Kansas City International Airport
Kansas City opened a $1.5 billion terminal in February 2023 with 40 new gates, a sensory room, a plane simulator, and restrooms — including gender neutral restrooms — built connected from day one. TRAX came in through the design-build project, which is the only way a deployment this complete happens.
Designed in, not retrofitted.
Kansas City International Airport undertook a $1.5 billion new terminal build that opened in February 2023. Across 40 new gates the airport put its technology and passenger experience thinking on display — a sensory room, a plane simulator, and restrooms, including gender neutral restrooms, equipped with TRAX SmartRestroom technology.
TRAX was contracted through the design-build project to deliver a fully connected restroom: throughput monitoring, stall occupancy, connected dispensers, passenger feedback and digital signage.
Being in the project at design stage is what makes the difference here. Most deployments go into a building that already exists and work around what is there. This one was specified alongside the building.
The Challenge
A $1.5 billion terminal sets an expectation with every passenger who walks into it, and restrooms are where that expectation gets tested first. A new building with a conventional restroom program would have undercut the rest of the investment on the one touchpoint almost every passenger uses.
The airport’s goal was to use cleaning data to deliver the best passenger experience possible in the new terminal. That requires more than a sensor count. It requires the passenger-facing layer and the operational layer to be designed together, so what a passenger sees on a sign and what a frontline team member sees on a tablet come from the same source.
The Solution
Frontline teams carry iPads running the Clean+Inspect mobile app, which registers with Bluetooth beacons when they arrive to service a restroom. When a restroom triggers a cleaning alert, the team member sees the exact location and the alert in the palm of their hand, and records tasks completed, inventory used and any feedback as they work.
On the passenger side, digital signs outside each restroom display the number of stalls available, the nearest alternative restroom if it is closed, and the name of the person actively cleaning it. Inside, green and red indicator lights above each stall door direct people to what is free. On the way out, passengers are prompted to give feedback on the environment, so the frontline team is working from current experience data rather than yesterday’s.
To keep consumables in stock, the soap, paper towel and toilet paper dispensers are connected to the TRAX platform and report status and fill levels live across every restroom. Frontline team members can open a digital map of the restroom and see exactly which dispenser triggered the alert, which turns a refill into a direct trip rather than a walk-through.
All of the data is held in the TRAX platform, so the airport can review performance and trends whenever it needs to.
What TRAX deployed
- A fully connected restroom deployment contracted through the design-build project
- Throughput monitoring and stall occupancy across the new terminal's restrooms
- Connected soap, paper towel and toilet paper dispensers reporting live status and fill levels
- Digital signage outside each restroom showing stall availability, nearest alternative and active cleaning status
- Green and red stall indicator lights inside each restroom
- Passenger feedback capture at the restroom exit
- iPads running Clean+Inspect for frontline teams, registering arrival through Bluetooth beacons
- Digital restroom maps showing the exact dispenser triggering each alert
The Benefits
- Passengers directed to an available stall or an alternative restroom before they queue for one
- Consumables refilled against live fill levels instead of a rotation, so stock-outs stop being discovered by passengers
- Alerts that name the exact dispenser and location, so a refill is one trip
- Passenger feedback captured at the exit, while the experience is current
- Tasks, inventory used and feedback recorded in the app during the work, not written up afterwards
- One data set behind both the passenger-facing signage and the operational dashboard
The new terminal opened in February 2023 with the TRAX deployment in place across its restrooms. The contract renews annually, and all cleaning, usage, consumable and feedback data is held in the TRAX platform so the airport can review performance and trends on demand.
READY WHEN YOU ARE
Specify it with the building
See how TRAX works with design-build teams to deliver connected restrooms from opening day.