Startup wants you to scan a QR code to go to the bathroom

Someone’s spotted the new generation of pay toilets in Silicon Valley: namely, bathrooms that can be unlocked by downloading an app. There is such a thing as being too civilized, and I think making a bathroom break in your business depend on an app might just take the proverbial cake.

Noticed first by Christopher Kennedy of One Bright Light, the app apparently interfaces with a code reader on a hands-free door:

Welcome to app hell. You need an app or a printed QR code to use the bathroom here. pic.twitter.com/hYbHcsOOrN

— One Bright Light (@onebrightlight) November 5, 2017

The start-up, with the hellishly innocuous-yet-fitting name “Good2Go,” offers an app for certain locations that allows potential users to digitally queue up, and scan themselves into the bathroom with a code given by a clerk or the app itself. Its subscriptions are “free for a limited time,” which is confusing: do you eventually have to pay the app or the business to use the bathroom?

I suppose this is the natural extension of the age-old “restroom for customers only” policy, but the way the FAQ talks about lining up in-app for the bathroom and “enjoying the cafe” while you wait for the app to notify you it’s your turn sounds just a little too blithe for my tastes.

I don’t know about you guys, but when my back teeth are floating, I don’t want to sit down and download an app. I want a clerk to hand me a darned key, let me unlock the door, and take care of things in a timely manner — I don’t really care if I have to buy a scone in the meantime. I’d just rather not fiddle with my phone.

I’ve contacted Good2Go for clarification and will update if I hear back.

h/t Boing Boing