The news revealed it in February Antonio Giraldo, geographer, urban planner and PSOE councilor in the Madrid City Council. In a tweet that ended up going viral told how a commercial ground floor in the city center that had once housed a bank branch was living a second life as a private bathroom. It might seem like a curiosity without much significance, but that ‘transmutation’ says a lot about Madrid and the tourism that other destinations in Spain experience.
Now the toilets are back in the news, but for a very different reason: although Madrid tourism moves in record numbersthe business hasn’t taken off.
Where I said bench, I say bathroom. To understand the controversy we have to go back a few months, to February 5, the day Giraldo published the tweet in which he warned of the change of use of a ground floor located in the heart of Madrid, to be more precise in the Plaza de San Miguel, near the Plaza Mayor.
The space, which had once housed a bank branch, had been converted into private bathrooms. And to demonstrate it Giraldo included several photographs in which you could see the window with a huge ‘WC’ logo and the access to the new business, with automatic turnstile, lights, fence and card reader included.
Click on the image to go to the tweet.
“The tourism uncontrolled from the center”. Is it news that a commercial premises changes its use, that they open private bathrooms in the center of Madrid? The answer is yes. It may seem like a curiosity, but the change represents a much deeper and broader transformation: the loss of services aimed at residents in favor of others focused on passing customers, such as tourists. From BBVA office to private toilet that is accessed after payment by card.
“The phenomenon of uncontrolled touristification in the center of Madrid brings us something new: a traditional commercial premises transformed into private toilets at a cost of one euro that you pay with a card at an entrance turnstile,” I was reflecting. “If the ultra-pressure that tourists put on public services, such as public bathrooms, is not passed on via a tax, ignore the fact that the private sector is already arriving.”
Private bathrooms and much more. In reality, private toilets were just one piece of a much larger phenomenon. The residents of the Plaza de San Miguel may have seen how a commercial ground floor was converted into a paid toilet instead of hosting a pharmacy, fruit shop, shoe store, a supermarket or any other neighborhood business, but something similar has happened in other areas of the city with establishments clearly oriented towards tourism, such as slogans, accommodations or souvenir shops.
It is nothing strange or exclusive to the capital. Not long ago in Santiago de Compostela they did the math and they discovered that in the historic center it is now easier to buy a souvenir than a loaf of bread. Another clear example Malaga leaves it. Over there a report of the City Council warns that “mass tourism can lead to the proliferation of low-quality gastronomic establishments” and points out the risks entailed by “the expulsion of native and value-added businesses, replaced by souvenir shops and other businesses for tourists.”
A business not so business? The news about the private bathrooms in the center of Madrid could have stopped there, in another example of urban tourism. A few days ago, however, he once again made another headline, in this case in an information advanced by The Confidential: although Madrid has reached a record of overnight stays by foreign tourists, paying toilets have turned out to be less business than was believed. According to reveals the newspaper, the company behind it, The Mad Toilets, has filed bankruptcy proceedings overwhelmed by the losses.
The news is even more interesting because initially the project was linked to Victor de Aldamaa businessman associated with such controversial episodes as the Ábalos case wave hydrocarbon plot. Political issues aside, The Confidential explains that the company presented the special procedure for microenterprises before the commercial court, suffocated by the accounts.
In court they declared the opening of the special liquidation procedure and the company’s attorney opted for a continuation process. Now a Madrid firm specialized in restructuring has been chosen.
Is there anything else known about the firm? Yes. According to the data sent to the court, the company found itself with losses that made its continuity unfeasible: the turnover was zero while the liabilities exceeded 750,000 euros.
Consequently, the judge opted for the special procedure for liquidating the microenterprise. On the Empresite platform can be seen that its current status is that of competition. To provide the service, the company had four workers who were in charge of cleaning and supervision, for example. In its day, the premises were equipped with individual cubicles, paper dispensers, sinks and dryers.
Searching for the causes. The question at this point is… Why didn’t the project work? Why has it not managed to become a profitable business in the midst of a tourism boom? From the outset, the place had a significant handicap: not far from there, a few minutes walk, there is public toilets that are part of the 129 WC network free access whose maintenance, clarifies the City Councilis paid for with advertising. Added to this competition is that exercised by other businesses such as cafes, bars and restaurants available to tourists.
To access the private toilets it was necessary to pay one euro by card and the service was not available 24 hours a day either. In February elDiario explained that the business was operating with a provisional schedule, although the objective was to operate from nine in the morning to twelve at night. To do this, however, an employee explained, more staff would be necessary. In a post Published on LinkedIn, Esteban Mancuso points out that and some other key that explain what happened.
Specifically speaks of an “underestimation of real demand and user behavior”, a schedule that considerably limited potential use (from 11:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.) and the imbalance between income and expenses. The establishment may have had clients, but each one paid one euro and many euros are necessary to cover the high operating costs marked by staff payrolls, the initial investment and the maintenance of a 273 square meter (m2) premises also located in a “prime area” of the capital.
Images | Google Maps
GIPHY App Key not set. Please check settings