Stinky Stars reviewers can rate a restroom on nine categories: cleanliness, smell, privacy, supplies, spaciousness, accessibility (labeled "Easy to Find" on the form), lighting, ambiance and safety. They don't count equally. In the app's current code, cleanliness and smell carry four times the weight of ambiance and safety, and any category you skip quietly takes the value of your overall star rating. All nine blend into the single overall score a listing shows. The per-category breakdown isn't shown on listings yet, so the weighting is how your category ratings reach the next person.
Last updated: November 2026
If you've ever wondered why a restroom you rated "4 stars overall" ended up nudging its score somewhere else, this is why.
The weights, in one table
Here's how each category counts toward a single review's overall number. The "form label" column is the wording you'll see while rating, which isn't always the same as the category name.
| Category | Form label | Form step | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cleanliness | Cleanliness | Step 2 | 2 |
| Smell | Smell | Step 2 | 2 |
| Privacy | Privacy | Step 2 | 1.5 |
| Supplies | Supplies Stocked | Step 3 | 1.5 |
| Spaciousness | Spaciousness | Step 3 | 1 |
| Accessibility | Easy to Find | Step 3 | 1 |
| Lighting | Lighting | Step 3 | 1 |
| Ambiance | Ambiance | Step 4 | 0.5 |
| Safety | Safety/Comfort | Step 4 | 0.5 |
The weights add up to 11. Cleanliness and smell together make up more than a third of the total. Ambiance and safety together are under a tenth.
I think that's the right call for most restroom stops. Nobody walks out of a bathroom over mood lighting, and plenty of people walk out over the smell.
The part almost nobody knows: skipped categories copy your overall
This is the little-known detail that changes how you should rate.
You don't have to fill in every category. But a skipped category isn't left out of the math. It's filled in with whatever you gave as your overall star rating. So a quick rating with nothing else counts exactly as your overall stars. And a rating where you fill in one category pulls the number toward that one score.
A worked example. Say you give a restroom 4 stars overall, then rate cleanliness 1 and skip the rest. The other eight categories take your 4. Cleanliness, weighted 2, drags the blend down. The other eight weigh 9 between them, so (2 × 1 + 9 × 4) ÷ 11 works out to about 3.5. Your review counts as roughly 3.5 stars, not 4.
That's the system working as intended. You told it the place was filthy, and it listened. But it means each category you add is a real vote, not decoration.
The restroom's overall score is then the average of all its reviews' blended numbers. Each person gets one rating per bathroom, and ratings are final once posted, so nobody can stack the score.
What each step of the form asks
The rating form has four steps, and you can submit at any of them.
Step 1: overall. "How would you rate this bathroom overall?" One to five. Pick two or fewer and the stars turn into poop emoji, which is the most honest UI choice I've seen in a while. You can stop here with "Skip - Submit Quick Rating."
Step 2: the core three. Cleanliness, smell and privacy. You need to rate at least one of these to continue.
Step 3: the details. Supplies Stocked, Spaciousness, Easy to Find and Lighting.
Step 4: the extras. Ambiance and Safety/Comfort, an optional written review, and a "Current issues?" checklist: out of TP, out of soap, out of towels, broken or out of order, and very crowded.
Those issue flags work differently from the scores. They show on the listing in a "Reported in the last 24 hours" box, then age out. A broken hand dryer today doesn't follow a restroom around forever.
What you'll actually see on a listing
Reviewers give up to nine category scores. Readers currently see less than that:
- The overall score, with a star marker at 2.5 and above, a poop marker below, and a neutral 🚻 when nobody has reviewed the place
- Amenity tags where known, such as Wheelchair Accessible, Gender Neutral, Single Stall or Purchase Required
- The "Reported in the last 24 hours" box, when there's something in it
- Written reviews, each with the reviewer's quick rating, any issues they flagged and a short author name like "Sam K."
Per-category breakdowns are not shown yet. That's the honest limitation here, and it's why your written review carries so much. "Spotless, but the lock on the left stall is broken" says something no blended number can.
If you want the case for why a single overall score still beats a plain map pin, restroom cleanliness ratings and the bathroom hygiene ratings app post both make it.
Two labels worth a second look
"Easy to Find" sits where accessibility does. The app stores this category as accessibility, but the form asks reviewers to rate "Easy to Find," so that's what they're scoring. A reviewer scoring that field is probably thinking about signage and finding the door, not wheelchair access. So for wheelchair access, lean on the Wheelchair Accessible tag and what reviewers write. The restroom accessibility ratings app guide goes into labels versus scores properly.
"Safety/Comfort" is broader than safety. It covers whether a place felt safe and whether it felt comfortable to be in. It's also one of the two lightest-weighted categories, so a high overall score says very little about safety on its own. Read the reviews for that.
My take: rate fewer categories, but mean them
Here's my opinion after digging through how this works: three honest category scores beat nine guesses.
If you only noticed cleanliness, smell and privacy, rate those and stop. Just know that skipping isn't neutral. Your overall star stands in for everything you left blank, so make that overall rating the one you'd actually defend.
And use the issue flags for temporary problems. An empty soap dispenser is a flag. A grimy room on every visit is a score.
Rating needs a free sign-in. Browsing the map on Stinky Stars doesn't, and it covers more than 37,000 restrooms across 123 cities and towns, free.
Frequently asked questions
What are the restroom rating categories on Stinky Stars?
There are nine: cleanliness, smell, privacy, supplies, spaciousness, accessibility, lighting, ambiance and safety. On the rating form some carry different labels, such as Supplies Stocked, Safety/Comfort, and Easy to Find for accessibility. Reviewers can rate as many or as few as they like after giving an overall star rating, and all of them feed the restroom's overall score.
Can I see each category's score on a restroom listing?
Not yet. Listings currently show the overall score, amenity tags, any problems reported in the last 24 hours and written reviews. Per-category breakdowns are collected from reviewers but aren't displayed on listings. Written reviews are the best way to learn what a restroom is like on a specific category, such as privacy or lighting.
Do all nine categories count equally toward the overall score?
No. In the current app, cleanliness and smell count the most, privacy and supplies next, then spaciousness, accessibility (Easy to Find) and lighting, with ambiance and safety counting least. Any category a reviewer skips takes the value of their overall star rating, so a quick rating alone counts as exactly the stars given.
What's the difference between a rating and a reported issue?
A rating describes the restroom on a normal visit and feeds its overall score. A reported issue, like out of soap or out of order, is a checkbox on the last step of the form. It shows on the listing in a "Reported in the last 24 hours" box and then ages out, so temporary problems don't stick to a restroom forever.