This has been a really interesting thread to read. Great points made on both the thread topic and the secondary topic. I prefer multi-stall bathrooms. First reason is the I don't want to wait outside of single person facilities for who knows how long, possibly in uncomfortable weather or late at night. I don't just go to make sure I won't have to go when someone else is in there, I go when I need to go, which means I want the toilet immediately available. Who wants to wait outside for a toilet with a full bladder in the cold and possibly rain, possibly while coughing? My other big reason, is that I don't want to use a toilet after some messy person, where there might be substances on seats, floors, walls, and toilet paper holders. Staff can't be there all day long to clean after every single user. I want to have toilet options to try to avoid such disgusting situations - if one stall is nasty, move on to the next. I'll pee in a ziplock bag lined with paper towels before I'll do it in a nasty bathroom that I had to wait 20 minutes to get into.
A number of parks with multi-stall facilities also have one or more family/handicapped rooms in the same building or attached to it. With an aging RV'er population, I expect there will be more park guests that need assistance with bathing that can't easily be accomplished in gender separated multi-stall facilities. I'm seeing more family/handicapped options being added at state and national parks more than private parks though.
Newer bathhouses at Oregon State parks are an excellent example. They build a square building that has womens on one side and mens on the other. Each side has a multi-stall shower room, a multi-stall toilet room and an all-in-one family bathroom. 1. multi-stall toilet rooms with hand washing sinks. The room has a bench, hooks and a small shelf above each sink and toilet. There is a handicapped stall as well (wide door, bars etc). 2. Separate shower rooms - usually with several shower stalls. There is a bench in the entry way with a few hooks above the bench. The same "lobby" space has a few mirrors over a shelf so you can comb out your hair, etc after showering. Each stall has a shelf, bench and hooks out of the spray area. 3. Family bathroom - each side of the building has one or two single use bathrooms with a sink, toilet and shower - these are ada accessible. Oregon state parks are some of the best I've been to - the facilities are simple but well built and maintained. They've done away with coin op showers entirely making the wise choice that it's better to collect this money with the camping fee rather than having to maintain the coin machines. Showers are on timers (mildly annoying) BUT when the timer runs down you can restart the shower if needed.
I built my 4 bathroom building using cinder block Construction. I installed 4 private baths. I have codes on all 4 of my bathes. We also have camera monitoring who comes & goes. We had a problem with folks “sharing codes” with friends not living @ the park. I’m in Louisiana. We went thru 2 hurricanes & one freeze in the past 7 months. The building appears to be bulletproof.
Would love to see some pics. We are in the planning stage here in South Arkansas. Decided to go the cinder block route too. We've talked about having codes as well. Just haven't checked on it yet. Our park is not going to be a huge one, so we'll just have 2 bathrooms.
Make sure if you would put handicapped cubicle to also make it accessible with ramp (I had an issue before that yes there is a bigger cubicle but I still need to carry my grandpa for 2 steps). If you have a budget it would also be better to have an actual door rather than using a rain shower curtain so there would be privacy and people won't be afraid to get naked while taking a bath.
