
Airpnp: Like Airbnb, but for toilets - naren87
http://thenextweb.com/apps/2014/03/04/airpnp-its-like-airbnb-but-for-toilets/
======
kyro
I've joked around with this idea before, except I called it Püber.

In all seriousness, this is an issue I deal with frequently in NYC. I'm out
and about in Manhattan all day, get struck by the need to pee, and then run
around trying to find any place with a restroom. Paying a buck or two would be
a negligible cost if it meant immediate relief.

If they expanded and got enough supply, I'd definitely use their service.

~~~
memset
somewhat-related: I recently learned that there are public restrooms in Penn
Station! So if you're out and about in midtown, there's an option.

~~~
tdees40
Just to be clear, there are rooms that get peed in. Whether they meet the
technical definition of "bathroom" is up in the air.

~~~
derekp7
So not all public facilities have a bathtub in them, is what you are saying?

~~~
tdees40
I'm saying that the bathrooms in Penn Station mostly consist of homeless
people peeing on the walls.

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turnip1979
Charging to use the restroom urgently gets close to violating the rules of
civil society in my books. Yes, I know city governments do it in many big
cities. Yes, I know it is the norm in many parts of Europe. But still ...

I've had a few businesses (even chains) in NYC insist that I purchase
something before using their restroom. As someone who has a comfortable
living, I don't hesitate. At the same time, I make a mental note to not give
that store my business if I can help it. The whole kindness to strangers thing
.. yeah .. that's mostly dead.

I understand the problems caused by homeless individuals when using restrooms
or camping out in stores. I even get that the rest room maintenance costs
money. In Europe, when you have to pay those old ladies to use the restroom to
pee ... that's their income. But still ... when you turn away someone when
they urgently need to go ... that's just wrong.

~~~
mrweasel
Charging for restrooms is also a bit stupid in some cases. I've run into quite
a few restrooms here in Denmark where you need to pay by inserting a coin,
typically only 2DKK. That's all well an good, the money goes to keep the
restrooms clean and you avoid a lot of misuse. The stupid part is that a
rather large number of people don't carry cash anymore.

The local bus and train terminals are 2DKK to use the restrooms, but you do
really use cash to pay for your travels anymore, so the assumption that you
would have a 2DKK coin is a bit flawed. Why can't I use the same card I use to
check-in to bus/train to check-in to the restrooms?

~~~
corin_
Yeah, this drives me crazy. At King's Cross in London (which I'm at at least
once a week) it's 30p - if I have cash it's most likely notes not change, so
even though they have machines to give change I don't really want to spend the
rest of the day with £9.70 or £19.70 in cash.

Would be even worse abroad (though can't think of a time I've run into it), as
apart from places where cards aren't enough (of the places I go to frequently,
just Dublin and Amsterdam really), I don't take any cash, even notes.

~~~
gaius
_At King 's Cross in London (which I'm at at least once a week) it's 30p_

And free across the road at St Pancras...

Tho' in all stations it should be free if you have a
ticket/travelcard/oyster/whatever.

~~~
corin_
Most of the times I need it I have maybe 10 minutes before my train leaves
London, it's evening or late at night, so my options are to find the change or
hold it until a train comes (and hope that it actually has toilets on... which
not all trains on my route do). Going to St. Pancras would be fine but would
mean getting the next train up to an hour later.

------
krmmalik
All jokes aside, I know I would definitely use this service. I have bathroom
issues all the time.

Just recently I was in central london on a busy saturday night and finding a
toilet was seriously hard work. Macdonalds had long queues for toilets, so did
many other retail outlets and many tube stations dont have toilets. I know
residential areas are a little further out from the city, but i'm sure people
could get creative and make it work.

I'd even check the toilet "spots" before I went to a crowded area so I know i
could pop in when needed.

On the flip-side, acting as a host however, I dont think I could do it. With
the state of toilets in most service stations, I couldn't give up my toilet to
someone to come in and pee all over the seat or forget to flush or something.

The irony is that, that's going to be the real sticking point.

~~~
kbenson
Presumably, when making consistent money from a toilet, more resources can be
allocated to keeping it clean and presentable. Possibly cleaned every few
minutes. That would ba a horrible job.

