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Airpnp, the app that lets you use a stranger's bathroom

There's nothing worse than going out for the day in a big city like Toronto or New York City, only to find yourself needing to answer the call of nature without a public bathroom in sight.

Unless you have the supernatual abilities of George Costanza to know all the best public bathrooms in any given area*, you may be interested in this unusual app: Airpnp, a service that, for a fee, lets you use the private facilities of someone in the area.

As the name suggests, it's modeled after Airbnb, a service that connects people willing to offer accomodations with people willing to stay in those accomodations, for a charge.

With Airpnp, however, many opt to charge very little, or waive the fee altogether.

“It’s like a pay-it-forward," Duncan, a worker at an office with an Airpnp bathroom in New York City, told The New York Post. "There’s going to be some time in our life when we really need to go, and it would be really nice for someone to lend you their potty.”

Currently there aren't many bathrooms available in Canadian cities, (although if you're in Yellowknife looking for a loo, I've got some good news for you), but there are plenty to pick from in major U.S. cities like New York and New Orleans. It isn't surprising that The Big Easy hosts so many: The app launched there, after city council banned portable toilets from being set up along the Mardi Gras parade route, according to the Post. And the service is continuing to expand as more people find out about it.

That service, of course, depends on people being willing to have strangers use the toilets in their home or place of work, and on people being willing to ask a stranger, via the app, "hey, can I use your bathroom?"

Would you be willing to do either one?

*There's actually another app that's been around for years which more accurately replicates George's talent: Where to Wee. The app lists all the public toilets close to your location, and lets you rate bathrooms across multiple criteria. There really is an app for everything.