Photo by Rashid Khreiss on Unsplash

Whether you’re organising an outdoor wedding, a weekend-long festival, a school event or a corporate function, getting the right number of toilets in the right spots is arguably your key concern! No matter the size or scope of your event, your guests will soon make their feelings known if the facilities are inadequate so it’s vital you get these well organised. We’ve put together this handy checklist to help you calculate how many portable toilets to hire.

How many toilets do I need to provide per person?

According to the latest government guidelines, for events lasting up to six hours with no refreshments you’ll need to provide a minimum of one portable toilet per 100 women and another single toilet per 500 men, plus one urinal unit for every 150 gents. 

If your event will last more than six hours, you’ll need to hire a minimum of one toilet for every 85 women, another loo for every 425 men, plus one urinal per 125 men. (Depending on your budget we would recommend hiring more to enhance the comfort of your guests and avoid queues.) 

If you throw alcohol and food into the mix and your event is over six hours long, it’s a minimum of one toilet per 75 women, another toilet per 400 men plus one urinal per 100 male attendees.

Factors that can influence the number of toilets you’ll need

Size of event

To state the obvious, the more guests you have, the more loos you’ll need to provide. If you’re organising a festival or sporting event that’s taking place over a large physical area, it makes sense to provide toilets in more than one spot so that guests aren’t having to trudge for miles to avoid being caught short (or queue for ages). 

Camping

If there’ll be camping at your function then you’ll need to provide additional gents’ toilets: usually a minimum of one extra urinal per 100 men at an event where alcohol is provided. Bear in mind that the toilets will be used both day and night, so you’ll need extra loos to compensate for those closed for emptying and cleaning during the event.

Male/female ratio

It’s important to factor this in, too: for example, if you are running an event for 500 people with an estimated 60/40 female/male split, you’ll need 4 portable loos plus 2 urinals.

The duration of your event

Duration also has a direct impact on toilet hire: unsurprisingly the longer it lasts the more toilets you’ll need to supply. 

Will food and drink be served?

Consider if alcohol and/or food is being served at your event – if so, you’ll have to provide an additional 15-25% more toilets. Attending festivals, gigs and weddings is thirsty work!

Not to put too fine a point on it, the more time people spend eating and drinking, the more waste they will produce. With this in mind, regular servicing will need to take place for larger events and for those taking place over several days, so it’s important to be aware of this when budgeting. 

Our spacious event trailers are ideal for sizeable events with large footfalls. They are capable of comfortably servicing more than 3,000 people over a 12-hour period.

You will also need to consider the provision of disabled toilets depending on the size and scope of your event.

We hope this guide will help you at the planning stages of your outdoor event. For a more detailed, bespoke breakdown of your toilet hire requirements our friendly, experienced team are only too happy to help. Take a look at our full range of luxury toilet trailers and contact us for advice or a quote.