-potties on the green. Just remember that from the user’s perspective, flush restrooms will always be ideal. They are familiar, they do not smell bad, and they have a sink for handwashing, which is more important now than ever. Perhaps it’s not realistic for every course to have a flush restroom on the green, but that’s also why it is so much of a competitive advantage for those that do.

Why are restrooms on the green uncommon?

There’s just one reason why real flush restrooms on the green aren’t common: cost. Excavating and installing the required water/sewer lines to the building site could cost tens, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars. For most golf courses a $150,000 price tag is not a practical expense.

If utility costs are a problem, be sure to consider our utility-free restroom as an option. It could save you a fortune.