Airpnp, Toilets for The Sharing Economy

by Startacus Admin

Airpnp, it's like Airbnb but for toilets.

Ever since the Herculean rise of startup Airbnb to near global domination, a far-reaching assortment of lightly comparable enterprises have sprung up, hoping to emulate their success by adapting the innovative business model for other areas of everyday life.  Collectively, this growing industry is often referred to as 'The Sharing Economy'.

*If you’re unfamiliar, Airbnb is simply a website on which people can list and rent lodgings. People with spare rooms can rent them out to travellers... that’s pretty much it, but it has proved a winning digital enterprise, now valued at over $20Billion just 8 years after going live.

A new service Airpnp is now hoping to get a slice of the short-term rental pie, by letting households and businesses rent out their bathrooms on short term notice to people in the immediate vicinity. The problem they are trying to solve is pretty self explanatory- you really need the bathroom, but there are none publically available, so you face a miserable and desperate situation… we have all been there.

The service is accessed via a mobile app which allows users to identify nearby willing toilet hosts. Out of solidarity and generosity of spirit many of the hosts will not charge for the privilege, but of course some others will; so spending a penny could end up costing you a lot more than a penny, if you catch our drift.

Whether Airpnp manages to become a global phenomenon only time will tell, but this interesting slant on a now massively successful business model has got us thinking about some of other ways it could be manipulated to create new digital enterprises.

Perhaps some of our Startacus self-starters can have a go at some of these ideas?

Airbnb for kettles
Airbnb for showers
Airbnb for mirrors
Airbnb for TV’s
Airbnb for hats
Airbnb for sun loungers
Airbnb for beds…. oh wait.

• #the sharing economy
• #airbnb
• #airpnp

Published on: 25th November 2015