Shower Facilities for Commuters

I have some interesting thoughts sent to me on this from a business owner here in Melbourne (who, by the way, runs a fantastic hotel) which might be of interest:

Ricardo from Alto Hotel says:

"I think the idea of offering showers and changing rooms for bike-commuters is a valid one and I have worked on a concept for that. I looked at the hotel-facilities and held discussions with a number of colleagues in the 3, 4 and 5 star CBD, hotels.

The general comment was that;
3, 4 & star quality hotels do not have communal showers
The showers within the hotel guest rooms are not available at the time the commuters would need them.
Staff changing rooms and showers are also at their peak use by the hotels own staff.
Backpacker hotels do have communal showers, but again, they are in use by the hotels guests at the critical time of 8am to 9am.

My conclusion was that the hotels are not the ideal place to look for this type of facility. The available facilities are;
Existing public swimming-pools who already have changing room, lockers and showers [in Melbournes case think of our City Baths]
Any organizations with large staff facilities [which are rarely in high demand]

Neither of the above are likely to be available in the immediate vicinity of large CBD office towers.

Our business plan called for office towers to invest in changing 4 or 5 of their car-parks into showers, changing area, lockers and bike storage area. The bike-commuters would pay a fee of around A$100 per month for use of the facility, including bike storage.

The facility can then be run by the office tower managers or by a contractor, which is where Barbara would probably find her niche."

(Ricardo has asked me to post on his behalf)




Bridget McGuinness
Australia