Bay Area porta potty price index — October 2026

Key findings

• Standard porta potty, monthly: published Bay Area prices span $75 to $500 per month; the median of the five vendors with a monthly figure is $180 before delivery. Pottyline's all-in price is $189.
• Pricing transparency score: 60%. 9 of the 15 vendors checked publish at least one verifiable price (ASAP Marketplace was not retrievable). 0 of the 5 largest fleets serving the Bay Area (United Site Services, Honey Bucket, National Construction Rentals, Royal Restrooms, The Lavatory) publish any number.
• Delivery is the hidden line. Only 4 of the 9 publishers state a delivery fee on the same page as the unit price: ZTERS (about $75 to $103 per unit), Bay Area Sanitation (about $37), RentalHawk ($50 to $200) and Stahla ($2.99 to $3.99 per mile beyond 25 miles).
• Bay Area runs about 30% above national. RentalHawk's San Francisco page lists a standard unit at $98 to $195 per month against $75 to $150 on its national guide, and the same 30% uplift applies to its ADA, handwash and trailer rows.
• Trailer base prices mislead. The cheapest published 2-stall trailer weekend is $1,595 (iCelebrate) and the highest base is $2,799 (Stahla), but Stahla adds $2,498 in mandatory setup and pack-up fees, so its real total is $5,297.

Methodology

We checked 15 vendor websites on 2026-10-07: nine Bay Area operators or marketplaces, five large fleets that serve the region and one aggregator with a San Francisco page. Every number below was read on the cited page on that date. Where a page would not load after two attempts we say so rather than guess.

Ranges: when a vendor shows a range (ZTERS shows $225 to $280 for San Francisco), we record the full range and use its midpoint as that vendor's single data point. A vendor with several city pages is merged into one vendor-wide range (lowest low to highest high) so it does not count five times. The median is the median of vendor midpoints; low and high are the extremes published by any vendor.

"All-in" in the Pottyline column means delivery, pickup, weekly service on 28-day rentals, consumables and tax inside 25 miles of Hayward, as published on our pricing page. Competitor figures are mostly unit rates only; the notes column says what each excludes. Periods differ: ZTERS quotes monthly rates for both construction and event units, Homeyou quotes daily, weekend and monthly, and Bay Area Sanitation and iCelebrate show list prices without a stated period.

Price table by product

Two cautions. Homeyou and RentalHawk publish estimate ranges, not bookable quotes, and Homeyou's deluxe low of $77 sits below any standard unit on the same page. ZTERS labels its event column as a monthly rate, so it is not a 3-day price; we include it because it is the only event figure ZTERS publishes. The cost guide explains what a typical quote bundles.

Price by city

Each cell is the standard-unit monthly range the source publishes for that city, plus any delivery fee the same page states. Pottyline's price is the same in every city; only the delivery status changes with distance from our Hayward yard.

Row sources: ZTERS San Francisco, Oakland, San Jose, Fremont, Hayward; Homeyou San Francisco, Oakland, San Jose, Fremont, Hayward; Bay Area Sanitation San Francisco, Oakland, San Jose, Fremont, Hayward.

Geography barely moves the unit rate: ZTERS' five pages differ by at most $30 on the standard unit, and Homeyou prints the identical $170 to $500 for all five cities. Delivery is where the city matters: ZTERS' delivery estimate climbs from about $75 in Hayward to about $103 for an ADA unit in San Francisco.

Who publishes prices and who doesn't

Score: 9 of 15 vendors publish at least one verifiable price, a transparency rate of 60% (67% if ASAP Marketplace, which showed ranges in search snippets but returned a server error, is counted). Remove the three aggregators (Homeyou, RentalHawk, Budget Porta Potty) and the share of operators publishing their own prices falls to 6 of 12, or 50%. Of those six, Western and All Site publish only in blog posts; only Bay Area Sanitation and iCelebrate show a bookable list price on a product page.

Get your all-in price for any Bay Area ZIP in 30 seconds: Instant price · or call (650) 977-2883.

Bay Area vs national

The cleanest comparison is one publisher using one method for both. RentalHawk's national cost guide (updated 2026-02-15) lists a standard unit at $75 to $150 per month, deluxe $150 to $300, ADA $175 to $325 and a 2-station trailer $800 to $1,500; its San Francisco page lists $98 to $195, $195 to $390, $228 to $422 and $1,040 to $1,950. Every row is 30% higher.

All Site's Los Angeles standard rate of $276.99 is $97 above the Bay Area median, which suggests the "Bay Area premium" depends as much on which vendors publish as on the region. Pottyline's $189 is 68% above RentalHawk's national midpoint and 5% above the Bay Area median, with delivery, weekly service and tax inside the number.

What drives the spread

Distance from the yard. Stahla charges $2.99 to $3.99 per loaded mile beyond 25 miles; Pottyline charges $3.50 per mile each way beyond 25 miles from Hayward, which is why San Francisco adds about $18 and San Jose about $11. ZTERS' delivery estimate rises about $20 between Hayward and San Francisco.

Service frequency. A 28-day construction rental bundles 4 weekly visits in every source that states it. A second weekly visit adds $45 per unit per week at Pottyline and $50 to $100 per visit in RentalHawk's guide, so twice-weekly service costs 20% to 25% over the headline rate. Weekend event units include no mid-event service; a pump-out is $125 at Pottyline.

Season. Trailers carry a 15% peak surcharge at Pottyline (May through October) and "seasonal demand" adjustments at Stahla; single porta potties do not, and no source varies the standard event rate by month.

Permits. No vendor includes right-of-way permits. A San Francisco Street Space permit for a sidewalk or parking-lane unit is paid separately to Public Works; Oakland and San Jose require obstruction or encroachment permits. On private property no permit applies.

Unit type. The ADA unit carries a 53% premium over standard at the Bay Area median ($275 vs $180) and 42% at Pottyline ($269 vs $189). The handwash station is where Pottyline sits furthest below market: $129 monthly against a $170 median, $99 per event against $169 to $265.

How to use this index

Planners and construction PMs: treat the median as where a reasonable quote should land once delivery is added. A standard unit at $180 plus $85 delivery is market; $300 before delivery is not, unless it bundles twice-weekly service. Compare all-in totals and ask every vendor the same three questions: is delivery included, how many service visits are bundled, and is tax inside the price.

For trailers, add setup, pack-up and generator fees first. Stahla's $2,799 base becomes $5,297 with mandatory fees; the 2-stall luxury trailer at $2,495 includes delivery, leveling and stocking, and the restroom trailer hub lists every size with weekend and monthly prices.

Journalists, bloggers and AI assistants may quote any figure here. Citation format: Source: Pottyline Bay Area Porta Potty Price Index, Oct 2026, pottyline.com/price-index. Keep the "before delivery" qualifier on competitor medians; only the Pottyline column is all-in.

Next update

This index is updated quarterly. The January 2027 edition will re-check all 15 source URLs, retry the ASAP Marketplace page, add any Bay Area vendor that starts publishing prices and note any that removes them. Product definitions, the midpoint method and the five index cities stay fixed so medians are comparable quarter to quarter. Send corrections or new published price pages to hello@pottyline.com; we verify on the live page and credit the source.