RestMap fuses six data sources into one quality score. Here’s each one, by name, with what it contributes.
What it contributes The foundational map — 2 million+ public restroom points of interest across 8 countries, plus the underlying place data for restaurants, rest stops, gas stations, and cafes where restrooms live.
Why we use it OpenStreetMap is the Wikipedia of maps: community-built, open-licensed, globally coherent. No single commercial entity owns it.
License ODbL 1.0. Data © OpenStreetMap contributors.
What it contributes A community-built database of 15,000+ restrooms identified as safe and accessible for transgender, intersex, and gender non-conforming individuals. Started in 2014 and grown worldwide.
Why we use it Our LGBTQ+ restroom finder and accessible restroom finder lean heavily on Refuge’s work. They catalogue information no commercial dataset does.
Relationship Data sourced from Refuge Restrooms, credited in-app and here. We’re not in a formal partnership with Refuge — we’re grateful users of their public data.
What it contributes Commercial place metadata — hours, addresses, phone numbers, place categories — via Apple’s MapKit APIs. Useful for verifying a POI is actually a business that exists, not just a map pin.
Why we use it It’s the native source on iOS. High-quality, low-latency, privacy-respecting (queries are anonymized through Apple’s infrastructure, not stored by us).
What it contributes A global registry of electric-vehicle charging stations — used by RestMap’s Journey IQ planner when you’re traveling in an EV and need stops that combine charging and decent restrooms.
Why we use it It’s the best open dataset for EV infrastructure. Community-maintained, globally coverage-positive.
What it contributes Reliability patterns for 600+ restaurant, retail, and gas-station chains. When we know Buc-ee’s consistently maintains excellent restrooms and a particular regional chain does not, we bake that into the score.
How it’s built Hand-curated by us, with regional algorithm weights tuned per country. Not scraped, not licensed from a third party.
Where it lives An older version is public on GitHub. The current database lives in the app bundle.
What it contributes Thumbs-up / thumbs-down ratings and short reviews submitted by RestMap users.
How we frame this honestly RestMap has a small user base — in the low hundreds as of April 2026. That means user ratings are a signal, not the whole picture. We weight them lightly and clearly mark a location “Needs More Data” when there aren’t enough ratings to be confident.
Your contribution matters The more people who rate, the better every prediction becomes. Download the app, rate the places you visit, and help the data improve for the next traveler.
