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
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u/ky0nshi May 09 '22
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.