Mumsnet users share their experiences of public loos with Domestos

[EllieMumsnet]

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Trying to find a loo when you’re out and about with your kids can be challenging. How many times have you asked if your DCs need to go before you leave the house and then they are demanding a toilet not even five minutes into your outing? We’ve all been there! Which is why at Domestos we want to know about your experience of public loos.

How often do you need to locate a loo when you’re out with your family? And how difficult are they to find? How do you feel when you have to go in and ask staff to use the loo in a pub? Or a café you weren’t planning on buying a coffee from? Or do you even ask? Are you ever met with resistance from staff when you ask to use their loo? What would you change to make this experience easier?

Here’s what Domestos have to say: “Domestos believe everyone deserve access to a clean, safe toilet. In the UK the problem is locating a public toilet when we’re out and about, in other countries the problem is far more serious. Domestos is committed to providing solutions, and have an ambition to help 25 million people around the world get cleaner, safer toilets by 2020.”

Whatever your experience is with public loos, post them on the thread below to be entered into a prize draw where one MNer will win a £300 voucher of their choice (from a list).

Thanks and good luck!
MNHQ

Standard Insight T&Cs Apply

Be grateful for the loos here - the odd one might not be as clean as they should be, but when we visited Sri Lanka and were on the road if you stopped to use the loo at a local garage you had to pee direct into the sewage pipe.

I think as a country that has so much luxury in it, we forget how the rest of the world lives day to day and should be a little more grateful for what we do not have to endure as in some places there is no choice.

I hate using public loos, after going to Paris , where you get a paper disposable loo seat cover, I have a habit of covering the seat with loo paper, I always carry tissues and hand gel ,just in case there is no paper, which is often .

I went into a country pub in the middle of nowhere in North Yorkshire with my daughter yesterday purely because we needed the loo and I was quite happy to donate the £1 to their charity box that they requested if you weren't a customer . It took all the embarrassment away from making the request to use the facilities . A stunning view of the Ribble Viaduct out of the loo window was an added bonus!

In a bar in Europe I headed for the loo which was down a spiral staircase in the basement. Emerged from the loo, ascended the spiral staircase and I was in a completely different bar! I thought it was the Twilight Zone or some weird hidden camera show, but apparently it is common for smaller establishments to share loos. Now, I'm less concerned about the state of the loos than remembering how I got there!

I commute to work so spend a lot of time on Southwest trains and the loos are totally disgusting. It makes me so cross as I pay a lot for my yearly ticket. The loos in my local Southwest train station are disgusting too they are never ever clean even when you get the first train out in the morning. Waterloo train station loos are clean but you pay to use them and again I think my ticket cost enough. There are no public loos in my high street the council closed them all, you need to go into cafes and most of them have a code on the door which is on the recite so you have to buy something to pee. I used a loo in Sainsburys café and there was a discarded pregnancy’s test on the floor a needle on the sink and a sanitary towel on top of the bin then to top it all a member of staff came out of a cubical and didn’t wash her hands. I have seen this in Tesco and Asda café too. I hate public loos.

Try not to use, go before you go out and hope you don’t need to go. The infuriating thing is how women take so long! Just go wash your hands and get out, please.

DS is 9 and double incontinent....finding a suitable public loo is horrendous and sometimes I'd choose to change him in the boot of my car or in a secluded park bench rather than on the floor if a public toilet !!!!

I think there seems to have been a real decline in public loo standards recently. So many have broken locks, overflowing bins, broken changing tables and are generally uncared for. Don't know if it's to do with the fact councils these days are facing so many cut backs? There are some genuinely nice ones out there - Bournemouth beach has some good loos, my local town shopping centre have just been refurbished and generally toilets in department stores are good.

I rarely, if ever, use a loo in a cafe without buying something.

I have chronic IBS and sometimes have very urgent need to visit a loo, so have to rush into a public toilet or a cafe. If that's the case, I'll usually buy something on the way out.

Public toilets are often absolutely disgusting, and I wouldn't take a child in there except through absolute desperation.

