Bad Smells In Your Restroom??

There is no amount of air freshener that can cover up the bad smells in a restroom. The culprit might just be your cleaning company. Properly cleaned restrooms should never need air fresheners to mask the odor. They should after cleaning have a clean and neutral scent. Strong chemical odors are not the solution and just add pollution to the air that many people are hypersensitive to.

Restrooms have one of the strongest impacts on your business. A poorly cleaned restroom is sure to stick out in your customer’s mind and may drive them away from your business. No one looks forward to using a shared public restroom, but a dirty, smelly one is even worse.

Have you ever gone into an office and while you were waiting for your appointment you needed to visit the restroom? The lobby looks great, clean and very presentable but when you get to the restroom, you walk into a stench that is overpowering. That is the first turn off, then you look at the toilet or sink that you were planning on using. Your first impression is one of disgust and then disappointment. This has happened to all of us at one point or another.

What Are Restrooms So Much A Problem?

It doesn’t matter what kind of facility you manage, the restroom smell is something that you should always be aware of. Even in the best of facilities restrooms are a problem because they get used so often. Here are some questions to ask:

• Is it your janitorial services provider that isn’t doing enough?
• Is the restroom cleaning more of a surface clean with important deep cleaning left incomplete?
• Are there issues of plumbing or materials that you as a Facility Manager need to address?
• Are you allocating enough cleaning time and budgeting enough to assure your restrooms are adequately cleaned?

This is a two-party problem. On your end you need to communicate the proper amount of traffic to your restrooms throughout the building. On the cleaning companies end, they need to properly schedule people at the best times to clean your restrooms throughout the day. It takes teamwork to make this happen.

Target The Problem, Not Symptoms

After speaking to a number of Facility Managers about how they go about keeping their restrooms clean, we’ve found that many of them have success with a restroom cleaning checklist to help direct and evaluate their cleaning service. A restroom cleaning checklist can help address problems and missed work proactively and even gives your cleaning service a clear framework for taking corrective action. In order to do this, however, you need to know exactly what goes into proper restroom cleaning. If you are looking to keep your restroom sparkly clean and smelling neutral and fresh, it’s important to know what constitutes effective restroom maintenance.