Common Portable Toilet Rental Mistakes and How to Avoid Them
1. Not Renting Enough Units
Have you ever been to a sporting event or music festival where there were far too few toilets? One of the worst things is missing a key part of the event because you were waiting in line for a toilet to open. It’s happened to all of us, it’s frustrating and so easily avoided with a little planning while organizing the event
Avoid It By:
Using the standard guideline: 1 toilet per 50 people for a 4‑hour event, then adjusting for alcohol, duration, and crowd type. If food and drinks are heavily featured at your event, scaling up is always a good call. Bathroom use will, undoubtably increase if people are consuming more food and drinks than, say an outdoor art market or car show.
2. Forgetting About Accessibility
Every event should include at least one ADA‑compliant unit. They’re spacious, accessible, and helpful for families with strollers too. At Call of The Wild, we carry a range of different styles of portable toilets, trailer toilets and, accessible units as well.
These units are not to be overlooked if you want your event to be compliant and welcoming to everyone to feel welcome and respected.
3. Poor Placement
There are good and bad spots to set up your bathroom stations at events or worksites. A good example of something you want to avoid is having your units set up too close to where people are eating and drinking, for obvious reasons, it’s not appetizing.
Try planning out a spot that is far enough away without being completely out of the way. Typically, people will need to use the bathroom before or after eating, so you don’t want people hiking across the event grounds. Aim for nearby or using great signage to direct attendees to where they need to go.
As far as practical details, ground that is flat and easy for the service trucks to get to be ideal. Both us at Call of The Wild and you, don’t want our trucks tearing up any grass or landscaping that might exist, so designating a spot near a parking lot, roadway or paved pathway is ideal.
And finally, somewhere with adequate lighting that can make attendees at your event or worksite feel like they aren’t wandering into a dark corner to use the bathroom. If there’s a spot with an overhead streetlight or pathway lighting that could work for placement, that would work best.
4. Ignoring Service Needs
If you’re running a very busy event that might need more frequent servicing, let us know and we would be able to work something out with you. But to be safe, having more units than you think you might need is always the better bet.
If your event sells well and the numbers are higher than what you previously expected, give us a call and we will do our best to stock you with extra units to keep your event running smoothly.
5. Not Considering Handwashing Options
While hand sanitizer is great when you’re in a pinch, it’s not the most sanitary option when large crowds are involved. At Call of The Wild, we offer sink stations to place around your bathroom areas to ensure people can feel clean and fresh before heading out to enjoy their day.
We recommend one sink station for every six-to-eight-bathroom units you have on site. This avoids most line ups and is great rule of thumb for events. Alternatively, we also have units with sinks within them and are great if you aren’t sure, you have room for the sink station or if your event is a little less busy/won’t have large line ups at key times.
6. Booking Too Late
The worst thing that can happen for your event is having no washroom options at all, which is why we recommend booking your units well in advance of your event. Our peak season starts in May and runs until the end of fall, with weekends being the busiest of all.
With big local events, reoccurring events that happen every weekend and weddings, you want to make sure that we have enough units to serve your event. Calling as soon as you have a date in mind is the best way to secure your spot for the summer.
Final Thoughts
Portable toilet rentals are simple when you know what to expect. Avoiding these common mistakes ensures your event or job site stays clean, comfortable, and stress‑free. If you’re unsure how many units you need or what type is best, we’re always here to help you plan the perfect setup.
May 28, 2026
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Renting portable toilets isn’t complicated, but there are a few common mistakes that can turn a smooth event into a sanitation nightmare. Luckily, they’re all easy to avoid with a little planning and forward thinking.
Here are the top rental mistakes we see (and how you can dodge them like a pro).