Having spent a lot of time building up Find a Toilet, and finally having it placed in the Top 10 Best Mobile Phone Websites by the Sunday Times, I’m selling up.
I no longer have the time to keep adding toilets to the database, as there’s only me behind the site, not a team of people as some visitors seem to think.
I believe there’s huge potential in the concept - particularly in the iPhone and Google app market.
So the for sale package includes both the co.uk and .mobi websites as is, the database behind it, and every bit of information I have on toilets that are currently not on the website. I think around another 4000 or so. I will be happy to tell the buyer how I found out all this information so they can continue the work.
This would be a great buy for someone with more time on their hands than I do. It’s already at Number 1 on Google and has a lot of potential for expansion into other areas.
Currently the website doesn’t make any money, but this is because I always intended it to be a free service which would make money from advertising. The buyer could follow this model, or go down the Apps route and charge 99p for each download.
The sale price is just £2,500.
Please contact me using “email at findatoilet.co.uk” and I will happily ring you back to discuss it further.
We are the UK’s largest and ONLY free database of public toilets.
Wherever possible we list the postcode, opening times, facilities and directions to every toilet in Great Britain, and these details are all available on our mobile phone website.
A large propertion of toilets do not have their own postcode so it’s difficult to give exact locations without actually visiting each one and finding the gps co-ordinates.
There has been a lot of publicity about apps for mobile phones recently including the iPhone and Nokias, and I have been contacted by several would-be developers wanting to create a toilet finder app for one or the other or both.
Now call me dim, but my mobile phone site already appears on - guess what - mobile phones! Why do I need to give my database for free to someone else for them to also make it available on mobile phones and, of course make money from it? (Although I’m always offered a profit sharing deal of some sort). It doesn’t make sense.
You may have seen that we have had some technical problems with the mobi site recently, so you’ll be pleased to know that they’ve been ironed out and everything is back to normal.
Today I made some amendments to my public toilet listings in Birmingham.
Birmingham City Council has signed a 20 year contract to replace its traditional brick built public conveniences in the suburbs with fully automatic, self cleaning superloos. The new units provide baby changing facilities and are accessible for people with disabilities.
There was also a new contact number which has been changed in the database.
Typing in the url of websites on your mobile phone using a stylus, or using thumbs and a keypad is one of life’s most frustrating tasks.
However Microsoft have come up with ‘Tags’ which are colourful images containing data that your phone can decode to take you straight to a particular mobile website. They work in the same way as barcodes on goods in a supermarket.
You will need to download a tiny file which automatically installs on your mobile phone. Open it and your camera is activated, then point it at the Tag and you will be taken immediately to the mobile site it’s linked to.
Try it. First go to Microsoft’s mobile Tag website direct from your phone and download the application, then use your phone on the tag in this post. It should take you directly to the mobile Find a Toilet site - brilliant!
It’s been reported that the closure of public toilets in a popular beauty spot Rogie Falls, just outside Contin in Ross-shire, which attracts thousands of tourists and local dog-walkers every year, is now suffering from people using the area outside as a public toilet instead.
Human waste has been seen directly outside the toilets which is now going to cost the council a lot of money to clean up. Not only is the mess unsightly, smelly and unsanitary but it beggars belief that the excuse for closing them is put down (as usual) to the running costs. How much will the clean up cost? How much will the local tourist industry be hit when people come once, but don’t return because of the bad impression given by open air toilets? Could these not be weighed against the cost of keeping them open all year?
When will councils realise that we all have to go sometime and it’s their duty to provide facilities for us?
This new application for the iPhone makes me wish I’d got one. Simply slect a photo of someone or something that annoys you, then flush it down the toilet, complete with realistic sounds.
This video by the makers show you what’s involved.
I understand that in some heavily trafficked tourist areas, there’s no need to keep all the toilets open throughout the whole year, but why have a policy of closing practically all of them in the winter? Indeed some councils close all their toilets in the winter.
Many of these loos are in car parks in towns, where they are used by locals and visitors alike. People still need toilets in the winter.
And what’s the knock on effect of closing thse toilets? In York one landlord has had enough of people coming into his pub purely to use the toilets because the public ones are closed during the winter. He says that 55 people used the toilets without buying anything from the bar in just one day! Read his story.
Of course this masks the problem because people don’t complain to the council when they actually find somewhere to go. But why should a pub landlord have to pay for the cleaning and extra supplies of loo paper etc.
In some areas community toilet schemes are being set up where the council gives local businesses money to open their toilets to the general public. However in cases such as the one above, it does seem totally unfair that some businesses through no fault of their own, should end up doing this for nothing.
However I have to say that the people using the toilets really should have the decency to offer to pay something towards their visit or buy a drink while they’re in there!
So if you visit a town without sufficent toilet provision, COMPLAIN to the council. Their numbers and email addresses are easily found on their websites and if you don’t complain, councils will always be able to say that there is no demand for toilets anyway.