~~~
nobodysfool
I'd just lock the front door when they come in to use the restroom, inspect
the toilet after they are done, and unlock it only after it's clean. Simple as
that.

~~~
djur
That would, in all likelihood, be illegal. In a lot of jurisdictions it'd be
kidnapping.

~~~
dragonwriter
I think the more likely charge, technically, is false imprisonment.

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quomopete
This is why I am just utterly confused about what people are willing to do to
"solve a problem" or "jump on a trend".

From a planning perspective, do users have to set this up with some time in
advance. If I were to rent out my toilet, I wouldn't really want to be sitting
around like a bathroom attendant waiting for strangers to enlist my
accommodations. If this were during a big event in my area, I'd rather a) be
at the event, b) be as far away from the event as possible. Not stuck inside
managing my commode.

If I were on the other end of the transaction, I wouldn't know when nature
would be calling. Making it hard to figure out in advance where I need to
"rent" a toilet.

After that, how truly rewarding is a couple bucks a pop to allow strangers
into your house to relieve themselves? The barrier to entry is not that high
and the risk/inconvenience is not trivial. Does it really pad your income that
much? To me it just wouldn't be worth the hassle and it's not like they're
going to clean up if they make a mess.

Maybe I am just an "old fogey" but some ideas just aren't that good.

~~~
theseoafs
> If I were on the other end of the transaction, I wouldn't know when nature
> would be calling. Making it hard to figure out in advance where I need to
> "rent" a toilet.

I think the idea is that the app allows you to find a toilet immediately in
your immediate area -- not that you reserve, for example, a toilet for 5
minutes at 10:30 PM on Sunday three weeks in advance.

------
sharkweek
Even Seinfeld thought this was a great idea:

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITluapajP4w](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITluapajP4w)

~~~
enscr
Which year was this shot in? (talks about iPhone)

Edit : Found it
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seinfeld_(Curb_Your_Enthusiasm)](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seinfeld_\(Curb_Your_Enthusiasm\))

~~~
sharkweek
It's from a recent season of Curb Your Enthusiasm, where the whole season is
about a Seinfeld reunion episode - "to make up for the terrible original
finale"

------
unwind
The name, while humorous, seems rather likely to provoke Airbnb. The risk of
confusing the two is simply too great.

Other than that, I wonder how this works for private customers; seems the
number of ... transactions per unit of time can be a lot higher than for
somewhere to sleep.

~~~
chimeracoder
There's another way that "AirPNP" could be misinterpreted, to humorous effect:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Party_and_play](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Party_and_play)

(It's especially amusing when you take into account the stories (whether
exaggerated/apocryphal or not) of people using AirBNB as a means to identify
places to hold such "parties").

------
michaelfeathers
March 4th, 2014 - The Sharing Economy jumps the shark.

------
JulianMorrison
This is good news for trans and gender-ambiguous people if you could make sure
it marks (and can be searched for) the availability of gender neutral
facilities where they won't get hassle.

~~~
vqc
There's also [http://www.safe2pee.org](http://www.safe2pee.org) (now
potentially defunct) and
[http://www.refugerestrooms.org/](http://www.refugerestrooms.org/)

~~~
JulianMorrison
There is yeah, but a self funding system is likely to get bigger and be less
vulnerable to being shut down.

------
noarchy
I'll assuming that this isn't a joke story. I'm imagining, with some
amusement, the inevitable first clash with a city over such a service. You
just know someone will complain that this clashes with obscure or arcane
zoning laws.

~~~
zhte415
Interestingly (or at least I find it so) any Public House (i.e. Pub) in the UK
is required by license and law to let any member of the public use their
bathroom, and also to provide fresh water, for no fee.

The toilets do not have to be located in the main building, but be within the
property of the main building.

This applies to neither private clubs nor private businesses (i.e. shops).

------
mgrouchy
Hah, clever idea. My strategy, which works well in fairly urban areas in
decently sized cities(so imperfect I know), is to just use the bathroom in
Hotel Lobbies. Always clean and always available and usually no problem
accessing them.

------
ridave
As someone with a family member suffering from moderate Crohn's disease and
frequently needs to utilize public restrooms this has obvious appeal. While I
cringe at the thought of them paying every time a bathroom is needed out in
public, the safety net would be great. It also would allow people who are very
sick with Crohn's to venture out of their comfort area.

One thing to consider, in the US many states have instituted "Ally's Law"
where businesses are legally required to allow people who need immediate
restroom access, assuming it doesn't put the business or person in harm's way.

------
platelets
Is it almost too gimmicky to be taking seriously? I guess a business could
host their toilet on the site for free to divert passing traffic into their
store?

