Two Alberta bathrooms — including one at an RV park — are among the finalists in a nation-wide search for the best public washroom.
Cintas Canada revealed a list Monday of the five finalists vying for this year’s title of Canada’s Best Restroom. The annual contest shines a spotlight on deserving public washrooms.
“How a business maintains its facilities reflects their commitment to customer service,” Sonia Mendes with Cintas Canada said in a media release.
“This contest recognizes the growing number of companies that are going the extra mile to provide clean, well-maintained washrooms. We hope the public shows its support for each of the five finalists.”
Nominees were judged based on five criteria: cleanliness, visual appeal, innovation, functionality and unique design elements. Of the five finalists, two are located in Alberta.
The Westview RV Park in Wetaskiwin, Alta., is seeking the title. Darlene Crick is one of the owners of the campground and said redoing the washrooms was the first project they took on in 2019 when they bought the property.
“Making the campground washroom really nice was just a priority we all felt,” she said.
“This is really a custom one. We have porcelain tile from floor to ceiling and we have a custom concrete countertop that our son made, and epoxy floors so it makes cleaning really easy.”
Crick said she’s thrilled to be nominated.
“We’re pleased to offer campers a really clean, nice washroom facility,” she said. “They continually tell us how blown away they are by the nice washrooms. As they’re checking in, some say they don’t use campground washrooms and we tell them to go in and have a peek at ours and they come back and tell us they’re amazed.”
The other Alberta washroom to make the cut is located in the Hawthorn Dining Room at Calgary’s Hotel Fairmont Palliser.
Designed with Calgary’s Frank Architecture, Hawthorn’s washrooms are simple yet elegant and feature bold wallpaper with oversized flowers. Instead of regular lighting, Hawthorn added light rose diffusers to give the space a warm yet soft glow.
Hawthorn also offers a separate gender-neutral washroom space.
Of the three remaining finalists, two are located in Toronto, Ont. and one is located in Halifax, N.S.
The Yorkdale Shopping Centre in Toronto was nominated for its gender-neutral washrooms which feature a frosted glass sink with waterfall edge, bright blue tile and a large seating area near the entrance.
The mall also includes six women’s and six men’s washrooms, two family washrooms, three nursing rooms and 12 single washrooms.
The washrooms at Toronto’s Leña Restaurante have an animal theme. The hallway leading to the washroom is lined with animal wallpaper.
In the washrooms, the floors are adorned with dramatic zebra herringbone tiles and the walls feature two luminous fisheye mirrors. The stalls themselves are private and roomy, featuring a spacious washbasin with brass accents.
The final nominee is the Bicycle Thief in Halifax. The restrooms are modern and stylish, with a focus on comfort.
The restrooms feature fully enclosed stalls with artwork and scented candles. Large, decorative mirrors cover the walls, providing wide angles of the restroom’s marble walls and facilities. Fresh flowers are changed daily and placed along the granite countertops. Other features include touchless soap dispensers, hand sanitizer, porcelain sinks, chrome faucets and touchless towel dispensers.
The winning washroom will receive a Cintas UltraClean restroom cleaning service and $2,500 in facility services from Cintas to help maintain their award-winning washrooms.
Voting opened on Monday and will remain open until Aug. 14.
Last year, the washrooms at Beaverhill Shell in Lac La Biche, Alta., won the competition.
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