Tell Butlin’s what you would change about swimming pool changing rooms - £300 voucher prize draw! NOW CLOSED

[AngelieMumsnet]

Butlin's is redesigning one of its swimming pools and needs your help to make it as family-friendly as possible. In particular Butlin’s wants your help to understand what it’s like as a parent using a swimming pool changing room – and your input will genuinely help inform the new design and build on resort.

Why the changing room? Butlin’s have done research which shows that most parents love going swimming with their children – until they get to the changing room. From the wet floor, the often-freezing temperature, the small cubicles not suitable for a family to the fact you can never get your child dry – there’s a lot to be desired! Which is why Butlin’s wants the opinion of Mumsnetters to identify the biggest issues you face – and your ideas on how to solve them.

So two important questions:

What do you find particularly frustrating when using changing rooms at the swimming pool?

In an ideal world, can you think of anything which would make your life easier and solve these problems?

Everyone who posts on this thread will be entered into a prize draw to win a £300 John Lewis voucher!

Thanks and good luck,
MNHQ

Larger cubicles with more hanging space and plenty of room to sit down with more than 1 child... they can be quite claustrophobic!

I am about to throw a baby in the mix again but my boys are 6 and 8 now. The main thing is space. I hate to use a family changer (when there are so few) but just a few more inches would be lovely. Maybe with a shelf to shove my loose bits on and better hooks. Can't fit a thing on them without stuff sliding off at our local pool. Hopefully that's realistic!

Just the cleanliness levels, during the day they can get very messy

Decent sized cubicles for individuals and for families.

larger cubicles and clean ones ive found them very dirty, also somewhere to lay a baby to change from swimsuit and put on a nappy

Make them bigger - not much more is needed, but as a mum if you are on your own with small kids it is VERY hard getting everyone ready in a tight space and leads to frayed tempers !!!

I find is frustrating when the changing room are left in a state by the previous user, I have a toddler who insists on picking up an playing with left over rubbish and dirty nappies. I also get annoyed when people use the nappy changing areas in the disabled loos for getting dressed.

Have a drying area

More family cubicles. Enabling the whole family to change together with lockers and bench space.

More family size changing cubicles. My kids are older now, but I remember standing queuing for cubicles when my twins were little. It's ok on the way in, but not much fun after the swim, when everyone is wet and cold and crying.

Somewhere safe to harness babies/toddlers while the adult gets dressed - otherwise it's impossible to get dressed unless there are at least two adults to take it in turns.

The toilets in the changing rooms are often smelly. The floor is always wet and dirty. More frequent cleaning in the changing rooms and toilets is very important.

For families you need a lot more parent and toddler cubicles, and also a changing mat type thing, also if a parent is alone with a small child then possibly a seat attached to the wall so they are secure while the parent dresses

somewhere safe you can place your little one while you get yourself dry so that they dont crawl all over the wet floor

would love them to look and feel cleaner and more hygienic!

Family changing rooms to comfortably hold at least 1 adult and 2 children. Free lockers, there's nothing more frustrating than getting changed and finding you don't have change for the lockers. Regular cleaning, no-one likes to walking on a filthy floor or having rubbish in the changing rooms.
Hooks so you can hang your bags up while you get changed and the bottom doesn't get soggy.

Family changing rooms to comfortably hold at least 1 adult and 2 children. Free lockers, there's nothing more frustrating than getting changed and finding you don't have change for the lockers. Regular cleaning, no-one likes to walking on a filthy floor or having rubbish in the changing rooms.
Hooks so you can hang your bags up while you get changed and the bottom doesn't get soggy.

Free to use hairdryers would be great! Bigger cubicles so Parents can fit in with their children.

ours are wet everywhere, so you can't keep anything dry. in general cleaning and drying them more frequently would be a great start. Or a high up shelf within the cubicle that you can leave dry things on while you towel off.

larger family lockers so I'm not pissing about with three keys
lockers that work, rather than eating my 50p, forcing me to go back to reception in my swimsuit

in fact can we not just get rid of coin operated lockers, and issue the keys for free like in some hotels?

i appreciate that showers need some kind of automatic cut-off, but you get about 10 seconds worth of water at my local pool, and the push button is too stiff for my children to operate. it's reasonable inconvenient when we're showering together, but worse when the DC have had a swimming lesson and i have to keep getting into the shower to turn it back on, getting wet in the process.

ensure that the changing rooms are disabled friendly

I don't expect the floors to be dry - i mean who ever has wiped the floor dry with their towel before leaving? but what i cant stand is it being dirty. Changing rooms, toilets and showers should all be hosed down and squeeky clean - this should be the first thing you sort out in your design - if your staff can completely hose areas down every few hours its an easy way to keep it clean and on top of muck - floors are very slightly sloped to wide shallow drainage channels. Changing rooms need to be big enough for whole family to change in. I like it when changing rooms are around the pool rather than in a separate room because if one of the family has had enough you can keep an eye out for them. Benches should be slatted in a way with curved slats so that the water does not stay on them. Plenty of space for clothes to hang up, lots of hooks - and designers never think of where to put the shoes - what about a shoe rail under a bench so when you bring stuff from the locker and you are wet there is somewhere to put your shoes (as people put them on benches..eww). If there is a drainage channel running across the door of each cubicle then people can wring out their costumes and trunks into that so the floor wont have big puddles on it and it can take the dirty water away. BIG lockers - lockers can never be too big - think family of 4/5 and the huge towels!

Make the shared family room big enough, not everyone has just one baby and the space is needed for the bags and to get changed

someone like a hall monitor to check that the place is tidy and keep the people in check.

Cubicles big enough to dry yourself and your little one. Take a look at the cubicles at Centerparcs, they are perfect!

More hooks to hang clothes, bags and towels please.

Bigger cubicles. It's so hard to get yourself and your children dry and dressed in the tiny space

The problem I usually have with changing rooms are the size. Me and my partner always try to get a family changing room so we can both get ready with my daughter. The problem with this is usually the 'family' sized ones normally have enough room for an adult, a child and 2 bags. It doesn't take into fact if you have both parents in the cubicle which is needed when your trying to get into a swimming costume, its half on/half off and your child has decide that they are going to try and open the cubicle for the rest of the public to see haha