Sun lounger towel battles in all inclusive holidays

@SummerInSun exactly this. We often go down fairly early as it's quiet and cooler. We then might go and grab some breakfast at 10ish. In and out of the pool together, take our time over lunch at the hottest part of the day.
I think it's the people who put their towels out and then bugger off to the beach or on a day trip and arrive back to sit by the pool or have a dip at lunchtime or later. That's what (rightly) pees people off.

Yes, I would say its the people who bagsy their loungers at 7am and then rock up to them at 3pm are the ones most people are annoyed by. Or where they bagsy 4 loungers and then 1 person sits on them all day and the other 3 people never materialise...

Oh yes, this is definitely true. I've been to places with multiple pools, and you can easily find loungers if you walk around a bit, but everyone wants the 'main' pool. I do think shade is a bigger issue, there never seem to be enough umbrellas to go round (and don't get me started on the people who hog umbrellas but don't actually use them for most of the day... Again, our recent holiday had the 'pool concierge' removing any umbrellas that weren't being used and giving them to people who wanted them!)

I don’t understand this “not in use” idea. We go to the pool when it opens and set up lounges for the four of us. We have towels, sunscreen, googles and snorkels, books and magazines, some plastic tat toys when the kids are younger. That’s our base for the day, and I would say we are using them all day, but of course there are times when all four of us would be in the pool at once, or are getting a drink or lunch from the pool cafe, etc. I shouldn’t have to pack everything up and give up our lounges every time the kids want us to spend 20 minutes in the pool with them. Or even go to lunch for 45 minutes. Do people call that “not using the lounges”? Or do you mean people put their towels down and then disappear for a half day excision to a local attraction?

We are going to Cyprus in October half term and have booked a hotel with a sunbed allocation. This was a big plus for me as I find sunbed wars really stressful which is not what you want on holiday. According to the reviews the allocation system works really well so fingers crossed

Research your options. I personally wouldn’t want to be around the type of people that find this acceptable behaviour.

I just googled images of swim up rooms and they look stunning but don't they get noisy if people want to use the pool late into the evening when you or your children might be wanting to sleep?

You cant reserve a public facility by leaving a crappy piece of cloth on it. If no one has used it for 15 minutes toss the towels etc onto another nearby lounger and then move the one you want into a different position. Lie back and enjoy the fireworks when two sets of potential reservers clash.

Is this sunbed war something like this:

We are AI beach people, so I don't have direct experience of managing this problem. But my guess is you'd do better picking somewhere as close to the sea as possible. As there's a contingent of people like my family who prefer sea to pool but also want the convenience of the catering, so they'll go for beachfront AI. Whereas the further inland you go, the less likely people are to prioritise beach over pool. That's the theory anyway!

If you go to Turkey at the end of October a kid of stuff will be shutting down / facilities not available also stuff outside the resort won’t be as busy
Same for the greek islands & Balearics islands

I’ve been to Turkey & Ibiza at both the start and the end of the season and it’s pretty crap and very quiet and lots of stuff not available

if you want somewhere year round the Canary Islands are the best as they are set up for tourist all year round

Egypt is also an all year round resort

We went here are the beginning of the summer and never had any problems getting a sunbed at the main pools or the beach. We also had a swim up room so had the best of both worlds.

https://www.tui.co.uk/destinations/greece/halkidiki/kalives/hotels/blue-lagoon-queen.html

I loathe this whole thing so much it ruins my holiday. I search ‘loungers’ and ‘sun beds’ in trip advisor reviews and won’t book anywhere unless several people have recently stated this isn’t an issue.

And also ime of many years in the travel industry and holidaying in AI when people say “there was no sunbeds” what they actually mean is “I couldn’t get my sunbed right up to the pool edge for every moment the pool was open”.

I once had someone complain there weren’t sun beds when I stayed in a Spanish AI and so I pointed to 7 empty ones in the line of sight - and they actually said “but I don’t want those ones there”. 🤷‍♀️🤦🏼‍♀️

Definitely check out Cyprus as another PP states many have a rule of no sun bed hogging it's also warm in Oct holidays.

I stayed at a hotel in spain that locked the pool area up over night (safer too) it did mean people queing for 10 am opening but they also wanted breakfast too so it wasn’t too bad. We just got back from Bulgaria and there was a lot of sun beds. You could get a couple of beds together at anytime of day. But towels did get put down from 9ish.
We did see a 5* hotel (out of our price range ) that allocated beds for people. So you were guaranteed a bed all week.

Probably going to get flamed but honestly OP, you get what you pay for when it comes to all inclusive and unless it’s a bit more of a pricey/upmarket resort or the hotel has a policy around sunbeds, it could be hellish.

Since having kids, we’ve only ever been to AI’s and honestly have never had this issue. Some hotels even let you book sunbeds so they are yours for the duration of your stay. Currently at a 5* AI in Greece and no sunbed hoggers here!

Probably going to get flamed but honestly OP, you get what you pay for when it comes to all inclusive and unless it’s a bit more of a pricey/upmarket resort or the hotel has a policy around sunbeds, it could be hellish.

Since having kids, we’ve only ever been to AI’s and honestly have never had this issue. Some hotels even let you book sunbeds so they are yours for the duration of your stay. Currently at a 5* AI in Greece and no sunbed hoggers here!

Any of the Barut chain in Turkey are good. Excellent customer services and have never had any issues with sunbed wars (have stayed in 3 different ones and some of them twice) I don't think you can remove the towels after 15 minutes as someone may have gone back to grab something from their room/ get a drink/ use the toilet /get a late breakfast, but 45 mins or so is absolutely acceptable.

I just returned from a hotel where they would remove hotel towels from loungers (so they wouldn't touch person towels/belongings). You could go to the 'pool concierge' if you couldn't find a lounger and he would simply walk round, take off the towels and let you have the loungers. Provided quite a bit of entertainment for the rest of us tbh...

@Gagamama2i also find the swim up rooms are great if you need to chill but the DC want to stay in the water. My DD16 loves them, she has ASD so can get a bit overwhelmed with people and noise so it’s a great place to chill. We went to the Atlantico Mare last year in Cyprus. No sunbed wars, swim up rooms were lovely.

I have never been to a resort like that and have been going to all inclusive for years.

Admittedly I do tend to go to the very high end resorts but the last few years I have been to AI's in Mauritius where you walk up to the pool and staff instantly appear holding towels and guiding you to empty beds in the general area you say youd like to sit. If needed they will either clear a space if unattended or will move beds around to make space for you.

I can highly recommend Gloria Verde in Turkey. We've been twice. It's not cheap but food and drink are amazing and you can get a sun lounger whatever time you arrive at the pool in sun or shade. Worth checking when the end of season is though because when we tried to book October half-term a few years ago the outdoor pools were going to be shut...