UPDATE: How’s your CR?

No, that’s not CR as in Customer Relations. It’s CR as Filipinos know it—Comfort Room.

It seems Filipinos use this unique term for the bathroom. The British call theirs the loo, while Americans call theirs the restroom or the toilet.

Now how’s your establishment’s CR? Believe it or not, CRs are now being reviewed in CR Diaries, a unique section of the online city guide Spot. Those that look nice, clean and smell good are praised, while those that need improvement are singled out.

The CR Diaries came about this year due to the personal interest of the people behind Spot (community editor Karl Bustamante, managing editor Cathy Paras, and web producer Trixie Zabal). They also were inspired by Lonely Planet’s Bluelist on the Worst Toilets in the World and other related websites and blogs on the same topic.

“The goal of CR Diaries,” says Paras, “is threefold:
1. To praise restaurants and establishments/spots who actually pay attention to the cleanliness of their comfort rooms and the ‘comfort’ level of their patrons.
2. To smoke, or should I say ‘flush’ out (no pun intended), spots who clearly need to work on their CRs. More often than not, the CRs we’ve reviewed aren’t really ‘bad’ across the board. For example, we may be turned off by the lack of a toilet seat and a soap dispenser, but we may praise the spot for placing a deodorizer in the stall. Contrarily, we may be in love with a CR that meets all of our hygiene and aesthetic needs, but we may find its use of space completely useless.
3. To make it clear that one’s dining/going out experience is sometimes highly dependent on one’s CR experience.”

Readers have been intrigued by CR Diaries, posting comments on reviews published therein. CRs that have garnered high ratings so far include Tiendesitas, The Fort Strip, Max’s Restaurant in its original location on Scout Tuazon Street in Quezon City, and Trinoma Mall, among others.

Paras says the idea of taking pride in one’s establishment’s CR seems to be a recent development in Manila. “We are a city that, on our bad days, still thinks it’s ok to pee facing the wall/tree/car tire, despite all signage and laws indicating otherwise. For us at Spot, to love your CR and to be proud of it means to walk the talk, so to speak, so we expect to see toilet paper, deodorizers, functioning door locks, paper towels or an electric hand drier, in the CR – at the very least. It’s quite rare to find a CR with all of the aforementioned toilet accoutrement. But I do think that we have an interest in CRs – an equal interest in the pretty and the sweet-smelling ones, and a morbid fascination in ones that make us plug our noses and gag.”

In Paras’ opinion, the current state of CRs in the metro is not as horrible as it used to be, but things can still be improved. “As a city, we can do so much better, and without the help of attendants at that. We can be more disciplined as Manileños in caring for our toilet and CR space for the moment that we are using it so that everyone else who uses it after can enjoy the same clean, properly equipped, safe, well-lit, sweet (or at least neutral) smelling CR that we all love to use and for which we’d even pay a measly twenty pesos, if we were guaranteed the said qualities.”

So better make sure that CR is scrubbed clean, is deodorized and has an ample supply of soap, tissue paper, paper towels, and water (of course!) to make people want to come back to your establishment. Users also have the responsibility to keep it clean for the next users.

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