~~~
evan_
Nathan For You had this idea last year:

[http://m.comedycentral.com/videos/video.rbml?id=p707vf](http://m.comedycentral.com/videos/video.rbml?id=p707vf)

------
brianbreslin
Many moons ago in France I remember there being these public restrooms in
parks that cost like $.25 to use, but then washed themselves before you got
in/after. Could that be the next phone booth style trend? I would happily pay
$.50-1 to know its a clean bathroom that is disinfected. On a busy new york
street with tons of foot traffic at $.50 the machine could easily generate
$5-10k/day gross.

~~~
patmcc
>>>On a busy new york street with tons of foot traffic at $.50 the machine
could easily generate $5-10k/day gros

I think you're an order of magnitude too high on that estimate. If a bathroom
was used for 45 seconds, cleaned for 15, and then immediately back in use
every minute of the day (which is probably a crazy estimate), it would
generate $30 an hour, or $720 a day.

~~~
brianbreslin
eh, you're probably right. I was thinking a street like 5th ave which has
hundred thousand people walking up it every day.

------
keithg
As a runner, I'm always looking out for portables and taking mental notes
because you never know when you're going to need one. I joked with some
friends a few years ago that this would make a good app/website for runners
and cyclists. One idea was you could tag the location to indicate whether or
not it had paper and/or soap for washing hands.

------
vqc
It's really exciting to see all this feedback on this idea. I've been holding
off on sharing [http://www.clnli.com](http://www.clnli.com) until it was more
mature. But now seems as good a time as any.

We're going with a totally different business model. It's really good to see
another player on the block.

~~~
calbear81
Wow, I was talking about something like this to coworkers a few months back at
lunch and thought of the name Hallpass. The challenge we came up with was how
to convince store owners there was enough of a revenue stream here to be worth
their trouble. Are they paid a flat fee or on a per usage basis?

~~~
vqc
The best approach seems to be a hybrid approach. Flat fee + per use on top.
With something like this, you don't want stores to feel like they're getting
the short end of the stick if they are suddenly facing a torrent of bathroom
users.

------
rdl
"PNP in the public toilet" means something different in SF...

------
raldi
It’s tragic that this is a clear-cut trademark violation, because the name is
otherwise _perfect._

------
kevinmchugh
This is not a cool idea, and I would be interested in seeing what a $10/use
restroom looks like. Pay toilets are illegal here in Chicago, (allegedly
because a mayor once ran out of change at the airport), so I'm sure there'd
have to be a fight to implement here.

~~~
vqc
There are definitely laws that deal with this issue. In California for
instance, "restaurants" of a certain footage must make their bathrooms
available to customers. Most likely free of charge. [http://www.ada-
pros.com/know-before-you-go-restroom-requirem...](http://www.ada-
pros.com/know-before-you-go-restroom-requirements-for-restaurants-in-
california/)

Chicago definitely has a bathroom problem though. See, e.g.
[http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2013-08-21/opinion/ct-
per...](http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2013-08-21/opinion/ct-
perspec-0821-bathroom-20130821_1_restrooms-bathroom-tourists)

------
epaladin
I've always found Starbucks to be reliable solution. Usually clean and nearly
ubiquitous.

~~~
vqc
I think from Starbucks's perspective (and any other store's perspective), they
hate having to expend resources on people who don't actually buy anything from
them. There were rumors several years ago that Starbucks wanted to close off
bathrooms to the public because they were becoming the de facto public
bathroom in NY.

~~~
TeMPOraL
This would be a very short-sighted thinking. ROI of making your toilets public
feels like it would be much bigger than of any money spent on advertising.
Here you have potential customers actually present in your store.

Also, for example I remember exactly where every McDonald's and KFC in my
town's centre is only because I sometimes need them as an emergency toilet
and/or free Wi-Fi provider. Guess what places come to my mind first when I'm
hungry and in the area?

~~~
Hrundi
A starbucks in Madrid has a scanner that validates your purchase ticket in
order to access the bathroom.

