Everyone has a bathroom horror story. Mine happened in Mexico City.
I was three days into a trip — exploring Roma Norte, eating everything in sight — when my stomach decided it was done cooperating. I needed a restroom, and I needed one immediately. Google Maps showed a pin for a nearby cafe. I walked in, ordered a coffee I didn't want, asked for the bathroom, and was handed a key attached to a wooden spoon.
What I found behind that door is something I'm still trying to forget.
The thing is, I could have avoided it. If someone had just told me — rated it, flagged it, left a one-line warning — I would have walked another two blocks to the hotel lobby that turned out to be perfectly clean. But nobody had. Because there was no good way to share that information.
That's when the idea for Throne Score started.
The problem isn't finding a bathroom — it's finding a good one
There are apps that show you where bathrooms are. Pins on a map. But location alone doesn't tell you anything useful. Is it clean? Is there soap? Can you actually lock the door? Is it accessible if you're in a wheelchair? Does it have a changing station if you're traveling with a baby?
These aren't luxury questions. For a lot of people — parents with young kids, travelers with IBD or Crohn's disease, wheelchair users, anyone with a medical condition that makes restroom access urgent — knowing what you're walking into before you open the door is a real need.
Yelp doesn't rate bathrooms. Google reviews mention them sometimes, buried in a paragraph about the food. There was no dedicated, community-driven system for rating the one thing every single person needs access to, multiple times a day, every day of their life.
So we built one.
What makes Throne Score different
Throne Score rates every restroom across five categories: cleanliness (Sparkle Factor), privacy (Fortress Level), supplies (Royal Extras), accessibility (Easy Access), and overall atmosphere (Vibe Check). You can see at a glance whether a bathroom is worth your time — green pins mean go, red means hold it.
You can filter for changing stations, wheelchair accessibility, gender-neutral restrooms, and 24/7 access. And because every rating comes from real people who actually used the restroom, the data gets better the more people contribute.
We made the app free because restroom access shouldn't be a premium feature. The core experience — finding, rating, and reviewing bathrooms — costs nothing. Throne Score Plus removes ads and adds some extras for the people who want to go deeper, but the map, the ratings, and the filters are free for everyone.
Why it matters more than people think
Here's something that surprised us when we started talking to early users: the people who care most about bathroom quality aren't germaphobes or complainers. They're parents trying to change a diaper without laying their baby on a wet counter. They're people with Crohn's disease who plan every outing around restroom proximity. They're wheelchair users who've been burned by "accessible" restrooms that technically have a wider stall but no grab bars and a door that opens the wrong way.
For these people, a reliable bathroom finder isn't a novelty — it's infrastructure. We think of Throne Score the same way people think of restaurant reviews or hotel ratings. You wouldn't book a hotel without checking the reviews. Why would you walk into a restroom blind?
What's next
We launched in Portland and have since expanded to 39 cities across 7 regions. The community is growing. Every rating makes the map more useful for the next person.
If you've ever wished someone had warned you about a terrible restroom — or wished you could tell others about a surprisingly great one — that's exactly what Throne Score is for.
Download the app. Rate your first throne. Help build something that genuinely makes people's days a little less stressful.