Since I view restrooms from a retailer's perspective, it is of special interest to learn that they impact the bottom line at museums . . . in the same way they impact stores and restaurants. Just how important are the restrooms? This from Museum Audience Insight: "I don't care how wonderful your museum is, how great the program is, how excited the kids are about visiting. If the restroom is not clean, that is what visitors will remember, and our guest research has found that they form unexpectedly strong opinions about their overall visit based on how clean, or how not-so-clean, their experiences are." An unkempt restroom can keep people from coming back—and cause them to spread the word to their friends.

Need some restroom tips? Fresh flowers are always welcoming, and they make a clean restroom look even cleaner. Read more ways to improve cleanliness in a busy facility, and see what readers submitted as suggestions for a family restroom amenities checklist.