I've disturbed too many drug users in the act of injecting, and would not be prepared to expose a child to that for the sake of using a toilet. There are usually other options. However, you will usually know your area, and where is safe and where is not.

I judge a place by its loos. That includes restaurants which,no matter how good the food, is judged by its loo as it’s general standard of cleanliness. Then shopping where a decent loo is essential to a ensure a comfortable, focussed trip. Then days out in various tourist hotspots, just settle down only to discover not a looin the vicinity.

I have IBS and a young child so I very often have to use public loos when I’m out. Several things irk me:

• supermarkets which don’t have a toilet (I’m talking those which are bigger than a e.g. Tesco express, but smaller than a superstore). Given that councils claim they no longer have the funding to maintain public toilets, I think planners should force supermarkets to have toilets for public use. With the profits they make, they can certainly afford it.
• I hate it when baby change facilities are only available in the ladies toilets - surely we have moved beyond the idea that only women look after children?
• filthy toilets and nappy bins and sanitary bins which are overflowing - need I say more?
• people who don’t wash their hands properly - Eurghh. What’s wrong with you people?????

I try to avoid majority as much as i can, however it's not always possible. If it's needed i always clean seat first. I think some definitely need to be looked after a lot more

Oh god, some are alrite but some it's the smell as soon as you walk in through the door. Ugh!

It's the smell that puts us off! We try and use shop ones, like the big department store ones, they are always clean and nice smelling.

So many public toilets look so dingy it makes you feel like they are dirty. I think the main problem is the small number of selfish people who make a mess, don't wash hands, leave things unsanitary, and it's unpleasant for everyone else. It only takes one horrid person to leave public toilets in a state no one else wants to use!

I only every use public loos if we are desperate, from past experience I avoid motorway service station loos, train station loos and bus station loos - they tend to smell, have at least one blocked loo, and have a covering of toilet paper over the floor and stink to high heaven. So my tips would be use a high street store loo, or if you are in a cafe/restaurant if it has a 5 star (scores on the doors from the Council) the loo's are well looked after. If a loo looks tidy, has a blow hand dryer (love the dyson ones) and has a cleaning rota filled in, they are ok to use. I always use domestos toilet wipes and give the seat and flush handle a once over, and put it in the sanitary bin before we use the loo.

Unfortunately, pretty poor across the board!

The main problem is that they are generally not clean and it can take a few tries to find a toilet that isn't blocked. It is just generally unpleasant

I hate using public toilets but with children its something you cant escape. I always have tissues in my bag just in case because the majority in places like bus stations, trains stations and the local market never have any tissue available.

The public toilets in my local shopping centre are really nice but smell horrendous even though they are cleaned hourly. They have parent toilets so the cubicle is bigger and has a little toilet in as well as a normal sized toilet. Perfect for my little lady as she nearly falls down the big toilets being so small and it means i dont have to carry my portable toddler seat round with me.

The train station ones are so cheeky, 30p! i'd rather wait!

It's so rare to find a public toilet that isn't filthy. I'm pretty nifty at using my feet to do the flush and elbows to open doors but it's all hopeless when you have small children who seem to want to touch everything - yuk! Thank goodness for hand sanitizer.

My son will always want the toilet when we are out no matter how many times you ask him if he needs to go before we leave home, i find it a nightmare tbh, often we are out and about where there are no public toilets to use, I would find it really helpful if businesses restaurants/shops got together in towns and city centres and offered the use of their toilets to non customers and displayed a sign in the window to say you are welcome to use their toilet.

Just eurgh! I loathe them and many times have had to hold increasingly large children over the toilet because it was too dirty for them to touch. I've spent a fortune in cafes just so we can use clean loos. A worst experience was a visit to Wisbech where the only baby change facilities were the floor of the public toilets. If there were first rate services available I'd be happy to go back to literally spending a penny to use them.

They're not great though some smaller restaurants have nice toilets! It's usually the big shopping centres are the worst

There need to be more baby change facilities in men’s loos - not just women’s. Would massively help when out with all the children - and less queueing time for the ladies.