Sun lounger towel battles in all inclusive holidays

So selfish.

Sadly I have a fair few times. People have gone on trips or into the local town and expect the sun lounger to be waiting when they return at 3pm or whatever. That's the really selfish behaviour

We are currently in France - went to a water park on Monday and people had reserved benches round the park with their towels!! I was really shocked by that, it’s a public bench surely you can’t reserve it with a towel.

Generally speaking I agree with the PP who said families can share. We only use 2 sun beds as DD8 will be in the pool the whole time and won’t use one, when she pops back for a drink she will sit with one of us.

Yes the lounger is the base for the day and the holidaymakers comes and go during the day for example does a half an hour aqua class, sunbathes for an hour, pops to the bar, sunbathes, goes to lunch etc etc.
I have never seen loungers with just a towel on and no person for half a day.

Really? I understand reserving loungers while you go for breakfast, lunch or to do a short activity but surely you can see that if you are missing for half a day or worse, a day, then its not your base if you physically are not there. Why should having a base be more important than other people needing a lounger when they are actually there by the pool. Its very selfish.

There are hotels that show you a pool map, and you can pick your beds for the duration.

Ive been to hotels in Cyprus, Majorca and Greece with no sunbed issues. I read all the reviews.
Atlantica Cyprus (and has swim up)
Protur Biomar in Majorca (and has swim up)
Zafiro Palace Majorca (and has swim up)
Mitsis Laguna Crete

All these had plenty of beds (not pre- allocated).

Inflatables are in the sea are incredibly dangerous, many hotels also ban them in pools as again they’re a danger and take up a huge amount of room.

We’re at Lopesan Costa Meloneras resort and spa. There are swim up rooms here but as someone said upthread these are mainly in the shade. Lots of Germans and Spanish as well as the Brits. Check it out there is an amazing infinity pool and a massive lazy river pool. It’s a massive hotel but never feels overcrowded.

@Redfoxbluebunny where are you? It looks great!

We love all inc but do swim ups for ease.

I’ve been flamed before but I do think families could share- if you’re 2 adults, a baby and a 3 year old do you really need 4 sunloungers?

Just move the towels.

The canaries are a good bed in October for decent weather. Choose a hotel which is pan European in clientele to eliminate the bulk of the issue. Look at trip advisor or Google and see how many languages are being used to write the reviews - only the British and German guests seem to be loungers at dawn obsessed

I wouldn’t go somewhere like that. It sounds fucking hideous!

I got a swim up room at an AI hotel. Best money ever as nobody could use our sun loungers… I hate the sunbed nonsense. Hotels should allocate them on arrival and if you could pay an extra €50 for the week for that service, they’d make a killing!

or someone should put a card on the towel saying we noticed you were away at 10am and then if still not back in half an hour or an hour, they should remove their things

Never had this issue but we go in term time - by the time I’ve actually dragged my body out of bed and eaten breakfast I think some of the families with little ones have left the pool, always find loungers though we choose not by the main activity pool as too noisy

Some resorts/areas cater predominantly to different countries. Would German hams be any better?

We went to the Utopia Blu in Kos last year. We had a swim up room but there’s so many pools, and swim up rooms that the main “activity” pool if you like, always had beds free whenever we went past.

@JamPotJennyyes I have removed towels. No drama. Nooone has ever come over to say anything.

I stayed at a Zafiro hotel in Mallorca which had swim up pools and AI option. The food was very good. Worth looking at that chain perhaps?

I’m not sure if this has already been mentioned but the Olympic Lagoon hotels in Cyprus (Paphos and Aiya Napa) have a policy of allocated sunbeds (you can choose where to go and move if better/different ones become available over course of your stay) and this worked really well last year. We went in August and hotel was full but no issues with sunbeds whatsoever. Took all of the stress out of it; would highly recommend hotel too (we were in Paphos).

I couldn’t stand lying by the pool with all the other pink English hams around me. I did like all inclusive when we went but for the convenience of the meals.

Every single holiday we’ve been on , there’s been complaints about the “sun bed wars”. We didn’t actually have any issues, either at the pools or the beach. Maybe we’re not particularly fussy. First row (by the pool) AND in the sun always go first , but with several different pools to choose from and preferring shade , it was never an issue. Were there idiots making the run at 7 am? Sure. Was there any need for it? No.

It doesn’t work like that at resort style hotels. People do reserve a lounger for a day or half a day or whatever. They do go the loo, have lunch, do Aqua aerobics but you can’t move their stuff, it’s their base for the day.

Personally I would go to the pool with my family ready for fun. If there are a couple of loungers obviously not being used but with towels, just quietly move the towels to another location. It is not their private property and I doubt you will be there all day with young children. If they come back and try to insist call the pool attendant over and leave it to them to sort out. Not your problem, just never leave your towels to reserve a place.

It’s for exactly these reasons that we once chose a hotel where you selected your sun beds at checkin, and used only these, and this year we our hotel has a beach on either side, with sun beds a minutes walk away