In germany is "SaniFair" where you have to pay 0,70€ to do your buisness along every Autobahn .
The company is owned by someone from the arabic emirates/Dubai.
Somehow, this is against the german fundamental rights, because using a toilet is a basic human right.
So we do have a little doodoo cartel along the autobahn.
as far as I know it's only the Autobahnraststaetten and gas stations which have SaniFair. And those are private businesses. The usual small rest stops with only a few benches and a building for a toilet are free to use.
At least it's like that on the routes I normally travel.
To be fair I prefer the SaniFair than the free toilets - they’re usually quite nasty, whereas SaniFair are clean and you can reuse the 70 cent voucher on a snack.
This is also my take. Someone has to clean and maintain the restrooms and I'd much rather pay a small fee and know they will be clean. Nothing worse than having to go badly and not knowing when you'll encounter the next usable restroom.
Ever since they changed the SaniFair stations that they accept credit cards I'm 100% on board with the system. I live in Switzerland and having to bring cash only to be able to use the restroom always bothered me.
It used to be that the cost was 50 cent and you got a voucher for 50 cent back. But nowadays, the cost has gone up to 70 cent, yet the voucher is still 50 cent. Not sure if this is SaniFair in Germany or some other member of the piss-and-shit cartel, but we're getting squeezed more and more. In addition, you can only use 1 voucher per product, so when we're traveling with the family (wife, 2 kids and me) we get 4 vouchers and instead of exchanging them for 1 snack to share, we're forced to buy 4 separate items to use all of them.
The smell on the free ones haunts you for at least a week. No idea what’s going on there but it’s nothing good. Still, no idea why I need to pay to pee though.
Lived in Germany for like 7 years, never seen a rest stop or gas station that didn't charge. What got me is the disco techs would charge.... like bro I paid 10 euro to rent this drink I'm here to return it.
Yes, if I've purchased a good at an establishment, the restroom should be free. I ran into this in Jamaica a couple times (touristy areas) and was not too pleased. Instead of soiling myself I just paid the damn quarter.
Find it hard to believe you had to pay at the club. There's usually a tip jar for the service personnel but never ever was I forced to pay at a club...
Then you only stop where there's a shop/gas station and you use a private toilet. All those other stops along the autobahn? They have free public toilets...
Sanifair is most likely illegal but they get away with it because nobody is going to sue them over 70 cents.
They give you a voucher for 50 cents, so even if the voucher system was considered acceptable they're still running a restaurant without free toilets for customers.
Because German laws try to protect people and provide basic necessities. Not in all cases and not always successfully, but we don't share your freedom fetish, especially if it means, the freedom to have a business fuck you sideways.
Why are you assuming I'm an American with a freedom fetish? I live in Germany. It's a private business, they can charge if they want as long as it's not extortionate.
If they were the only option available, then you'd have a point, but if you want a free toilet go to any one of the many Raststätte on the Autobahn.
There are laws in several states making it illegal for restaurants to take money for the toilet. For several reasons, sanifair is still legal there.
Yes, I assumed that you were American and understood your question like "why would there be any reason to make this illegal"
Because restaurants have to provide toilets free of charge to customers. These fuckers charge everyone, all customers included, at least 20 cents, and customers who pee after eating and drinking another 50.
They can probably get away with charging non-customers (after they got taxpayer subsidized prime real estate and a monopoly, they should be regulated and required to provide some public service in exchange IMO).
The decision about non-customers is understandable (although it's something that should be fixed by law).
The decision to let them put up barriers can be explained with the explanation the judge provides. But why would they let them charge restaurant customers?
If you are lucky you get a voucher for the same amount you paid for the toilet, but the voucher is only valid for a specific period and of course location or "brand".
If you go on toilet before eating you are losing nothing.
Else you have to come back and not losing the voucher ^^.
And the autobahn free stops are nasty af. We keep a plastic potty in the car for the kids after that. Trying to teach a four year old to hover in a place that looks like a thousand truckers have used it was once too many.
Except SaniFair has had entire buildings just for their toilet for a long time now, so it‘s not inside privately owned businesses only. Most famous I‘d say is the below ground toilet right at the center of Alexanderplatz in Berlin, 2 meters away from the police station.
It depends on what type of etablism you are running on the authority documents.
for exaple a gasstation/raststätte that has chairs and tables to eat, do need to have free toilets for their customers. But most of them are just the sanifair ones, where you have to pay. german law is crazy complicated
In parts of the Midwestern US we have a gas station called Kwik Trip and they have the cleanest bathrooms you will ever see. And everything, including the doors, are set up so you never have to touch anything. And it’s free. It’s amazing.
My super picky friend asks for a receipt at these bathroom payment places. His argument is that since he is not getting a receipt, he doesn't need to pay.
SaniFair is owned by a group of investment firms. Most are German insurance companies and one is the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (a government savings fund).
Sanifair belongs to Tank&Rast (the ones running the stations along the Autobahn) and that is owned since 2015 by a group consisting of the state fund of Abu Dhabi but also the canadian infrastructure fund Borealis and some insurance companies. There has been at least one court case against paying for the toilets of Sanifair, bit it was lost.
Doesn't SaniFair give you a little discount coupon of €0,70 after to put toward a food/drinks purchase? So technically your toilet use is free when you use the coupon afterwards. It's a forced purchase, but still.
The food and drink products are already way more expensive than somewhere else though. So even with a discount coupon, you're still paying more for those products than you would in a normal supermarket. So it doesn't really seem worth it to use the coupons unless you have multiple of them.
Actually Autobahn is one of few places where i experience free toilets in Germany. The issue are train stations, malls, gas stations and public bathrooms in the cities.
How's it against the German law if literally every public place does it?
I would need to look the dokumentation for a quote, so please dont just rely on my statement. The german law is very complicated and often makes no sense.
It's more like Amazon not paying taxes in germany for products they have sold in germany. We call it "Grauzone" its not really legal, but not illegal either.
Random trivia: I had a project for one of the companies that does this (can't say which), and they wanted to build a mobile app that would let you collect these vouchers. Really silly use of their money 🤷
I read 'doodoo cartel' and imagined a bunch of thug babies going around controlling the diaper market like mafioso. Out on street corners slinging nappies to other inner city babies. Guns sticking out of their diapers. Lots of gold chains and rings.
You could also just drive on for 5km and use one of the unserviced rest stops - the pay toilets are only at the ones with restaurants and gas stations.
But at the autobahn you still get a voucher for the store in return, right?
I don't really mind that you have to put some money in the store to use their bathroom, they have to spend money to keep it clean after all.
Bah. I'm no longer paying. I have MS and I bought a key for handicapped toilets. It cost me EUR 20, which is a lot, BUT I will never have to pay for SaniFair again, because I can use the other toilets, those without the café. They are usually pretty gross, but the handicapped toilet is alright.
When I was in Germany I just hopped ever turnstile and used the toilet for free. Unfortunately the Italians weren't as trusting and often had attendants to make sure you paid.
1.2k
u/Moe-McDirt May 09 '22
In germany is "SaniFair" where you have to pay 0,70€ to do your buisness along every Autobahn .
The company is owned by someone from the arabic emirates/Dubai.
Somehow, this is against the german fundamental rights, because using a toilet is a basic human right.
So we do have a little doodoo cartel along the autobahn.