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

I think that the cubicle should be big enough for a Family of four. Locks on the door high enough from children but also working as many are broke most of the time. Bigger lockers are also needed as I cAn never fit all my stuff and daughters things into one. The floors are always disgusting and wet and could do with a regular maintenance. It could also do with heating or heated flooring. Shower that are private cubicles instead of out in the open where you can see people looking an staring at you to get in. Hooks for your towels whilst in the shower. Toilets that are not by a shower area as there is always water on the floor in the toilet cubicle which you can never tell if it's pee or not. Toilets that are cleaned on a regular basis and are stocked with toilet roll. Maybe also a changing room for families that have boys and girls so they can change them altogether. This can be separated from the changing rooms just a little room obviously big enough for a family. Also hair dryers that work and are free you pay to go swimming and use the lockers. Free use of a hair dryer would be nice. Also brighten it up with some colour and pictures for the kids instead of just plain white or cream but some animal drawings up. Last of all a play pen would be handy for my children

Take away the mirrors! :-SS

The difficult thing is getting ready with a baby! Normal changing rooms are always wet on the floor and tiny, so know where to put a baby. A drop down changing table inside would be amazing, a place to get your baby ready whilst you get yourself ready too.

Larger changing rooms for families, so there's space for me and the kids and all our stuff. Travel cots are a good place to pop the baby once changed. Changing tables are good to sort them out on. We have a stretcher type bench to pop the babies on at our pool. She's never rolled off of it yet. It's in the mum and baby changing room with the travel cots and changing tables.

Not to forget...having the same in the men's changing room! Dads can sort the kids out too!

The things that are the most frustrating are not enough larger/family cubicles, not enough showers and those that are provided are not warm enough, not powerful enough and switch off too quickly and dirty, cold and wet floors.

If the cubicles were bigger, the floors dri er and cleaner and showers were warm, powerful and lengthy then this would make my experience of changing rooms much better and encourage me to go swimming more often.

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

They are often dirty, the floors are wet and slippy and there is a lack of space to get my kids dried and dressed.

In an ideal world, can you think of anything which would make your life easier and solve these problems?
Big family cubicles, regular cleaning and a floor that is not slippy! Free hairdryers ans a space where I can change with both my kids (age 4 and 8) as the 8 year old cannot come in the ladies with me in most swimming pools but I'm not quite ready to send him off to the men's on his own (he's quite dozy and shy so would probably get lost!)

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

Wet floors! It's so horrible dropping your clothes on a wet changing room floor, particularly when it's almost inevitable as you try to negotiate dressing a wriggly toddler in a space barely big enough to move in.

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

Definitely more regular cleaning - even if they had mops available that customers could use to give the floor a quick wipe before using. Also more hooks on the wall - they usually only seem to have one on the back of the door, why not 2 or 3 on the wall as well?

In fact, if they were more generous with the space, a shelf for your bags so you weren't trying to cram everything plus child onto the same narrow seat.

I also wish they'd bring back the cossie wringers that I remember from my childhood - it was some sort of gadget that you could put your wet costume through and it would wring out the excess water more efficiently than you could do by hand. Our local pool doesn't even have drains in the cubicle for you to wring out your costume (hence very wet floors) so you have to wrap them in a towel and everything gets soggy.

Read the thread now - Aftereight's basket idea is genius!!! This is so simple and would solve so many problems.

I want a large family changing room big enough for four or five with plenty of hooks for hanging up clothes/coats and towels. I want a bench wide enough for the children to sit on, and maybe half of the bench lower for smaller toddlers.
Also a non slip floor would be great

Just clean them!
Every hour and clean them properly.

I can cope without huge lockers or changing rooms. If my hair has to dry naturally I'll probably survive the experience, but showering in a cubicle with other people's hair is gross.

Swimming pool changing rooms are often just simply dirty and I hate it

Larger lockers would be nice but also larger cubicles.
Really love the idea of a heated floor!

It's frustrating having nowhere to put the baby while you get dressed! Having the big plastic baby change tables in the family cubicles makes it so much easier.
Also more hooks to hang your dry clothes on do they don't end up in a pile.

