Show HN: Restroom Rater. We take our crap seriously.

http://www.getrestroomrater.com

by flappyrelease • 12 years ago

10 14 12 years ago

getrestroomrater.com

BillinghamJ5• 12 years ago

My friend posted this on our behalf. I'm one of the developers. Happy to answer questions, etc.

shravan• 12 years ago

Wasn't this the same idea that made George a millionaire on the reunion episode of Seinfeld?

kbarber• 12 years ago

Hahaha, George was definitely an inspiration

BillinghamJ5• 12 years ago

Oh, maybe. Weren't aware of that, but we haven't found any other apps which do it.

Jugurtha2• 12 years ago

Hey, great stuff. I already commented, but I think it really has potential.

Keep it up, man..

TezzellEnt• 12 years ago

I think that this is a very unique idea with a well designed website. But to be honest, at first impression I thought this was a gag site. With that said, I'm not sure how valuable an app like this would be to me. Unless I am the minority of opinion - never in my life have I thought about choosing a certain venue taking into consideration the features/cleanliness of the bathroom. I could be wrong.

I do however see something like this in addition to the HN post 3 days ago of AirPNP (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7339963). I also thought that was a mock web application at first, but it seems they're serious. Maybe I'm getting too jaded that I don't recognize the needs of the marketplace.

I'm curious how many users you currently have in the beta, if you're willing to divulge the information. Best of luck with executing, and I hope you prove me wrong.

BillinghamJ5• 12 years ago

When we first started doing this, it was 100% a joke app which we never really had an intention of taking forward. It was a side project from our main work to give us a bit of a breather and allow us to chill a bit - avoiding burnout, etc.

That being said, through various discussions & off-the-cuff mentions to quite a substantial number of people, it seems like people are interested enough to make it worth releasing.

It also has some real practical uses in some fairly common circumstances. For example, if you're physically handicapped, or you're in a city centre and need to go, but you know there is a high chance that the bathroom you visit will be really nasty. This is particularly the case around nightlife venues.

Right now, we are hosting a private beta in San Luis Obispo, as we're still in active development, but we'll be releasing to more in the next few weeks. We have a few hundred people signed up waiting for access.

This project is not our primary focus - we still have our day jobs - but we're enjoying working on it, there is quite a lot of interest & we believe that it could be a legitimately useful app which many people could use on a relatively regular basis.

Jugurtha2• 12 years ago

I thought of it. And sort of started doing it. Means it's a good idea :)

To give the reasoning, I go by this simple rule: Show me your toilets, I tell you who you are. I only eat at places that have really nice toilets, not because I empty my tripes there (I don't do poopoo in public places) but it tells me a whole lot about how the people running the business view their customers.

If they don't give a crap (pun intended) about it, then they probably don't give a crap about me, and it's a no-no. It's not justified. The cost of building nice toilets is really low, considering the effect it has on people, and the fact it's there to last and not a recurring big investment.

If a restaurant/café has nice toilets, I instantly love it and become a customer. I tell everyone around me about it. I insist we go there, even though it has no practical utility for me. It's a screening tool, and I'm ruthless.

Good luck !

whoa-duder3• 12 years ago

Holy crap, was this build by a team of 14 year olds?

whoa-duder3• 12 years ago

This isn't meant to be derogatory. I scrolled down to the team page and they look really young.

BillinghamJ5• 12 years ago

We're young - but not that young. Core team are 18 (me, dev), 18 (Cam, designer) & 21 (Kyle, design/founder)

spb• 12 years ago

That's cool, have you already looked at SitOrSquat, which did this in 2010?

https://sitorsquat.com

BillinghamJ5• 12 years ago

Yes, we did. It appears to be more of a promotional thing than a tool with much real world use. Mostly 1 star reviews, no longer supported & fairly confusing to use. We think the idea was cool, but we can do a better job :)

Additionally, having to manually add the bathrooms can be a bit of a no-go. We've currently got Foursquare integration with some filtering to try and be smart about this.

Show HN: Restroom Rater. We take our crap seriously.

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