10 mo. ago • 100%

This app lets restaurants and coffee shops charge to use the bathroom

techcrunch.com This app lets restaurants and coffee shops charge to use the bathroom | TechCrunch

Flush, an app launching at CES 2024 in Las Vegas, lets business owners charge customers up to $10 to use the bathroom.

90 comments

This is going to be an effective way to tank the Google/Yelp review score of your restaurant. And pay toilets are also stupid in Europe, I say that as a European.

115
- Where is this mystical European place where people charge for toilets? I swear, I hear this all the time when it comes to US vs EU differences and I don't know what they mean.
  
  I mean, I know places that have toilets just for customers, so you need to ask for a key or a code to use it when you're there, I know of a couple of cities that charge a nominal fee, like a quarter for outdoor latrines for some reason, and I know of one specific train station that licensed toilets out to a private company and they tried to charge for them, which is very shitty and everybody hated it.
  
  The idea of restaurants charging extra to pee is not a thing in the European places where I've been/lived.
  
  29
  
  There are plenty of public toilets that charge a small fee. Train stations and airports for example. Also at gas stations it's pretty common. But I have never seen it at a restaurant or bar. Maybe sometimes there's a sign that says it's 50 cents for non-customers or something. But never for customers.
  
  33
  
  Keep in mind things have changed over the decades, with a general push towards a public health code for establishmends of "free bathrooms, free tap water".
  
  Historically, Germany used to be famous for having only a few stops along the highway, with toilets you had to pay for. Tourist traps along France, the Netherlands, Poland, Italy, Spain, Portugal, used to let restaurants and bars charge for bathroom use, patron or no patron. Gas stops varied wildly, from free bathrooms, to "hole in the ground" ones, to "ask the manager for a key" ones. Rest areas along highways tended to have just a free "hole in the ground" type toilet, and it was up to you to avoid touching anything, then wiping off your shoes .
  
  As for public bathrooms (outside an establishment), it still varies from place to place. Public events are required to put a number of free porta-potties, tourist traps may want to either finance installations with a fee, or reduce the number of free-standing turds in the bushes.
  
  Still, over time the general move has been from "pee posts" for sailors to freely urinate onto, or people going down some stairs to sea/river level and taking a dump right there, to having public bathrooms with a "donation" policy, to public bathrooms with free piss walls/areas and a self-cleaning booth for a nominal fee.
  
  13
  
  I've used one in paris. Had to put .50 euro in the coin slot on the door in order to get in and stand over a hole in the floor.
  
  11
  
  maybe they are talking about public toilets on the streets. not in restaurants. like the ones that clean themselves in Paris.
  
  5
  
  Where is this mystical European place where people charge for toilets?
  
  Some malls have actually clean toilets, those..
  
  4
  
  All over the place in Europia. From train station to public parks, in multiple countries, it is somewhat common for a turnstile with a coin slot for a small charge. Doesn't bother me if it allows for cleaner, safer facilities and keeps the riff raff out.
  
  4
  
  I see it occasionally in Finland. Saw it a lot in Estonia. Saw a few in Sweden.
  
  3
  
  I ran into it in a mall in London, was pretty surprised.
  
  3
- Along what others have mentioned, we still have the 'Old lady sitting in front of the toilet building'. It's less common these days but there are still some of these around in eastern Europe. She keeps the facilities clean(er) and takes money from entrants. They usually have a little stand or something.
  
  11
- Tbh, I haven't even seen many pay toilets in Europe. I only saw them in Hungary.
  
  1
Do you want piss everywhere? Because that's how you end up with piss everywhere.

69
- Yup, I'll gladly piss on the smart lock that controls this bullshit. I almost pissed in a trashcan in high school in front of the whole class when a teacher wouldn't let me go to the bathroom.
  
  I almost had my penis out before the teacher realized I wasn't bluffing.
  
  27
  
  I remember in grade school, my school constructed restrooms in every classroom so students won’t need to leave class. The problem was they were literally just a small concrete cubicle and the walls didn’t even go up to the ceiling. That was when I learned pissing straight into the water wasn’t a good idea. I went out to the entire class staring at me.
  
  11
- Shoutout to our resident Tim Horton's Shit Flinger.
  
  There will be more of that if this shitty app proliferates.
  
  8
  
  New kid's tale: "Horton hears a Shiiii...!"
  
  5
If a business wanted to charge me to change a baby's diaper in the bathroom, I'd just do it right on the table or whatever in the middle of everyone. Let's see how your business does when everyone is seeing and smelling that business. I hope it's a restaurant.

