A camping AIBU

[5ofus]

I'm not ready for actual AIBU on here but I am wondering if I'm being unreasonable.

We stayed in the summer holidays at Lytton Lawn in the New Forest. Campsite fine, quite pricey as it was summer holidays but large pitches. Feral children roaming round late in the evening but otherwise an OK site.

Toilet block was quite tired, shower cubicles were small - just a tray and a small space to stand about the size of the tray again. Very small hook on back of door with a standard mop bucket in corner to use to mop out showers after use.

So, on day three I went in to use the showers, hung my clothes up and showered. When I came out my trousers had fallen onto the floor. When I picked them up they were damaged from the bleach which had been used on the floor. Large sections were bleached and had lost colour indicating quite a concentration of bleach in their bucket. There were no signs warning of bleach use - no smell of bleach.

I spoke to them onsite at the time - and they suggested I should e-mail in to complain which I did. My request was that they reimbursed me for the cost of my trousers (around £20 - they weren't expensive luckily).

Their response today suggested it was all my own fault for not securing my trousers adequately and that they wouldn't be paying.

Here's the AIBU - am I being unreasonable to think that they should pay for the trousers?

[ABitBatty]

The campsite we went to in August had showers exactly as you describe and I was worried about something similar happening.

YANBU. I would expect them to apologise, refund you and put signs up for future campers.

Campsites largely rely on word of mouth recommendations and good reviews on places like ukcampsite, so they aren't doing themselves any favours here!

[EssW2]

Bad luck re your trousers, but in truth I think it's one of those unfortunate things.
I don't think it is unreasonable to use bleach based cleaning products, and personally would expect that. Yes, the showers were cramped and had bad hooks, but that's not unusual in camping terms. I hang my clothes in a plastic bag because otherwise they often get wet because of the closeness of the water. You had been there for 3 days so knew the hooks were small.

I'd be kicking myself if this happened to me. But it is upsetting.

[MisSalLaneous]

Uhm, I'm also in the "oh no, damn, bad luck" side. Sorry. To provide better facilities (it won't just be the hook that's not that well-designed at a campsite) would cost money, which would in turn make camping even more expensive than it already is. Still, sorry to hear. I hate it when something perfectly good gets ruined.

[MrsGaff]

I'd chalk it up to experience and put your clothes in a carrier bag in future.

There was no harm in asking the site to reimburse you, if you don't ask you don't get, but now they have responded I wouldn't take it any further.

[5ofus]

I'll treat it as a learning experience then - thanks!

Still miffed about my trousers but I'll get over it.

Had been there three days but this was my first venture to the showers (been swimming so not that filthy)

[TastyMuffins]

If it happened to me, I would have been quite shocked as would never have expected there to be bleach on the floor! I read this and was wondering what it was I would actually expect to be used to clean a campsite showers and realised I had no idea . Feel a bit of an ignoramous but I guess it should be the same as the swimming baths and I would never expect my clothes to be marked there if they fell on the floor.

[Scholes34]

Happened to me a few years ago, but in the toilets by a local authority paddling pool when my son's trousers fell on the floor when he went to the loo. We were compensated for the bleached trousers and the local authority investigated the excessive use of bleach, which they felt was unnecessary. We hadn't written to ask to be compensated, just wanted to point out our concerns.

[ImDaveandsoismywife]

I haven't had a bleach incident, thankfully, but got very fed up with soggy clothes (even if in a plastic bag, they tended to end up wet if it fell off the hook), so I invested in this and these (only I got my hook for about £1.50 from Morrisons!) and together they work brilliantly - even if I have to put the bag on the floor (where the walls are solid and the door is just a curtain so I can't use the hook) it keeps everything dry. Not sure about bleach, though. Rotten luck :(