Why you get that place and not another

The rules

1. Places that exist

   It starts from more than 20,000 places on OpenStreetMap and what venues keep up to date themselves. Anywhere recorded as closed at that time doesn’t come up.

   Where the data comes from

2. Must-haves don’t get watered down

   Step-free, vegan, vegetarian or gluten-free: they’re filters, and they’re never loosened. To count as step-free, the place has to state it. ‘Limited’ or no information doesn’t count.

   What each person needs

3. Preferences sort, they don’t rule out

   A terrace, a type of cuisine: they move up the list but don’t throw the rest away. And if we don’t know whether a place has a terrace, it says ‘unconfirmed’, not ‘no’.

   The words in the app

4. If nothing fits, it says so

   Options come up ‘with a small tweak’: each says what it asks and of whom, and that person decides. They’re never passed off as a match.

   How it works

5. Times are estimates

   Car and taxi times have no live traffic. Public transport is a typical journey, and for now it’s only in Madrid. It’s all labelled.

   What’s behind it

6. The group decides

   Wambree shows options. Someone suggests one and everyone says if it works for them. The app doesn’t choose the place.

   Your first plan