Signage for Glamping Sites and Campsites: What Goes Where, and What Survives Outdoors

Most glamping and campsite signage sits indoors: welcome and house rules inside the pod, the WiFi details, a privacy hanger on the door, and signs on the shared facilities block. Genuinely exposed outdoor signage is a different problem, and wood handles it badly unless it is fixed rigidly and chosen carefully.

This covers what goes where across a site, which material belongs in each position, and — honestly — where wood is the wrong answer and you should buy elsewhere.

Inside the pod

This is where most of a site's signage actually lives, and where oak veneer is at its best: dry, sheltered, read at close range.

• Welcome & house rules sign — four sizes, personalised, covering arrival, quiet hours, recycling and departure in one place.
• Freestanding house rules sign — stands on a worktop or side table with no fixings, which matters in a pod you can't drill into.
• Freestanding WiFi QR sign or the wall-mounted WiFi password sign — the QR versions auto-connect, which removes the single most common arrival message a site owner gets.

Hot tub rules, fire pit rules and pet terms don't need separate signs. They are custom text on a house rules sign — add the wording in the personalisation box and it gets engraved with everything else.

All of these are FSC-certified oak veneered MDF. Indoor use only, and that is a hard limit rather than a preference — see the outdoor section below.

On the pod door

A door hanger gets handled every day, carried outside, and left hanging in damp morning air. That is a harder life than a sign on a wall, which is why the thicker bamboo exists.

• 5mm bamboo Do Not Disturb hanger — for pods where guests want housekeeping to skip a day.
• In Use / Free hanger — double-sided, for a shared bathroom, shower room or sauna where there's no lock-based signal.

Both are 5mm FSC-certified Moso bamboo (certificate BV-COC-190523). The thickness is the point: 3mm bamboo can split where it is handled repeatedly, and 5mm is far more resistant to it. We wrote up why the 5mm range exists if you want the engineering reasoning.

Pod keys

Lost keys are an operational cost, not an inconvenience — someone has to drive out, and a replacement cut costs more than the fob.

• Don't Lose This Key keyring — 200 × 80mm in 5mm bamboo, deliberately too big to slip into a pocket and forget about.
• 5mm bamboo business keyring — 100 × 50mm, single or double-sided, with your site name or logo and the pod name or number on the reverse.

Bamboo is water-resistant, which is the relevant property for a key that lives in a coat pocket in Welsh weather.

The shared facilities block

Toilets, showers, laundry and washing-up need identifying, and often need directing to as well. The toilet and WC sign range covers fourteen styles across four sizes, including left and right directional variants for a corridor or an indoor junction.

Mount them on the outside of the door, never inside the room. Oak veneered MDF cannot tolerate damp, and the inside of a shower block is the single worst environment on a campsite for it. On the corridor side it is fine indefinitely.

Outdoors — read this before ordering anything

This is where most wooden signage sold to campsites fails, so it is worth being precise.

• Oak veneered MDF: never. Not "weathers over time" — it fails. The core swells and delaminates once water gets in. There is no fixing method that makes it viable outdoors.
• 3mm bamboo, tied or clamped rigidly: yes. Held flat against a solid structure with no freedom to move, it survives outdoors. Our bamboo gate sign ties at four points around a gate cross beam and lives outside permanently.
• 3mm bamboo, bolted or screwed: avoid. Drilling concentrates stress at exactly the point a crack starts. Tying is not a cheaper substitute for bolting — for this thickness it is the correct method.
• 3mm bamboo, hung loose on string: no. Wind swings it, it knocks against the post, and it splits.
• 5mm bamboo: generally yes, including hanging designs and drilled fixings, because the thicker section resists the splitting that rules 3mm out.
• All bamboo will green outdoors without regular cleaning. A UV-protective bamboo oil slows it but does not prevent it, and needs reapplying roughly every six to twelve months. We do not offer oiling or sealing as a service.

What we don't currently make: dedicated pitch markers, pod name plaques or entrance signs built for permanent exposed mounting. If that is what you need, buy it from a supplier making weatherproof exterior signage — it is a different product with different engineering, and pretending otherwise would cost you a season.

What we don't do at all

Fire exit and escape route signage. Holiday accommodation carries fire safety duties, and escape route signs have to use standardised pictograms in prescribed colours and, where the risk assessment requires it, stay visible when the lighting fails. Engraved wood does not do that. What your site needs is determined by its fire risk assessment, not by a supplier's catalogue.

Ordering for a whole site

Signage for a site is naturally a multiple order rather than a single item. Discounts apply automatically at checkout with no quote process, and they count per product, so they start when you order 20 or more of the same item — a key fob or door hanger for every pod on a larger site, for example:

• 20 or more of the same product — 10% off
• 50 or more — 15% off
• 100 or more — 20% off
• 250 or more — 25% off
• 500 or more — 30% off
• 1,000 or more — 35% off

All items are made to order. Dispatch time is shown at checkout. UK orders via Royal Mail Tracked 24. International via Royal Mail International Tracked.

Frequently asked questions

Can I put a wooden sign outside on a pitch or pod?
Only bamboo. 3mm bamboo must be fixed rigidly with no freedom to move — tied or clamped flat against a solid structure, not drilled and not hung loose; 5mm bamboo copes with drilled fixings and hanging designs. Oak veneered MDF is never suitable outdoors. All bamboo will green outdoors without regular cleaning.

Do you make pod name signs for outside?
Not currently. Our outdoor-capable range is limited, and we would rather say so than sell you something that fails over a winter. Pod name signs mounted inside the pod are a different matter.

What is the difference between 3mm and 5mm bamboo?
Thickness, and therefore resistance to splitting. 5mm is the choice for anything handled daily — door hangers, key fobs — and tolerates drilled fixings that 3mm does not. 3mm is fine for signage that stays put.

Can wooden signs go inside a shower or toilet block?
On the outside of the door, yes. Inside the room, no — oak veneered MDF cannot tolerate the humidity, and it will fail rather than simply age.

Can you supply fire exit signs?
No. Escape route signs need standardised pictograms, prescribed colours and, where your fire risk assessment requires it, visibility when lighting fails. Buy those from a fire safety supplier. Fire door notices such as Fire Door Keep Shut are a different matter; our guide to fire exit signs and UK law explains the difference.

Also see: bamboo products, hospitality signs, keyrings, the door hangers guide and bamboo vs oak vs plywood.