50
- I expect that customers will not blame the business for that. They'll just think you're an inconsiderate person, like all the other parents who think a table where people eat is an appropriate place for their child's faeces...
  
  16
  
  Well they’d be wrong in this case.
  
  9
- Based on the coffee shops I've visited, the patrons are just going to piss on the door.
  
  11
  
  Do like the Romans did: ask for a recliner so you can get on your side to fart and piss freely while being fed by women whom you throw scraps of food to pick up from the floor... /s
  
  1
- People do this already and there are bathrooms to use. Saw a mom do this on a McDonald's table.
  
  I also rarely eat inside fast food restaurants anymore, coincidentally.
  
  9
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Committee_to_End_Pay_Toilets_in_America

We call upon you once again

50
- Haha amazing logo
  
  3
Will there be a list of what restaraunts use this so I can avoid them?

42
bans on pay toilets dating back to the 1970s

It's like my grandpa always said, the problem with pay toilets was that without a way for a VC-funded startup to monopolize the market and take a cut of every transaction they just didn't feel sleazy enough.

38
Just why.

Seriously why does it seem over the last 15 years public toilets are becoming rarer it's a mystery to me. Like the world population is growing a lot and we pay more taxes then ever, but it's harder to relieve yourself in public then ever.

And now businesses are trying to monetize the few toilets in public we still have.

38
- Innovative disruptions in previously non-monetized parts of life are the life fuel of our economy.
  Really excited how to see how this will innovate human interaction in the years to come!
  /hj
  
  19
- These are conserted efforts to reduce the presence of "undesirables", also known as homeless or unhoused, in the areas without public bathrooms.
  
  15
  
  Well the problem with public facilities is they allow people who are not rich enough to take a piss to take a piss, while depriving shareholders and Silicon Valley ~~assholes~~ entrepreneurs of profits. Before you know it you've got communism, and then everyone has a place to live and a toilet from which no one gets rich.
  
  8
- As rents go up, businesses want to maximize their return on space. So some businesses get rid of toilets, meaning the ones that keep them pay to have toilets available for people that aren't their customers, making them consider closing them, creating a vicious cycle.
  
  1
deleted

37
we live in hell

35
- shoutout to harkening to Airbnb btw:
  
  “Homelessness is a growing problem, and some providers worry that a homeless person may destroy or soil the bathroom,” she said. “Flush provides a way to access and provide access to a clean, reliable bathroom … Airbnb was so successful because it provides something we all need — a roof over our heads — and Flush is doing the same for bathrooms.”
  
  yeah man, Airbnb really solved homelessness and the "having a roof over your head" problem huh
  
  42
  
  The not-so-quiet part here is "Homeless or poor people don't deserve to have their basic need of a toilet met"
  
  They call it a "need" but proudly talk about how they're taking it away from the less fortunate.
  
  23
  
  Airbnb was so successful because it ~~provides~~ restricts behind exorbitant price-gouging for something we all need — a roof over our heads — and Flush is doing the same for bathrooms.
  
  Fixed the quote for them.
  
  13
  
  The fresh smell of MBA graduates.
  
  10
- Permanently Deleted
  
  2
  
  yeah and that sounds fucking awful, restrooms which are accessible to everyone should be a bare minimum aspect of all public spaces and all businesses
  
  11
If I read that article correctly, that was up to $10 to book use of the nearest bathroom?? I'm sorry, when nature calls, I can't see people trying to reserve a time slot, like you would a hair salon.

33
- Ah perfect, my 2'oclock shit is coming up in a few minutes. I should go find something to read while I'm waiting
  
  22
  
  LoL 🔥
  
  1
- It's perfect for Sheldon Cooper!
  
  2
Fam if I walk into a cafe and I’m about to order and there is a bathroom that costs money I am going to leave. I get why they are doing this (hint it isn’t just the money), but I’ll be fucked if I’m going to tip them and pay to take a piss too.

30
We need to do more crime.

27
Cool. I'll just piss along the exterior wall of your building then or on the fence at the back of your parking lot.

24
Coffee shops would do well to charge less than the cheapest item on the menu.

And building new entrances exclusively for washrooms? Now you have fresh capex.

All apps like this point to is the lack of public infrastructure, which always has the excuse of "people will fuck it up." Wonder if that's a structural societal problem instead of individuals. (/s)

19
- Ah yes, the classic “paying nothing to sustain and support a service, then declaring it hopeless because ‘the poors fucked it up’.”
  
  6
Here I was talking just yesterday about how my phone and data brokers have to guess when I'm in the bathroom, and if only there was a way that I could pay to share that private bodily function with them. Thanks, Flush! Sign me UP!

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