When it comes to brand names, it’s hard to be clearer than ‘Clean Restroom Rentals.’

Headquartered in Westborough, Massachusetts, the company has 10 offices throughout New England, the Mid-Atlantic region of the U.S., and the west coast of Florida. All of them proudly promote the Clean Restroom Rentals name along with the cleanliness and comfort its portable and trailer-based restrooms promise.

“We want it to disrupt the thought process about portable restrooms, which is ‘They’re disgusting, I don’t want to use them, and I avoid ’em at all costs,’” says Anthony Spitalieri, Clean Restroom Rentals president and COO. “That’s why we live by our name. We want to provoke a much different feeling in our customers, which is, ‘Wow, this is different!’ We have people go into our restrooms and come out and say ‘that’s the cleanest bathroom I’ve ever even been in. It smells amazing!’”

Besides a commitment to cleanliness, encompassing all sides of the industry was always the goal. “We’re a full-service portable restroom company that supports all lines of the portable restroom business, including residential, commercial, construction and the special events industry,” says Scott Lemay, chairman and CEO of the company. “That’s why our extensive product offering covers virtually every aspect of the restroom industry.”

Since its formation in 2020, Clean Restroom Rentals has made its mark on the portable restroom market, booking jobs with big clients and small customers alike. “We are working with some of the biggest home builders in the country,” Spitalieri says. “We do construction projects where Amazon, Google, Microsoft are erecting big data centers. On the special event side, we do little events like backyard barbecues and big events like the 2025 Presidential Inauguration. We do NASCAR in Loudon, New Hampshire. We work with Live Nation on concerts. We’re working with all of those folks.”

Building the business

Clean Restroom Rentals is the product of 13 mergers and acquisitions across seven states. “Clean”, as the company refers to itself, is always on the lookout for new acquisitions and markets to enter. 

According to Spitalieri, Clean’s expansion strategy is very deliberate and carefully thought out. “We’ve handpicked these markets, using our acquisitions as our platforms to enter them,” he says. “We have a really aggressive organic growth strategy backing our actions. We don’t just grow inorganically through acquisitions: We have a full-tilt sales program where we grow the markets that we’re now in.”

The lineup

Clean rents a range of standard, wheelchair-accessible, crane-lifted and luxury portable plastic restrooms, plus wash stations. They also have luxury toilet trailers capable of accommodating two to 10 people.

“We have thousands of plastic units, most of them from J&J and PolyJohn,” says Spitalieri. “Our restroom trailers are from Satellite Industries and JAG Mobile Solutions.”

“We have every type of restroom that you could provide,” Lemay says. “Beyond the ones we’ve mentioned already, we build restrooms into sea containers that can flush and that can be climate controlled using AC. Our restroom trailers are high-end units suitable for weddings that can be brought just about anywhere, with marble floors, wood doors and trim, and quality fixtures. We have some specialized products that can go into high rises. In short, our very wide service offering covers the full spectrum of portable restroom solutions.”

As for vehicles and tanks? “We have been buying Mack and International trucks,” says Spitalieri. “We typically put on stainless steel FlowMark tanks. Our preference is to run a 1,500/500-gallon split and maximize the payload. We try to stay away from tanks with less than 1,000-gallon waste capacity. We do have other trucks on the fleet, however, because we’ve grown in part via acquisition.” 

Staying in sync

As a company with 10 locations and 200-plus employees that has grown quickly, Clean Restroom Rentals naturally faces a challenge when it comes to ensuring consistency across its operations. 

“We take the brand very seriously, so we make sure that the units look the same to the best of our ability,” says Spitalieri. “It’s tough when you’ve grown through mergers and acquisitions: You get every different color of equipment and vehicles. That’s why we go in and upgrade the units and trucks, and invest the capital to make sure that our customers and our people have the best.”

Clean has also implemented standard operating procedures across all of its locations to ensure a consistent approach companywide. “We also monitor our business closely to ensure we know what’s happening every day,” Spitalieri says. “This includes spending a lot of money on technology and software to monitor the business.” 

Mindful that Clean is first and foremost a service company, its management system has been structured to keep its top people apprised about customer concerns. 

“To give you an example, I’m sitting in Massachusetts right now and if any service-related complaint comes in from anywhere — Florida, D.C., whatever the location — that complaint reaches the highest levels of management: I see it,” says Spitalieri. “But it’s not about creating ‘aha, gotcha!’ moments with our staff, it’s about keeping the customer satisfied. We want our people to know even one little toilet issue for ‘Harry Homeowner’ who’s not happy is important to us. We don’t have multilayer management. We run really, really lean with these SOPs to ensure that everybody’s reading off the same sheet of music and there’s accountability everywhere. Because, at the end of the day, if we’re not accountable, the customer suffers. And what we’re all about is the customer experience.”

Keeping staff motivated

As a service company, Clean Restroom Rentals lives and dies by the work of its employees. If they appear and act professionally and do their jobs consistently well, the customers are impressed and likely to come back for more. If not, such repeat business could be lost.

This is why Clean does its best to keep its staff motivated. “We have really aggressive compensation,” Spitalieri says. “We treat them with dignity and respect. We pay them and treat them well. Meanwhile, our managers are all part of our decision-making process. In fact, the regional managers are shareholders in Clean, whether they sold their business to us and continue to help run it, or are personal investors. And so, every day, when they wake up, they’re not making decisions to make their boss happy. They’re making decisions to help themselves because this is their company too.”

Lemay says that they are often asked how they run their business successfully across multiple states. “We manage to do it because the people in each of the local markets are highly invested in the Clean service model and each market manager is an owner,” he says.

A promising future

Five years into the business, Lemay still sees lots of future growth possibilities for Clean Restroom Rentals. “I’ve been in this industry dating back to the year 2000, and I’ve watched it evolve,” he says. “Today, most site operators have come to appreciate the value of good restroom options for their employees, customers and guests. This understanding is creating new growth areas for our industry, as the client base grasps the value of cleanliness and quality.”

At the same time, success in the portable restroom rental business is still anchored in people. “This is a relationship business, pure and simple,” says Spitalieri. “We can overcomplicate it and use big buzzwords, but at the end of the day, if our people on the sales team aren’t in relationships with superintendents, project managers and event planners, we have nothing. So, we believe that relationships are important, and we do whatever we can to nurture them. That’s what will keep Clean growing in the years to come.”