Now+ Camping Tails: Choose this door, come early and even more sanitary tips

Camping tails: choose this door, come early and even more sanitary tips

The little walk to the toilet building – toilet roll under your arm, afraid of what you’re going to find – is probably not your favorite part of your camping holiday. These campsite owners tell how to keep it fun on the camping toilet.

A toilet that someone else cleans for you and where other people also do their business: people usually treat such a toilet differently than the one in their own home. You hover above the bowl and let some drops fall, you don’t pick up a toilet paper lying around, you leave fresh skid marks because you don’t want to touch the toilet brush.

In short: public toilets get dirty quickly, and that goes from bad to worse. Because you don’t treat a dirty toilet with care, knows Karin, owner of Camping Vrijhaven in Heeg, Friesland.

“It’s like graffiti. Someone leaves traces, and then the next one thinks: just leave it, that toilet paper on the floor or those skid marks.”

Every season a ‘poop artist’

At Camping Vrijhaven there are fourteen public toilets – each with a poster of someone looking at you, and with a fresh flower. That last one works, Karin knows. “The Swedish ferry company Stena Line once investigated this on its boats. By putting flowers in the toilet, a toilet feels more homely and the guest unconsciously pays more attention and care to that toilet.”

And yet, despite many neat and sweet guests, a cleaning team that is permanently busy and fresh flowers, they also come across the nastiest things on this campsite, says Karin.

“Every season we have what we call ‘the poop artist’ once. He smears his feces against the tiles, and that starts to stink incredibly. We just hope it’s a child.” Guests demand a spotless toilet, but they themselves also cause dirt. That makes tackling the toilet problem a bit complicated, says Karin.

How to avoid dirt

If you are a camping guest who likes to sit on a clean toilet, there are some tricks to avoid the dirt. When people enter somewhere, they automatically look to the right – that is called *routing*. Supermarkets respond to this cleverly. When you enter a camping building you will automatically choose a door on the right. If the building also has toilets on the left, choose one from that row, because they are used less.

It can pay to ask what the cleaning shifts are; they are often early in the morning. Around 8:00 you have a better chance of a clean toilet than at 9:00, Karin knows.

If you want to avoid the toilet that is pooped on the most, remember that people usually do their big business in the last toilet in the row. They feel a bit more anonymous there. The toilet paper is always the first to run out there, says Annelies, owner of camping Ons Wijland in Oud Ade (South Holland). “The first toilet is used the most for peeing.”

‘Dream guest flushes urinal well’

To prevent a stinking urinal, you must hold the flush button down for at least ten seconds – not one second and then turn around and walk away. Karin: “Otherwise the urine stays in the pot, that will evaporate and stink incredibly. The man who holds the button down for ten seconds is our dream guest.”

In general, camping guests keep their toilets really clean beyond expectation, say campsite owners Arjen and Annelies. But if there are large groups and many children as guests, they still find a mess. Camping Ons Wijland is a small-scale campsite with a nice atmosphere and few rules, she says.

“But maybe we should think about a sign with rules. Don’t throw tampons in the toilet, for example, throw away your cotton pads and please don’t leave toilet paper on the floor. They get wet and that is really very dirty and annoying to clean.”

Stay neat, even when it rains

At this campsite there are plants hanging in the toilet, there are nice sayings on the wall and there is always music playing. People find the toilet building very important, Annelies knows. “Guests often look at our sanitary facilities first and only then at their camping spot.”

Another appeal to camping guests: stay decent, even when it rains. Karin: “When it rains, mud is walked inside. That immediately looks dirty, and that invites people to behave carelessly again. Men start trimming their beards, mess is not cleaned up. Rain on the campsite takes the resilience out of people. They start to grumble, get bored, don’t behave nicely in the toilet. When the sun shines, the toilets immediately stay much cleaner.”

Scroll to Top