This week in weird business news…
We’ve all been in this situation… we’re miles away from our house and we need to find a bathroom ASAP. The available options are usually pretty lackluster - a Starbucks with a 10-person line or a public restroom with very questionable sanitation standards.
Yezin Al-Qaysi has set out to solve this problem. He’s created “Looie”, an app that grants users access to clean, private bathrooms for $25 a month. The price tag may seem a bit hefty but the app guarantees bathrooms that are cleaned with natural products 7 to 10 times a day. Looie bathrooms will also be outfitted with changing stations and accoutrements like plants and candles.
Looie plans to partner with restaurants and cafes throughout metro areas. When a business signs up, Looie takes over the responsibility of cleaning the bathroom. Subscribers to the app will receive a special key that gives them access to these special bathrooms.
Right now the app is in a trial phase with seven bathrooms across Manhattan’s Tribeca neighborhood. Al-Qaysi, a 27-year-old from Montreal, Canada is still cleaning the bathrooms himself but plans to bring in more attendants once the app expands. The eventual goal, he says, is to have thousands of participating bathrooms in all major cities.
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Al-Qaysi previously founded an online shopping site called DoBundle. While founding the site, he worked out of coffee ships and found the bathroom situation less than stellar. He was inspired to create an easy solution.
“I see this as win-win for the businesses and for users,” Al-Qaysi told DNA Info. "We handle something the businesses don’t want to do and make their bathrooms more appealing for everyone."
