Holiday pool lounger etiquette - who’s right?

Last time we were on holiday, reserving loungers was not allowed, and towels would be removed if it happened.

Most places I've been to they collect the hotel towels up soon after anyone leaves a lounger to avoid people reserving them. I'd have put the towel in the correct receptacle and have said there was no towel on it when I arrived.

Why on earth are you shoehorning the war in the Middle East into a thread about sun loungers for goodness sake? It’s quite possible to chat about less important matters and still care about the people affected by the crisis.

I would have assumed a lounger with a hotel towel was taken.
However I think people are very unreasonable to put a towel down and then wander off for two hours.
I think that hotels and spas and the like should have rules in place for this kind of thing if there are not enough loungers to go around.

I disagree. If you're going off for lunch for an hour then you give up the bed.

10 mins fine while you go to the rest room/collect something from the room or obviously while in the pool itself/buying a drink but otherwise it’s taking the mick reserving pool loungers and they are anyone’s who needs one

This. Though if a hotel has a problem with not enough loungers, they need to have a patrolling staff member and a clear policy, of no more than 90 mins away from lounger, or towel/belongings removed.

This.

Everyone can understand this rule.

And unfortuantely there are also plenty of people who cannot be arsed to remove their towels, even when they have no intentions to return. Anything more than half an hour is a fair game in my book - if you went for a 2h lunch, you simply need to find another sunbed for the afternoon.

It's a good job I spend as little time as possible sitting around the pool. Doing that all day, all holiday will do my head in.

The best sunshine holiday-type hotel I stayed in had a system where a lounger with just a hotel towel on it would have a card put on warning that the towel would be removed after a certain time. I think it was two hours later.

You'd still have an issue getting a lounger if you got up late, but at least you could usually get one by the afternoon for a post-lunch laze with a top notch work of literature trashy cheap piece of holiday pulp fiction.

When I read these comments I think thank goodness we’ve moved to France and have our own pool.
Never any problems here.
My bar tender is rather forward though. 😂

10 minutes 🤣 You don't want to ho to the "supposedly" 5 star place I just stayed in Sicily then. It took at least twice that to get a drink at the bar closest to the pool area even if it was just a bottle of water. Let alone lunch!

So did you acknowledge it had had a towel on and give it back or did you lie and say it was free when you got there?

OP, please please say you didn't just sit on the man's towel, you removed it first

Yes a hotel towel means its being used, I was once on holiday with my son and in the time it took to change his nappy in the poolside toilets someone had taken the hotel towel off (and thrown it in the bin!) and was sat on the lounger.

Anything more than about 20 minutes is fair game, not waiting three and disposing of things takes the piss.

A towel still on it laid out would indicate to me it was being used. Agree that it’s rude going off for hours but a towel on a bed is usually sufficient to know it’s in use

10 min is quite reasonable, they could have just got up to get a drink or a new book. But yes the ones who reserve beds first thing in the morning and then dissapear until afternoon need to be dealt with.
I of course blame the hotels as well - if you go to a place that actually has plenty of sunbends for your clientele, there are no towel wars.

Yanbu. I always hover around for 10 mins or so. It's clearly been abandoned for now I take the towel off and give the oerson a mouthful if they cone back after a few hours. But usually no-one says anything because they know if absolutely wrong to leave towels on sunbeds and piss off for a few hrs. If people stopped doing that there would be enough loungers for when people want them. Stupidity at its highest . I love the uae nicer hotels though they toss the towels aside immediately if they see you leaving the pool area and clearly going back into the hotel.

Pop to the bar, loo, or have lunch (max of 1 hour) all ok. Any longer you need to remove all items to free up the sunbed.

In Turkey a family bagsied rows of sunbeds then went out for the day, returning at 4pm for a dip. Beyond selfish. I was so tempted to tip their stuff in the pool after a few margaritas ….

Hotel towel is not enough. CF leaving it for two hours. Well, more selfish F than cheeky. There'd be enough loungers for all if people weren't weirdos about them. Such gross behaviour! If I really, really wanted to keep it while off to lunch I'd leave poolside items on it too esp my own towel. but I'd feel guilty every minute of that plate of chips and salad. And if a wee family were crowded round one lounger because of my selfishness I'd be so embarrassed coming back to 'my' lounger.

YWBU as there was a towel on the sun lounger, however the other guest WABU for leaving the sun lounger for two hours.

So on the towel point you're wrong, a towel means reserved, doesn't matter whether it's just the hotel towel and nothing else.

But on taking it when the man was away for 2+ hours, you were right.

In a hotel in Costa Brava, the Germans reserved loungers with their own towel before breakfast. It is not stereotyping as seen it myself. Plus I know they are German as did GCSE in it

A member of the pool staff/lifeguard went around the loungers and took towels, folded them and placed on a wall by the door to hotel. The towel owners weren't happy

As to another poster's question of why doesn't the hotel provide enough loungers. Simple answer is space. The hotel I recently stayed at had 225 rooms. If you use 2.15 people a room (there were a few kids - not many as its term time) - that means 480 guests staying at once - another 100 more in peak holiday times. Then you would be complaining that you are lounging right on top of strangers.

I think.leaving a lounger to go fir lunch then turning up hours later is ridiculous. Going for a swim etc yes fine. Going off for lunch not fine.