Jamie Slater, special to WTOP.com
WASHINGTON — New Orleans’ Mardi Gras parades attract close to a million visitors each year, but it’s not all glitz and glamour — arrests for public urination, often due to a lack of facilities, are common.
To solve that problem, self-proclaimed “entrepeeneurs” Max Gaudin and Travis Lauredine launched the website Airpnp (no relation to the popular accomodations website Airbnb) for this year’s Mardi Gras. Using the website, individuals or businesses across the globe can make their restrooms available to rent for a price they decide, as travel blog “Travlpeer” reported.
Operating under the tagline “we take care of lavatory logistics so you don’t have to,” Airpnp features an interactive map of all bathrooms available in a certain area. Currently, more than 400 restrooms are available for rent.
Although the idea for the website initially began as a joke, it officially launched on Feb. 23 and received just under 30,000 unique website views on the day of Mardi Gras. Although the number of people who actually used the service is unknown, Airpnp’s blog claims, “There were many successful pees in everything ranging from port-a-potties to marble-lined porcelain paradises.”
Mardi Gras entries ranged from $1 to $20. These included a bathroom and beer combination for $3 and $10 for unlimited restroom usage at the upscale Pontchartrain Hotel, which claims that, “Tom Cruise, Nicholas Cage, Frank Sinatra and Walt Disney have all peed here.”
Airpnp generates revenue from advertising, as the website is free.
As the startup city, New Orleans has the second most bathrooms thus far at 30, but the Netherlands has 149 on the site, including 107 in Antwerp. Facilities are also available in Tehran, New Delhi and Tokyo, and a “cheap cozy toilet with seaview” is available in Indonesia.
The “Rest’n’Shot,” which appears to be a liquor store, in Prague claims to offer a $2.50 package that includes a free shot with a restroom visit.
The D.C. area also has two bathrooms on the site, one a “full service creative agency” near McPherson Square that includes a shower in its $100 price, the other a private restroom in Bethesda that claims to differentiate prices between one- and two-ply toilet paper.
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