Type “RESTAURANTS IN GOA” on your keyboard and you’ll receive plenty of results. After reading that there are even four German restaurants found, I assume that only a few other very, very exotic cuisines haven’t been served here till now. I any case you can be assured there is abundance of choice in Goa to make your taste bud feel happy. In other words, Goa as a tourism hot spot attracts year after year more domestic and foreign tourists and they all want to have a choice of different foods served on their plate. Which means life in Goa can be so wonderful; An outing with your best friends; The restaurant shows a true cozy ambiance; The furniture and tableware are stylish and clean; The food is finger-licking good; Served by more than friendly staff; It is one of these moments where you cannot decide exactly if you are gourmet type or you just give into the glutton side of you … … well, well, well only if there was not the call of nature! In an ideal world, you would get up and follow the illuminated but discreet signboard to the washroom; You open the door to a lobby where there are wash basins, fresh towels, soap and what you appreciate first is the fresh scent that welcomes you. The room has a decent lighting design and soft music playing from hidden speakers. The tiles and all other surfaces look clean and well maintained. You look around, see your smiling face reflected from a large mirror. You walk through another door and it opens to the WC’s (and urinals, considered you belong to the male half of this planet’s population). The thoughtful design provides enough space and privacy to relieve yourself and there are water faucet, toilet paper, hooks for jackets/bags and STILL no foul smell because of proper ventilation. Before leaving the washroom you notice a wall mounted board, listing the timings for cleaning and maintenance procedure. In a way, you feel that this place has really lived up to customers expectations. We know that there are these kinds of excellent facilities in our beloved sunshine state. And we also know that Goa’s reputation as a sought after travel destination depends heavily on such places, since tourism seems to be the only source of contribution to exchequer. The let down is, there are not enough of them and since we all had experienced at least one ghastly washroom in our life, there is a lot to do for updating the mindset of some restaurateurs / operators. Local Goans may wait till they reach home and spare themselves some unpleasant memories but non-locals = tourists = revenue won’t have a choice or an escape route but it will remain for sure in their memory. I am certainly not advocating the above high standards of an ideal washroom everywhere, but a visit to your next door eatery can show that the reality is far from ideal. To a large extent, cleanliness and hygiene can be adopted from the grandest of restaurants to the smallest tea stall. Every restaurant should take a pride in the hygiene of their washrooms, as it can simply indicate how other parts of this place might look like. Be the latter true or not true but why take the risk of carrying a “smelly” reputation forward? As surveys show that a step-motherly treatment to washrooms could turn almost 30 % of guests into never-come-back-customers, restaurateurs/hotel operators should be careful not to lose business because of negative publicity by word of mouth. According to a poll*, the top 10 restroom issues that would prevent restaurant guests from returning are, in order of importance: • Overflowing toilets: 58 % said this would prevent them from going to a restaurant • Unpleasant odors: 57 % • Floors that were slippery or dirty with buildup, gum or other residue: 49 % • Partitions, doors, doorknobs, walls or fixtures were dirty: 38 % • Dirty and wet sinks and countertops: 38 % • Insufficient toilet paper: 33 % • Overflowing trash cans: 31 % • Insufficient liquid soap: 28 % • Toilet paper dispenser didn’t work: 22 % • Management/employees unavailable to report problems to: 19 % Think of the snowball effect if even one unsatisfied guest tells only two others! You don’t have to be Einstein to figure out the numbers and what might follow, first the bad publicity and then may be closing of your business. Joachim Haider P.S.: I purposely didn’t use the term “restroom”, since I cannot imagine anyone will really ever “rest” there, even under the most hygienic conditions … *Courtesy of online survey conducted by Harris Interactive