A company’s name is its first impression. At Party John, the name says it all. “We like to keep the party going,” says Jake Saltzman, the company’s chief executive officer.  

Party John provides portable restrooms and luxury restroom trailer rentals in Anderson, South Carolina. From weddings to corporate events and community festivals, if there’s a party in the area, Party John wants to be there. But the company isn’t just at the event providing an essential service, it’s on site to elevate how people react to their service offerings. Party John aims to take what many consider an unpleasant experience and make it enjoyable. 

Party John operates two luxury restroom trailers. One is a Lang Specialty three-stall trailer. The other is a Black Tie three-stall trailer. The company owns approximately 150 portable restroom units. The majority are J&J Portable products. The ADA units are from PolyJohn. The company’s hand-wash stations are also from PolyJohn. 

Party John has two vacuum trucks, a 2024 PortaLogix Ford F600 fully customized carrying a 900-gallon waste/300-gallon freshwater aluminum Robinson tank. The company also has a 2020 Chevy 5500 with a 900-gallon waste/300-gallon freshwater aluminum Robinson tank. 

The company serves a 60-mile radius with its portable restrooms and a 100-mile radius for the trailers. Saltzman and his brother-in-law Ari Stenman started Party John in 2022. But they’re anything but new to the waste industry. Saltzman is the CEO of American Pipelining Supplies and Stenman serves as the support manager at APS. 

EXPLORE FIVE CHALLENGES THAT AFFECT PARTY JOHN

1. Growing from one business to two

American Pipelining Supplies is focused on plumbing and underground piping products, specializing in technology. Saltzman has spent years attending and exhibiting at the Water & Wastewater Equipment, Treatment & Transport Show. The idea for venturing into the portable restroom and luxury trailer business came during a WWETT Show. Saltzman was having dinner with several industry members who encouraged him to take a look at expanding his business.  

“They proceeded to tell us all about their legacy toilet businesses,” Saltzman says. “That stuck with me for about 15 years. I realized that this is the kind of business that would be really great to get into. Finally, when the time was right, I decided to go ahead and buy some portable toilets and a trailer.” 

Saltzman thought the timing was right to start a business, but the world had other plans. He ordered a luxury trailer in late 2019. However, when the COVID-19 pandemic struck in early 2020, he canceled the order at the request of the company so the trailer could go to support pandemic relief efforts. 

“We hit the pause button for a while,” Saltzman says. Roughly a year and one-half later, Saltzman ordered a Lang Specialty trailer and several portable restroom toilets from J&J. Party John went from idea to reality. The company has two full-time staff members, a dispatcher and route driver. They also utilize APS staff. 

APS and Party John share facilities, staff, a marketing team and more. Often the cohesive nature of the companies is beneficial. 

“We’re a pretty big pipelining supply company. We’re a little portable toilet company. We inhabit that same space. When people come on a tour they say, ‘What’s with all the portable toilets?’ Or, wow, check out those cool dump trucks,” Saltzman says. “We’re able to explain to them, this isn’t all we do. We also own a portable toilet company. It gives us some credibility, some street cred.” 

Saltzman says being involved in the waste industry at every level is beneficial. “It’s just our situation and I don’t know that there’s another company like us,” Saltzman says. “We’re in the industry from both angles. It’s cool. It’s fun.”

APS serves a nationwide clientele while Party John is local. This requires a different marketing message. “We’re a locally owned, family-owned and -operated company. We push that,” says Kat Davido, Party John’s client relations manager. 

Interest from Saltzman’s son indicates that the business may stay in the family for a while too. “This is a bit of a legacy business,” Saltzman says.“I’ve got an 18-year-old son that works in the business. He takes it very seriously and it’s a really cool legacy business. I think that a lot of people don’t understand how lucrative it can be, how fun it can be, how rewarding it can be.”

