Find the nearest one in seconds – and see whether it is clean, whether the door is open, whether you can get in without a step. No official register knows that; only someone who has just been there does. Which is why this map is exactly as good as the people who look after it.
The colour of a pin tells you before you even tap it whether you can simply walk in. The buttons are listed below in the order you need them. Tip: in the app, press and hold a button for half a second and the explanation appears right next to it.
You do not need an account to search: open loonow.app, allow location, done. The four things below are worth doing once in a calm moment – so you do not have to at the moment it is urgent.
Without your location, LooNow shows toilets somewhere rather than near you. It is used solely for the search and is not stored.
The most important step: anyone who first has to open a browser and type an address will not do it when it counts. Instructions for iPhone and Android
If you depend on step-free access or a baby-changing table, you should not be hunting for the filter on the move. Set once, it stays set.
Needed for favourites across all your devices, for ratings, your own entries and points.
LooNow is not in the App Store – that is not a shortcoming, it is the point: nothing to install, no storage used. On your home screen it still behaves like any other app.
For most people it is an uncomfortable quarter of an hour. For others it shapes the whole day: anyone with a weak bladder, a chronic bowel condition, a pregnancy, small children in tow or a need for step-free access plans their routes around toilets. That is exactly what should stop – you should be planning your day, not your next toilet.
A step at the door, no changing table, no room for a pushchair, no gender-neutral access. In LooNow these details are on the entry – step-free access and changing tables have their own filters, so you never even see what does not help you.
Cleanliness is one of the five criteria people rate. The average is shown on the toilet before you set off. Not a promise from us, but the impression of the people who were there before you.
That sits in the atmosphere criterion – smell, noise, the state of the room. Exactly the kind of thing no official list records and that you have to have been there to know.
The facilities criterion says whether the usual things are there – and the comment says what is currently missing or where the dispenser is. The small detail that makes the difference.
Every city has the one that is genuinely fine – you just never hear about it. In LooNow every toilet carries its rating visibly, on the map and in the list. So you can see at a glance which one near you is the better choice. Next up is the filter that shows you the best-rated ones first – that needs enough ratings, and those come from you.
No paper, a bad smell, a step at the door, closed since yesterday: none of that is in any official register. There is no authority checking each morning whether the soap has been refilled. Exactly one person knows – the one who has just been there.
That is why the community is not a side note at LooNow but the product itself. More than 130,000 toilets are on the map; whether the details are right is up to you. Every rating answers the question someone else will ask on the same corner two weeks from now. Two minutes after your visit – that is all it takes.
Plus around €33,000 a year in upkeep. Which is why hardly any new ones are built – and the ones that exist are closed at night or out of order.
Public facilities and businesses that deliberately open their door – all across Europe. On holiday, on a business trip, at a festival: the same app, the same map.
The most uncomfortable part is not the searching, it is the asking. Anyone on the map has already decided to take part.
How we win businesses and municipalities over is on the pages for businesses and for cities and municipalities.
LooNow is not an editorial team with field staff. Every rating, every entry and every report comes from people who were just there.
Five criteria, one to five stars each, plus an optional comment – which often says more than the stars: “key at the counter”, “changing table only in the ladies’”. Premium locations can only be rated after a visit.
Three short steps: basics, type and access, facilities. Users add free, publicly accessible toilets. Checking happens afterwards – and then the tick appears.
Closed, broken, not where it says, wrong details. Two taps, done. If something has already been reported, we tell you.
Via your personal link, as soon as someone signs up through it. The more people take part, the denser the map becomes.
Feature request, bug, criticism – with a screenshot if you like. It does not land in a ticket system but with the people who build LooNow. Open the form
Cleanliness – the state you found it in.
Safety – lighting, visibility, the lock.
Accessibility – steps, door width, grab rails.
Facilities – soap, paper, hooks, changing table.
Atmosphere – smell, noise, overall impression.
No moderation policy with thirty paragraphs – four things everyone should stick to so the map keeps its worth.
Not what you assume or heard. A rating without a visit is worthless to everyone else.
Not the staff, not individual people. Whoever opens the door is doing something voluntary. And no personal data in comments.
No private guest toilet, no staff loo. And address, hours and facilities as precisely as possible – an inaccurate entry sends someone to the wrong place at the worst possible moment.
Entries and reports are checked. Made-up entries get removed again.
Rating +5, new toilet +10, problem report +3, successful invitation +20. Your level grows from that; both are shown in your profile.
| Level | from points |
|---|---|
| 🌱 Newcomer | 0 |
| ⭐ Contributor | 50 |
| 🏆 Top Contributor | 200 |
| 💎 Expert | 500 |
The people who use LooNow notice what is missing first – not us. We read every message ourselves and reply by email if we have questions. What we do not promise: that every request gets built, and certainly not by when. But an honest answer, even when it is “we are not going to do that”.
Many cities still have only a handful of entries. You know the toilets that are on no map – the one in the park, the one at the station, the one on the first floor of the shopping centre.
The detail that is missing most often. People who depend on it themselves know best what matters – and what else we should be asking about.
Toilets close, hours change. A report takes two taps and is worth more than three new entries.
LooNow is available in German, English and Spanish. Does something sound odd, mistranslated or awkwardly put? Tell us – with this subject, wording matters.
Your regular café, your gym, the bakery round the corner. Send them the page for businesses – or tell us about them.
Feature request, bug, praise, criticism – with a screenshot if you like. The form is in the app menu and can be opened directly from here.
Used solely for the search, to show you the nearest toilet – and not stored. Without permission the map still works, just less precisely.
We need your data to run your account, process payments and help you with questions. Never sold to third parties.
They are publicly visible – that is their purpose. What is shown is your display name, which you can change in the settings at any time.
You can permanently delete your account yourself in the settings. What we have to keep for tax reasons, such as invoices for purchased passes, is set out in the privacy policy.
The map, the search, the account and all contributions are free. Only one thing costs money: the LooNow pass at premium locations, that is, businesses that have opened their toilet through LooNow. You buy that pass voluntarily and only if you want to go exactly there – every public and free toilet on the map you use without paying a cent.
Not for searching. Yes for favourites across devices, for ratings, new entries, problem reports and points. Signing up is free, takes about 30 seconds and asks for no payment details.
You place a pin on the map in the app and fill in three short steps: basics, type and access, facilities. As a user you add free, publicly accessible toilets. The entry is visible straight away; it gets the “verified” tick once it has been checked.
Any signed-in user can rate free toilets. At premium locations – businesses that have opened through LooNow – it is only possible after a visit that went through the app. That way no rating comes from someone who was never there. It protects the businesses and makes the ratings more reliable for you.
Access to a premium toilet. You reserve it in the app, go there, identify yourself as a LooNow user and scan the QR code displayed on site. Passes are available singly or in cheaper bundles; a reserved pass is valid for two hours.
Add them. That is exactly how every city on this map started. Ten good entries in one neighbourhood noticeably change things for everyone there – and if you know businesses that would take part, send them the page for businesses.
Please report it through the feedback form, category “Bug”, ideally with a screenshot – the report goes straight to the people who build LooNow.
Yes – that is what the operations partner programme is for, where businesses are paid for the toilets they open. How it works and what it pays is on the page for businesses.
A map about toilets goes out of date faster than any other. Whether it is still right next time depends on the people who report it. One account, 30 seconds, no payment details – after that every rating, every entry and every report counts for everyone else too.
Just looking? Open the map without an account
Questions, ideas, criticism: hallo@loonow.app