The floors in our local pool changing room are always disgusting. Pools of water with hair floating in them... I'm sure heated floors would make a huge difference. The water would dry up and it wouldn't be such a disaster if a sock or a pair of knickers was dropped!

My ideal changing room is large enough for two adults and at least two children. Plenty of hooks for hanging towels / clothes etc.
Heated floors are excellent as this prevents changing rooms from becoming an extension of the pool and accidentally getting socks / towels soaked!
One of the best / most useful features I've seen in a family changing room, was a playpen for a mobile baby, as both my babies were able to crawl through the gaps under a standard changing room door. Not easy to look after whilst in the middle of getting changed yourself!
The most off-putting thing in the world though, is unclean changing facilities and showers. They should be cleaned at least hourly (more often during busy periods) as with the volume of people passing through, it is the equivalent of not cleaning your bathroom for weeks on end.

ok...bit advebtourous but them dryers...you knw the ones that blow out hot air. lol

Lockers that work.
Enough showers so you don't have to wait.

What do you find particularly frustrating when using changing rooms at the swimming pool?
Not biog enough.
Not enough hooks on wall to stop clothes languishing in wet
too cold
not enough lockers

In an ideal world, can you think of anything which would make your life easier and solve these problems?
bigger family changing rooms.
hot temperature so you feel warm immediately.
lots of hooks on cubicle walls.
lots of lockers of varying sizes.

Frustrating: Dirt/ general skankiness and wet floors. There was a pile of sodden dirty nappies in the corner of one family changing room I went to recently Farnborough Leisure Centre I'm looking at you.

Nowhere to put the baby/ toddler down because everything is sodden and/or filthy.

Not enough showers/ lockers/ family rooms.

Things that would help: Hooks and shelves EVERYWHERE. Cubbies rather than lockers for storing non-valuable but bulky items to save faff.

Chairs or changing mats with straps, or travel cots/ play pens to contain small children.

Enough staff members to enforce people removing outdoor shoes so the floor doesn't become a sea of mud in winter.

Dispensers with bog standard shampoo, conditioner and shower gel so they don't have to be carted along.

Frustrating: not enough space in changing room/benches in them that are too narrow/small lockers or ones that need change to use. No nappy bins or changing facilities, dirty, wet and cold rooms.

Improvements: see above! Mainly, a well lit and spacious/warm environment with facilities geared towards families with babies and young children.

Lockers that are big enough to fit more than one person's stuff in, most pool have family changing rooms, but then not family lockers, you end up trying to squeeze everything in to a locker big enough to take one bag.

Warm changing rooms, I'm usually shivering by the time I've got the toddler dressed!

Warm changing rooms is the most important thing. If you are freezing, everything is worse. Dry clean floor and hooks. Bigger storage, baskets maybe?

Large family changing rooms without a large gap under the door that toddlers can wiggle through (!) Heated floors and staff present to keep the floors clean and dry and not slippy. Lockers that are large and close to the changing rooms with doors that can be latched open whilst you are putting in your things not closing on your arm all the time. An easy method to get all your stuff too and from the changing room eg a basket that fits into the locker. A spinner for wet swimming costumes.

It must clean first and foremost. Have plenty of spacious lockers, some smaller but some bigger so you can put both children's clothes in one locker. Ideally family cubicles so everyone can change together and plenty of bench space or shelves so you don't need to put bags on the floor. In my dream changing room straps on baby change table so they can't roll off, playpen or seat so you can safely place your toddler while you dry yourself before putting your clothes on

I would go swimming more often as a family if the changing rooms were nicer, really puts me off.

In an ideal world -decent sized family cubicles so that you have room to help the little ones get changed. Benches and shelves so you have plenty of storage space whilst you change and don't have to get everything soaked. Playpens/baby seat things so that you can get changed without needing 8 pairs of hands when you have a baby with you. The most important thing for me though is clean and as dry as possible to make changing less horrible!

Or alternatively ...provide swim nannies! Then I can watch from the side all nice and dry and warm with groomed non frizzy hair having a coffee whilst the swim nanny deals with all horrible bits ;)