2. Shining on social media

Party John primarily relies on word-of-mouth marketing and social media. The company is able to utilize APS’ in-house marketing team. Through APS, the company has access to a lot of high-level technology and talent. 

“We’re able to utilize and cross-pollinate between the two businesses that way, and Party John is pretty easy to market,” Saltzman says. 

The company invests a lot in video. If they’re dropping a trailer or restrooms off at a picturesque location the marketing team will tag along to snap photos or get video with the company’s drone. Saltzman says the company’s approach to social media is to be authentic, creative and consistent. 

3. Outperforming the competition

The company focuses on high standards of cleanliness to stand out among the competition. “If you look on Google, we’re a five-star review rated company,” Davido says. “The biggest complaint that I get when I get a new customer on the phone is that their other provider is unreachable or the unit is trashed or it’s messy or it’s not cleaned properly.”  

Saltzman says there’s an increasing number of large companies purchasing local portable restroom companies in their area. Party John uses its locally owned reputation to respond and spread the word that they’re out in the community. Saltzman signed a contract with the local YMCA after attending local events and noticing the current portable restrooms weren’t up to his standards. 

“Moms were telling their children not to use the portable toilets outside,” Saltzman says. “We have a different standard. We raise the bar because so many companies when they get too big, they become complacent.” 

Saltzman says it’s easy to get complacent when you don’t live and work in the same area. He says he recently saw this firsthand during an antique tractor show. “We were so disappointed in the sanitation provider last year. The toilets were literally overflowing.” As passionate antique tractor collectors, Saltzman and Stenman decided to donate portable restrooms to this year’s event. 

“We serviced them ourselves, me and my brother-in-law,” Saltzman says, “We just made it a real point to service these units really well. And I mean, the feedback that we got from people was unbelievable.”

Party John is out to prove that exceptional standards of cleanliness matter. They say it’s a commitment to community involvement and elevating the industry. “I think a lot of that reflects in just the personality of who we are as a whole as a company. We’re a group of people that love to serve and love to serve people,” Saltzman says. 

“We’re always asking customers if there’s something that we can improve on, please let us know. We try to make ourselves accessible to our customers. These people are paying us for a service, and we want to do it with excellence.” 

4. Expanding into unexpected areas

“We’ve seen a massive shift in the business recently toward trailers,” Saltzman says. “I think a lot of people are just ready for a better experience.” 

Clients primarily book the luxury restroom trailers for weddings. However, Party John also takes trailers to corporate events and even bigger construction sites. In keeping with the company’s standards, the trailers are aesthetically designed, staged with complementary sanitary supplies and they even have music. 

“I think part of our tagline is we try to take a, you know, typically unpleasant experience and turn it into an enjoyable one, a pleasant one,” Saltzman says. “You want to know that it works properly and it smells nice and you’re not ashamed to let your guests walk in it.” 

The company previously owned a third trailer; however, a large wedding venue purchased the trailer for more than the initial price. Adding another trailer to the fleet is likely on the horizon. 

“I almost feel like we’re kind of getting to the point now where we almost need to look at another trailer. Our bookings are growing pretty quickly,” Saltzman says.  

5. Responding to rebuilding efforts

In September 2024, Hurricane Helene swept through the South including Anderson, South Carolina. Party John’s headquarters sustained damage. In the aftermath, the company stepped up to help their neighbors including pumping people’s homes. 

“I do see a lot of rebuilding for many years to come and a lot of opportunity for us as a portable sanitation company to provide services for those efforts,” Saltzman says. 

Across the region, it will take years to rebuild the homes, businesses and infrastructure destroyed by the hurricane. As the focus shifts from the initial emergency response to long-term rebuilding efforts, Party John is poised to respond in any way that’s needed.

“If the phone really starts ringing and it’s like, OK, we’ve got a ton of units that need to go to Greenville or you know different areas locally for rebuilding, I will respond to that. We’ll be there ready to go. I will invest more money into getting more units as necessary.”