Pay showers?

I haven't seen a pay shower at a campground in at least 40 years, but I have heard of some. We did stay at one private campground a couple of years ago that required a refundable $5 deposit for a swipe card needed for access to the restrooms/showers. There was a public beach next door that may have been the reason for it.

Went cross country about 25 years ago, several parks in the West had pay showers. The worst were the ones that were pay AND cold!!!

pitch wrote:
I spoke to one CG manager once about his pay showers. He said they didn't profit a bit, but it kept the kids from turning on all the showers a letting them run.

yup, I've seen a few up here in the New England area. I don't blame them trying to prevent kids from leaving the showers running. Wish more would use the straight mechanical timers or the spring loaded push button ones

Mike

ksbowman wrote:
We went on a canoe trip years ago and tent camped there before we got an RV. It had pay showers that were a quarter for 4-5 minutes. They were converted car wash controls and had wash , rinse and wax! We got quite a few laughs out of that.

And a foaming brush? :)

Never heard of them until 5 years ago when BIL and his family wanted to take showers (had a pop up). Peed him off, then again he's cheap. Likewise, never gave it a thought about kids turning them on and leaving running. But CG we like A LOT, is a new CG and has pay showers.

pitch wrote:
I spoke to one CG manager once about his pay showers. He said they didn't profit a bit, but it kept the kids from turning on all the showers a letting them run.

2X.

That is why many public campgrounds in the desert southwest have them. I sure prefer that to the push button types that only run for 10 seconds per push & have no temperature adjustment.

I've run into a few that use tokens rather than quarters, for example Anza-Borrego Desert State Park in CA, and Squaw Lake BLM Campground at Imperial Dam. I usually end up with a token or two in my shaving bag after leaving...

I spoke to one CG manager once about his pay showers. He said they didn't profit a bit, but it kept the kids from turning on all the showers a letting them run.

I have stayed at quite a few campgrounds that have pay to use showers. They are usually located near areas that get a lot of hiker traffic. It is easier to charge everyone to use the shower than to try and police the area to keep the hikers out.
Yellowstone's campgrounds all have pay to use showers (if they have any) but you pay to get in and stay in the water as long as you want. You get two free shower tokens with every night of paid camping.
The campground at Badlands NP is run by a private company and they charge for showers. They have a severe water shortage there.

It is a wonder there is no credit card reader to use, like in a car wash. Might help eliminate the lack of coins. Haven't seen any for years!

We don't use campground bathrooms/showers except occasionally when we are staying longer with no sewer hookup. Have not run into that as we are usually at a COE campground and they don't charge.