It seems that “nice and easy” pretty well covers what VIP trailer customers are looking for these days. They want upscale, ultra-clean and convenient restroom facilities for their event guests. The down economy has sent some requests for restroom trailer frills into hibernation for the time being, but the ways in which these trailers are used remain widely varied.
“A couple years ago, demand was real good for VIP units until the economy got bad,” reports Michael Young of his market in extreme northwestern Rhode Island. His wife and business partner, Diane Young, says their main call for VIP trailers is for servicing crowds at games for the New England Patriots.
The couple has six trailers — five Wells Cargo Elite IIIs and a JAG Mobile Solutions Porta-Lisa. They’ve been picking up more wedding work, and are looking for another smaller, two-unit trailer for the more intimate but upscale occasions. They find having smaller trailers allows their customers who are on a budget to afford a nicer portable sanitation option for once-in-a-lifetime events.
Outdoor Event Services fields a fleet of more than 40 VIP trailers at events across the country. Scott House says he’s definitely noticing some trends in customer requests in the past year or so. “They’re asking more for the presence of personal attendants at the site to make sure everything’s running smoothly, to keep everything clean and stocked. We’re also noticing a greater call for the more upscale trailers as opposed to the low-range models.”
He says his customers usually provide their own flowers, but will ask sometimes for directional signage and outside lighting, which his company provides.
Outdoor Event Services also has received calls to bring shower trailers to Haiti for disaster relief. Last year, most of these trailers were deployed to state parks for firefighting lines and remained there most of the season. There are rarely any special requests made for amenities in these trailers, since most are rented according to blanket vendor specifications.
Even the third-largest metro area in Louisiana hasn’t developed a demand for VIP restrooms, according to John Harper of his territory in Shreveport in the northwest part of the state. “We’re finding special events a hard sell in our market right now, because we have to develop it,” he says. “We’ve got VIP trailers, but I haven’t bought one yet that’s paid for itself. They’ve just been a necessary evil we have to have for some of our customers.” But things are changing. Since Hurricane Katrina slammed the Gulf Coast, and particularly in the past three years or so, “They’re shooting a lot of movies in our area,” Harper notes. “They like the upscale units there. And we’ve rented them to a few weddings.”
The company also has satellite locations in nearby Longview and Jefferson, Texas, where it serves industrial customers. “This year, we’re picking up a trailer that we’re going to put up 14 stories in a power plant. They have a big sling that picks it up in a crane and swings it over and sets it down in the middle. We won’t be able to go get it by ourselves if we need it. And we’ve had to build some unique systems to be able to vacuum it out and clean it while we’re up there.”
The customer built chases through which Port-A-Jon crews can run pipe up the side of the building. They hook their pumping hoses to the bottom of the pipe and communicate via two-way radio with a technician who hooks up the vacuum hoses to the top and runs them to the trailer. “Lately it seems like that’s what we do (with these VIP units). We seem to be specializing in these odd jobs.”
If there’s any notable trend he sees in VIP requests, it’s for the convenience of work crews performing renovations on “big box” store locations such as Walmart or Home Depot. Another high demand is for VIP trailers for extreme traffic events like Mardi Gras, where plenty of toilet paper is required.
“When you have 30,000 people in a town of 2,000, it’s just overwhelming,” explains Harper’s wife, Gloria. She’s referring to the situation during Mardi Gras in Jefferson. In such cases, it’s imperative to provide enough paper so that on-site technicians aren’t constantly scurrying to refill and keeping units out of service while they do it. Her husband concurs.
“We put the trailers in what they call a beer garden there,’’ John Harper explains. “We’ve hung PVC pipe over the top of the stalls from end to end. We fill two pipes up with 150-200 rolls at least. You have to reach up and get it, of course, but they don’t run out of paper anymore!”
