Discussion: porta potty rentals

I got quotes from 3 companies in the Sacramento area for an event and the minimum price was $200+tax for one, $235 for another, $285 for another, for just one toilet.

Anyone able to get better rates with a company?

Yikes! I'd better get busy and get checking. I have two events coming up this month where port-o-lets will be needed. I'm used to paying $100 per but that was pre-Covid.
It's a new world now. With the construction boom the porta rental business is booming, too. Every contractor around here needs one on site,

For California (high cost of living to begin with, and probably higher taxes, environmental, and liability regulations), $200 and $235 are not prices that really surprise me. We’ve been paying around $150 in Ohio, our most recent was $165 but it depends on distance and what county they go to. We’ve had good luck with a small local company.

Yes, I think those are competitive for California. I rented one regular and one disabled toilet for the Joe Grant event in March for $467.67. That was a two-day event but I don't think they would have rented for one weekend day.

Thanks all!

We paid a little more than $200 each at Nationals, except at Red Rock, where the price was higher due to the travel distance.

Wow, we are lucky in Montana: i complain when we are charged $85/toilet/weekend.

Please don't ask me what I just paid in the Seattle metro for 2 toilets over an extended holiday weekend.

Not sure what the going rate is in Australia these days but this discussion does remind me of a story from when we organised the Australian Relays near Canberra in 1992. This was held on a map which straddled the border between the Australian Capital Territory and New South Wales - the arena was a few hundred metres into the ACT but could only be accessed through NSW. This created a problem because it was apparently illegal to transport human waste across a state border, so nobody would rent us a portable toilet to use outside NSW. We solved this problem by setting the toilets up just on the NSW side of the border...

The units for the carnival were budgeted at A$136 per use although I couldn't rightly say how long each rental was for (the end rate ended up being very close to that). I believe that was the day rate and included transport to and from each venue at about a dozen or so units each time.

If you want to know the weekend single or double unit rates you'd have to ask the clubs. I think they are higher.

I appreciate it every time a club shells out the money for portajohns. Sometimes we think this is an "optional" expense because we want to keep costs down, but it's really awful when you need more than a tree and there's nothing available. Part of the cost of putting on an event...

It usually doesn’t matter if a rental is for one day or several, as long as they don’t have to do cleaning / servicing during the rental. Our one-day weekend rentals usually get delivered Friday (sometimes Thursday) and removed on Monday or Tuesday. The company’s cost is mostly the delivery and pickup, they don’t seem to care if it gets used multiple days.

As an aside, we have one land owner (corporate park) that won’t allow us to bring in a portable toilet and won’t let us into their building (for security reasons), so for that site we make a point of publicizing that to participants in advance.

Here is the funny thing I am noticing as I look around for our porta potty services: the two local companies I dealt with some years ago are now bought up by national companies and we have to order through 1-800 numbers or request on-line quotes.
Is that happening elsewhere in the States?

Somehow my biological systems aren’t responsive to advance notice. I imagine I am far from the only one. That sounds like a frustrating situation, Mike.

@gord - I'm glad we still have a smaller locally owned company to work with here. I just email them with a date and an address and a map, and how many units. Nice and simple, and a local person to talk to if there are any questions.

@cmpblllv - true, that! At least there is a WalMart and several fast food places within a 7-8 minute drive of that particular location.

some of the portapotti rental places have such great names : we have used El Stinko LLC in Western Wisconsin (a good local company) ... their units look and smell great !.

LOL. Just saw this on a certain club's winter series season pass information: Restrooms can be hit or miss, sometimes park doesn't have one and sometime when they do they are locked. Plan to go before you arrive.

The place near where I live went through a divorce, and the husband got the septic pumping service. For portapotties, you have to talk to his ex-wife.

My brother-in-law used to live on a houseboat on Great Slave Lake. Whenever he had a party, the invitation included friendly advice: "Arrive empty."