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

Disabled/accessible toilets NEVER have a sanpro machine. Not fun asking a member of staf to go to the ladies and buy one for you.

Also they are sometimes left off the cleaning rota, or there isn't a bin so you find things like used catheters on the floor.

I'm actually glad a lot are also the baby changing room, then they get cleaned.

Hate them, so glad my kids are not toddlers anymore as you are forever having to visit them when they are little and stressing about where the nearest toilets are. Although, the toilets in Westfield's, Shepherds Bush are amazing!

Public toilets are getting increasingly hard to find. Big stores are a good choice, otherwise you may have to buy a coffee (at least you'll usually get free wi-fi). But I don't trust automated ones. In France, we found one that said it self-cleaned every fifteen minutes. But the translation into English said twenty minutes! So the poor English were more likely to get soaked!

Just use cafe without asking. Very rarely get challenged and much better than using dirty public loos. Though Starbucks can get pretty bad 🤢

Well it's not great, is it...
I used to be able to avoid public loos, but since DS has been toilet trained we've had to use them more often. Honestly, they're mostly ok- I don't have any major complaints or horror stories like most of the other posters seem to have experienced.

Having said that- I NEVER breastfed in a public loo! (Aside from shopping centres that had designated feeding rooms, some of which were surprisingly nice)

I've found the loos in motorway service stations to be pretty good lately. One has loos where the seat has to be closed before you flush to avoid spreading germs.

I have seen some horrendous public loos, they are not serviced regularly. They are often without toilet paper and are filthy. I can't get out quick enough. Recently I even discovered someone had made a cubicle their home and they were snoring inside

I have always had quite positive responses when asking to use a loo with my children. The most recent being in Primark where the kind sales assistant was happy to let us use the staff loo and really made my daughter feel like she was going on an adventure where no one had gone before! It would be great if more companies could be more understanding towards children and their needs

I hate using public toilets, if we must use them, and we're in a town I generally used to look for a mothercare to take DS. If we're traveling a chain restaurant.

Try not to use them, and if have to, will go into somewhere like M&S and use theirs.

Not enough but we are getting better ! I always needs a wee so carry wipes and loo roll everywhere

I was horrified the other day when a mum was wiping the seat with loo roll dipped in water before letting her child sit on the loo! It makes no sense at all.

I think more frequent good clean public loos would be great, but I understand that councils have higher priorities for their budgets these days.

Usually I’d just usher the dc into the nearest cafe / Costa type place, send them towards the loo and buy a bottle of water in compensation, at least I know we’ll drink it at some point

Try not to use them if at all possible

Loos abroad are either brilliant or a nightmare - more often the latter - so go prepared !!

I find there's a lack of public loos and especially accessible ones. Our daughter is a wheelchair user and this can be a real problem. We have also found some disabled loos need a radar key, which we will now get but it's a problem when you don't know and she needs the loo. And it's amazing how often the disabled loo is the one with no paper!

We have ventured into a shop or cafe and bought something just to use the loo. I always carry wet wipes with me to wipe the seat and invariably visit several toilets before choosing one which is cleaner. If I go on a public toilet I never sit down!

I hardly went in public loos before I had kids and now I have to for nappy changes etc.
Department store ones are the best, the council public toilets are awful, so disgusting I can hardly bear it.

Public loos are rarely clean enough for me. I don't know why people find it acceptable to leave such a mess.

Being a little OCD would welcome a way of cleaning the area, including things such as door handles. Some sort of domestos product that either I carried or was installed in the cubical to keep it cleaner.

Also the lack of loo roll so often in public toilets is a problem.

Often public toilet cubicles are too small, there need to be more family facilities.

Most where we live are horrid except for one in our nearest town that is quite a new build. I expect that will be gross soon as well. I only use them if I am desperate.

Most public loos are a disgrace and I often wonder what people's loos are like at home! People pee all over the seat and floor (why don't they mop up after themsleves !). I always carry a small cleaning gel and spare tissues. It is such a horrible experience.

i only use them as a last resort, very rare to experience a clean one!!

The amount of times I have had to lift my kids down an alley behind a tree or anywhere where they have a modicum of privacy lol. Its either you have to pay a silly amount, or a restaurant won't let you use them unless you buy something...and then when you do find some, they are usually horrible. For example, our local McDonalds, the way the room is set up, you walk in, and there is a little wall right in front of you, and you go round this to find two tiny cubicles, and unless you are a size zero ( which, after eating McDees I aint!!) you try to squeeze into a cubicle, and you rub up against filthy sanitary bins, to find a loo roll on the floor, and the seat chipped and stained...its just gross. These days I just pray the kids can hold on until we get home! lol x

Real public toilets (not the ones in cafes or shopping centres) are always horrible. I avoid at all costs & buy a coffee to use a coffee shops toilet

oh my goodness this is a problem for me very often! i must have a childs size bladder as im always needing the loo. anywhere we go i have to check where the public toilets are and use pub toilets all the time! the worst for me is long bus journeys, i wish they would put a toilet on the buses! I find there isnt enough public toilets on the roads either. for example we went to a concert last month which was over late so all the petrol stations on our route home that have toilets were closed.