Lucky for me, the door was half open already.

------
sp332
I've been using a Bathroom Finder app on my in-car tablet. It only maps public
restrooms but it's very helpful and has reviews. It seems like there would be
a lot more public restrooms than private ones available for "rent".

------
meritt
I think Penny Arcade covered the problem with this 9 years ago:
[http://art.penny-arcade.com/photos/215520847_FFz8n-L-2.jpg](http://art.penny-
arcade.com/photos/215520847_FFz8n-L-2.jpg)

------
zhte415
Knowing the floor an exact exit from the lift-block of an Executive Lounge can
also be quite useful. The bathroom of an Executive Lounge is often a self
contained toilet / shower unit together with power-shower, towels and soaps.
Depending on the arrangement (and visibility) of the lounge's front desk and
lift block, and occupancy of the lounge (passing traffic needing to need to
facilitate the facilities), a quick shower is quickly accomplished.

------
mobweb
Where I live (Zurich, Switzerland) it's not uncommon for shops/restaurants to
open up their toilets to non-guests during busy events downtown, for a small
charge. Most people don't mind paying a few bucks to use a clean toilet
instead of the mobile ones provided by the city for free, which usually start
smelling really bad only after a couple of hours.

I doubt I would use an app just for that though...

~~~
sschueller
Z�rich also has 99 public toilets which are cleaned twice a day. Some are also
staffed.

[https://www.stadt-zuerich.ch/zueriwc.secure.html](https://www.stadt-
zuerich.ch/zueriwc.secure.html)

------
guidedlight
My closest toilet is in Japan (I'm in Australia)

I would have thought that being a two sided market, any available public
information would have been already entered, rather than relying on others to
submit toilets.

For example, entering all 33,000 McDonalds locations would have been a great
start. I'm pretty sure that is a true global source of toilet location data.

------
vpontis
Are you able to list your neighbor's lawn?

------
spinlock
Why are "journalists" saying that uber is part of the "sharing economy"?

~~~
wasd
UberX would fall under that categorization.

------
steveplace
Great timing with Mardi Gras-- the company made local news, and if you look at
the world map, there's about a dozen openings in New Orleans (but a surprising
few in the French Quarter).

I'm convincing the inlaws to to a PPP model in their gallery today.

------
frankdenbow
Well Sit or Squat worked so this may also:
[http://www.cultofmac.com/9799/charmin-sponsors-sit-or-
squat-...](http://www.cultofmac.com/9799/charmin-sponsors-sit-or-squat-toilet-
finder-app/)

------
shabinesh
As a frequent traveler by road in India, at transit towns I rent hotel rooms
just to use a clean restroom and to get a decent shower. With such a service I
believe this is solving a practical problem and cost effective in my case.

------
bowlofpetunias
Living in the center of Amsterdam, I could make a fortune with this on
Queensday.

~~~
maxgaudin
Hi there. I'm a cofounder at Airpnp. If you're really interested I'd like to
talk to you about getting your bathroom going for Queen's Day. Email me at
max@airpnp.co

~~~
SimHacker
You might also want to talk with this guy at the Folsom Street Fair in San
Francisco: [http://happyurinal.tumblr.com/post/11493020151/puppet-
urinal...](http://happyurinal.tumblr.com/post/11493020151/puppet-urinal-by-
luckysob)

That approach might work pretty well on Queen's Day in Amsterdam, too. (Well
it's going to be known as King's Day from now on, now that the queen has
abdicated.)

------
techaddict009
Had submitted this as Shown HN 5 days ago but it didnt get any traction !

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7311022](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7311022)

------
tzury
Curb Your Enthusiasm -- iToilet by Gorge Costansa.

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITluapajP4w](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITluapajP4w)

------
jaldoretta
This is definitely an interesting idea, but if it catches on, I can't imagine
Airbnb wouldn't get a little upset about the name-steal.

------
akumen
Who said nobody is innovating! Now this is what I call disruptive!

------
jfmercer
Finally, the startup I've been waiting for.

------
wehadfun
So Can you charge extra for number 2?

------
cowls
I seriously hope this is a joke

~~~
jasonlfunk
Why? It's a great solution to a very common problem.

------
alexkus
IPFreely?

------
roozbeh18
disruptive

------
acconrad
We're a month early on Google April fools product launches

