The popularity of free camping has led to the rise of the ‘shower stealer’ … and caravan park owners and roadhouse operators are not ready to let their hot water go without a fight.
In some parks, not even the introduction of coded key pads at amenities blocks or the handing of physical keys to legitimate van park visitors has been enough to prevent some ‘non-guests’ strolling in to the park and finding an opportunity to illicitly access the facilities.
And, with long-term travellers’ budgets often stretched to the limit, many business operators fear the problem is only going to get worse.
However, across the Tasman, the owner of a New Zealand roadhouse reckons he may have come up with the ultimate ‘shower-stealer busting device’.
Chris Wagner from the Riverlands Roadhouse near Blenheim, has designed a high-tech ablution block, the KiwiCamp, which takes payment for showers and laundry facilities using a mobile phone app.
Costing about $250,000 and catering for up to 40 camper vans per night, Wagner hopes his new ablution block will help prevent the mess and overcrowding issues that have plagued some popular camping spots.
The KiwiCamp has four showers and toilets, a laundry, power points, rubbish recycling, dishwashing and recreation areas.
“When you come into the site it’s the same technology as Pay Wave … you swipe your phone on the boom gate,” he told the Manawatu Standard newspaper. “When you have a shower, you swipe your phone and it turns on.”
Wagner said he was offering councils the building plans free of charge and his company would get 20% of transactions to cover the payment technology.
“People say freedom campers come and put rubbish everywhere and don’t give anything back,” he said. “Our system makes them pay for what they use, so councils can say ‘we’re investing this, and this is our return.”
Users would register and the app would allow operators to monitor and control a campsite, restricting vehicle entry via a traffic boom if necessary, and communicating directly with users via instant messages.
· Are you – or have you ever been – a shower stealer? Comment below.
No, but i think this is a brilliant idea.
Not sure if taking a phone into a shower block is a good thing
Can think of dozens of places with coin op showers & quite a few towns with free showers, don’t know why you would want to steal one, maybe its a kiwi thing.
No the thought has never entered my head, but some people will pinch anything. like Don said not sure about taking ones mobile into a shower block, but give the inventor top marks for thinking outside the square.