Confusion over use of campervan loos and 'potty discounts' may encourage public defecation
Thursday, 25 January 2018
Freedom campers' belief they will get a discount if they return their campervan toilets unused could be encouraging them to poo in public places.
On two recent occasions Akaroa residents who challenged freedom campers to prove their vehicles were selfcontained were shown toilets still wrapped in plastic. Campers told them this was in order to claim discounts of up to $500.
Have you received a 'potty discount'? Email: amanda.cropp@fairfaxmedia.co.nz
The residents did not notice the names of the rental companies and Stuff readers making similar claims also failed to identify those involved. They said campervan companies actively discouraged customers from using on-board toilets by charging high 'no-use bonds' or offering substantial discounts if portable toilets were returned unused.
Tourism and rental industry spokespeople have dismissed the 'potty discount' as an urban myth, and suggest some travellers may refuse to use on board loos because of the 'yuck' factor involved in emptying them, or to avoid paying dump fees charged by holiday parks.
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Responsible Camping Forum convenor Steve Hanrahan said the claims had circulated for a couple of years, but inquiries among forum members, who represent 80 per cent of the country's motorhome rental fleet, found no evidence of the practice and they certainly would not condone it.
It was possible the myth arose from confusion over surcharges applied if campvan toilets were returned unemptied, he said.
New Zealand Motor Caravan Association chief executive Bruce Lochore said about a year ago they came across a small campervan company with a rental contract saying it would charge customers $500 if the toilet was 'not clean' on its return.
To prevent confusion, the hire company changed the wording to say 'not emptied'.
'After all, if you saw $500 and 'not clean' then you could easily take that as 'don't use it', because who decides what clean is?'
Rental Vehicle Association (RVA) chief executive Barry Kidd said a surcharge was common if a returned vehicle required extra cleaning, such as emptying the toilet.
'The properly set up ones are relatively easy to empty and the risk of being personally soiled by it all is pretty minimal.
'It's the ones where you have to pull it out and physically carry and tip out which people don't want to deal with, and they don't want to use them, or only in an emergency.'
Kidd said a lot depended on the way customers were briefed on collecting the vehicle and the RVA had no way of knowing what non-members were doing.
'We don't know what conversations they're having with people. What's in the contract and what's been said at the counter, and the way it has been framed can be quite different.
'I suspect at the bottom end of the market there is probably an issue there.'
THL has a fleet of almost 2000 selfcontained motorhomes and chief executive Grant Webster said his company did not offer discounts for unused toilets, he was not aware of others doing so, and would not endorse the practice.
Customers were shown how to empty toilets when they picked up their vehicles, which came with a demonstration video in case they forgot, and the CamperMate app displayed more than 470 dump stations for safe waste disposal.
Customers who failed to empty their toilet cassettes before returning them were charged $125 extra, but with free dump stations at all its rental branches, they could avoid the charge by simply emptying the toilet when they arrived, Webster said.
'We encourage them to use it [the toilet], they don't have to clean it, just empty it.'
Jucy marketing head Katy Medlock said they had a similar arrangement and rarely ended up charging a $250 fee for unemptied toilet waste.