The Stuck at the Airport team spent a long day touring San Diego International Airport’s lovely new Terminal 1 facility, which is scheduled to begin hosting flights on September 22, 2025.
We’ll be back with more images and information, but because it’s Friday, we’re declaring one of the SAN’s new restroom features Airport Amenity of the Week.
In each restroom, every sink has three fixtures.
One dispenses soap.
One dispenses water.
And one is the airport amenity of the week: a personal hand dryer.
This should cut down, or perhaps eliminate, icky wet counters that result from hand washers searching around for and walking over to communal hand dryer machines or paper towel dispensers.
BWI’s winning loos are part of a $55 million airport renovation program that includes expanded and improved restrooms on concourses B, C, and D.
Bright and spacious, BWI’s upgraded bathrooms have windows that provide both natural light and privacy.
The new restrooms also have features such as touchless fixtures, full-height stalls and doors, extra space for stowing roller bags, super-helpful red light/green light occupancy indicators for the stalls, and sensors that alert the airport’s custodial staff when supplies need to be refilled.
There are even seating areas where travelers may wait for their companions.
“We’re honored to be recognized by Cintas and contest voters for our commitment to providing a positive passenger experience and outstanding facilities,” said Ricky Smith, Executive Director/CEO of BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport. “Passengers rank restrooms as an airport’s number one amenity. That’s why we work so hard to provide creative, clean, and inviting restrooms to make travel more enjoyable.”
BWI’s restrooms won out this year over a strong list of nationwide public restroom contenders that include clean and charming examples located in a dive bar, a hotel, a public rest area, restaurants, a craft brewery, a ski resort, and a lightship.
Here’s the list of the other finalists for this year:
• Clear Lake and Des Moines River Safety Rest Areas (Jackson, Minnesota)
• Drusie & Darr (Nashville, Tennessee)
• El Rio (San Francisco, California)
• Frying Pan (New York, New York)
• Hell ‘n Blazes Brewing Company (Melbourne, Florida)
As the winner of this year’s Cintas-sponsored America’s Best Restroom contest, BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport gets $2,500 in Cintas products and services to help maintain its award-winning restrooms.
The airport’s restrooms will also have a seat of honor in the America’s Best RestroomHall of Fame.
This isn’t the first time an airport has ascended to the throne in this contest.
Last year Tampa International Airport (TPA) took top honors for its first set of renovated restrooms featuring large Florida-themed graphics and a wide range of convenient features.
A clean public restroom can be a rare find when you’re in an airport, a restaurant, a theme park, a highway rest stop, a museum, or a mall.
It can be even more difficult to find a clean public restroom that also has some character, wit, and charm.
That’s why the Stuck at the Airport team of restroom reviewers always pays attention to the list of finalists in the annual America’s Best Restroom contest.
In 2022, Tampa International Airport (TPA) took the throne for a new set of Airside C restrooms featuring high-res images of quintessential Florida flora.
2023 List of Finalists for America’s Best Restroom
New restrooms at BWI feature an entrance with a seating area for travelers to wait for their companions. Inside, the restrooms have bright, spacious, fully enclosed stalls for privacy, touchless fixtures and individual lactation, adult changing, and family assist rooms.
Here is a list of the other 9 public restrooms in the running for the 2023 America’s Best Restroom Contest.
In addition to quick-moving security lines, and tasty things to eat and drink, clean restrooms with short waiting lines top most travelers’ wish lists for airport amenities.
And airports are responding by flushing out old, tired restroom designs and bringing in bathrooms that are bright, high-tech, art-filled, and new.
The latest to do so is Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport (BWI).
Upgraded restrooms were included in a recent Concourse A expansion and there’s an ongoing $55 million program to expand and improve six sets of restrooms on Concourses B, C, and D.
The first set of improved restrooms on Concourse B is now open.
Inside these restrooms, you'll find spacious stalls with occupancy lights, touchless faucets and towel dispensers, an airfield view through privacy glass and much more. #MDOTinnovates#airportspic.twitter.com/LPmMLrC7Bm
The new set of restrooms now open on Concourse B is nearly 4,700 total square feet, with full-height stalls, space for stowing roller bags, surface materials that are easy to clean and sanitize, and improved ventilation.
The new restrooms also feature innovative technology such as occupancy lights for the stalls and sensors to inform custodial staff when supplies need to be refilled.
Updated Airport Restrooms Win Hearts – and Awards
Airports that give their restrooms modern makeovers not only win kudos from passengers, but some of the new loos also win awards.
In 2022, both Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) and Tampa International Airport (TPA) made the list of finalists for America’s Best Restroom Contest. And Tampa International Airport took the throne.
Public restrooms can be a crapshoot when it comes to cleanliness and overall appeal.
But some establishments do loos right, with spotless sinks and stalls, unique design features and a dash of surprise and creative flair.
And when they do “it shows a commitment to quality across the board,” said Danny Rubin, survey editor for Cintas’ annual America’s Best Restroom contest. “If an owner is going to put so much attention into the restroom, it shows you how much they care about the entire building.”
Have a seat and consider some recent contest winners.
The 17 lavatories at Longwood Gardens, near Philadelphia (the 2014 winner), are part of the largest living “Green Wall” in North America. The restrooms at the Varsity Theater in Minneapolis, the contest’s 2013 winner, have bar service and a view out to the venue’s concert stage. And the 2012 winner, a Buc-ees convenience store in New Braunfels, Texas offers patrons a choice of 83 spotless thrones.
There have been some airports amongst the nominees and the winners as well.
In 2005, Fort Smith Regional Airport in Arkansas was a winner.
Winning bathroom at Fort Smith Regional Airport
And Tampa International Airport’s restrooms were among the top nominees in 2013.
Cintas is now rounding up the list of go-worthy restrooms for the 2015 contest and they expect nominations to trickle in through June.
“It’s remarkable that we’ve had a fresh list of 10 great restrooms on the ballot for each of the past 13 years,” said Rubin, “but we keep finding out about great restrooms in hotels, museums, parks, airports, stores, malls, theaters and other places around the country that we haven’t heard of before.”
What makes a public restroom a contender?
A restroom being nominated should be extremely clean, of course, but it should also be able to pass the “eye test,” said Rubin. “Do people go in, look around and say ‘Wow, that’s spectacular,’ do they talk about it, does it generate buzz?”
Being nominated is an honor all its own, of course, but the public restroom that comes in first place in the contest gets $2500 worth of restroom services; the three venues that get the most votes get their restrooms deep-cleaned.
You’ll find details on how to submit a nomination for Cintas’ America’s Best Restroom contest here.
(A slightly different version of my story about Best Restrooms first appeared on Today.com)
