In some cities, such as New York, your options are very limited when nature calls. If you can’t find a Starbucks or a friendly barkeep, you’re s**t out of luck. But that’s about to change with the launching of the latest application of the sharing economy, Airpnp.
Like its inspiration, Airbnb, with which it is not affiliated, Airpnp gives app users access to bathrooms all over the city, for a price.
Airpnp was founded in 2014 by two New Orleanians, Travis Laurendine and Max Gaudin (the PEO), who found themselves facing the age-old conundrum when they needed a bathroom at the Mardi Gras and couldn’t find one because the parish banned porta-potties. So it was either find a bathroom—which was impossible, they said—or solve their problem with public urination, or what’s known as a “rogue pee,”which could have landed them in Orleans Parish Prison for a weekend if caught.
Airpnp functions a lot like Airbnb. Anyone can list their bathroom at a desired price per use. They take pictures of their facilities, describe them and provide the location and a price. Once patrons do their business, they can go on the Airpnp website’s “rate my pee,” section and review the bathroom in terms of cleanliness, whether the bathroom looked like the photo or how much ply the toilet paper had. Guests can be reviewed as well.
Current listings in New York include a photo studio in Bedford Stuyvesant with “two-ply toilet paper” for $5, or a $0 listing by Flatiron’s General Assembly for the “startup pooper.”
Gaudin says he and Laurendine want to expand to more cities that host large events and festivals where people have a large need to use the bathroom, creating many more “entre-pee-neurs” who can make money by renting out their bathrooms.
For those of you who would like to be bathroom hosts, Gaudin says his team has worked diligently to ensure people feel safe and comfortable when joining the Airpnp community, limiting access only to those in need who have paid to access the bathroom and by not publishing the address of the host.
