Are you a towel remover off sunlongers on holiday and how ?

[HaveANiceFuckingDay]

I have had this problem with probably 95% hotels ive stayed in.
Ive stayed in 5 4 3 before . Last holiday in August in turkey was a 5 and everyday I got up early , had breakfast , THEN went to find a sunlounger and all of the sunloungers had towels and only a few in the pool. All of the hoggers were towels around the perimeter of the pool .
I complained and it fell on deaf ears, always does it even has signs around the pool saying if the beds are not taken within 1/2 hour, towels will be removed .
This never happened so Im relegated to the back .
I noticed one family had towels on 8 of the beds , same spot, inflatables on the beds and chairs ?? even . They disappeared until after lunch to use the beds they'd saved. This was a 5*
Im sick of it and shouldn't be allowed.

I go away around 3 times a year and this happens 95% of the time .
I dont want to join in with the selfishness and one if my friends says she removes the towels and leaves in a pile if they have been gone for more than 2 hours .
But how ? Do you just remove the towels of the beds you want or all of the towels? Im guessing if I.just removed one towel to claim the bed they'd know it was me if the others still are empty but with towels on still .
Im going away in 3 weeks and again 2 weeks after that and this shouldn't be something that constantly puts a dampener on my holiday.
Are you a towel remover , how do you do it without looking like an arsehole or getting into a row with people or do you just own it?

I take the towels off and move the beds elsewhere

I just take their towels off and use the lounger. When they arrive I just pretend their towel wasn’t on the lounger when I got there and someone else must have removed it. Look clueless and carry on.

We tend to book villas now as other people are annoying.

We have only once stayed in a hotel with a shared pool, about five years ago. I just took the towels off the sun beds I wanted, put the towels on the one I didn't want or on the floor if that was the case, and drag the beds to somewhere I want to sit. Book out, lovely.

There was one huge escalation with my DP and a bloke, DP is less stealthy and will just chuck the towel off and plonk himself down. DP just kept shaking his head and saying no thankyou, while the Bed Reserver nearly had a stroke shouting at him to move, and at one point I thought there may have been about to throw a punch, but DP remained unruffled. Bed Reserver gave up in the end and went elsewhere.

This is why I don't stay in hotels.

Other people are the bane of a holiday, completely agree!

I'd be moving your stuff

I know this is going to sound elitist and a bit up my ass, but there is no way I would go on holiday to sit around a pool or hunt for a sunbed. Sorry it's just not my scene. In fact the real reason probably is that I am far too shy to even go down to the pool area and be in sight of all those people (who probably don't give a hoot who or what I am!) and all that goes with it. I know it's inevitable with kids, but I don't have any!

So I get a hotel room/apartment with a big balcony and enjoy the peace and tranquility all on my own. I don't like swimming pools either as people pee in them and kids splash in them, and there are far too many show offs and inflatable toys.

Yes I am that Victoria Meldrew ha ha. But I reckon I am not the only one!

I do this too. Often people don’t come for 2-3 hours! So rude!

@Femalefootyfan1
We stayed at a Caribbean resort next door to the posh (much more expensive) one. I was a bit envious (their pool was bigger, beach was wider etc,) then I met a honeymooning couple from there. They had splashed out for what they thought was luxury, but ended up feeling like the poor relations because they didn't have a butler, and the butlers bagged all the best sunbeds, best restaurant tables and so on for their clients. I wouldn't have wanted to spend a fortune only to feel like a second class citizen.

It can be the same on cruise ships. Doesn’t bother me though because I don’t want to be around the pool with entertainment blasting out etc. I can always find a quiet out of the way spot.
People notoriously bag sunbeds in both sunny and shady spots, and alternate between them.
Some lines are cracking down though, adding tags with the time written on, then returning after 30 mins to remove towels etc.

I'd also be heading down to the pool at 9.30 and relocating your towels, with no qualms whatsoever. It's not a who can get up first competition.

This is what I have done In the past. They may not believe you but they can’t prove it and strop off.

I go to a place where the accommodation has its own sun loungers that you move in and out.

When we stayed in Gran Canaria the hotel staff put cards on the towels. If you came back within an hour you’d naturally move the card and lay down. If you’d not been back within that time, staff moved your stuff. It worked really well and we never had to race to get sun beds, despite there being 5 of us.

this has reminded me why I want a villa with a private pool next summer. Urgh, people!

Exactly - just look a bit confused and like "what? there were no towels on here when I arrived - how odd" They cant prove it so cant have a go!

Job done

But you’re ’guarding’ your bed from 7am - you are making your towel act as your proxy. No one would mind if you’re actually using it.

I suspect you might’ve stayed next to Sandals 😏
A lot of guests also had their butlers reserve a table for dinner at every restaurant bar the buffet, so they could decide at the last minute where they wanted to eat. Again, it’s a paid for privilege but when guests who haven’t paid extra £££’s can’t get a table because they’re all reserved, it’s a poor do.

We definitely felt like the poor relation and we paid for a mid level room, not the basic. Another reason why we haven’t returned to that brand of resort.

I tend to get up earlier than DP and go to the pool to read. I reserve him one. But the last 6 hotels I have been at, there was no issues with loungers.

how do you know when you come down and there are no sun loungers that they have been not used for hours, if you have just arrived.

I nipped to the loo once when I was on holiday alone to someone stealing my sun lounger as apparently I had reserved it for hours without using. This was despite a drink being in the table. I was not happy and got my lounger back.

there are enough chairs for us all. Just chill out

there are enough chairs for us all. Just chill out

There arent though - thats the whole point 🤣

It wouldnt be an issue if there were. Often I have been in and out of the pool for hours and there have been multiple sun loungers with noone on them - for hours. I will therefore move the towel

Stayed in a hotel once where some people put their towels out the night before. On the way back from dinner my then-BF (who had had a few drinks), chucked them all in the pool.

I've never done it because I'm as meek as a mouse but I'm in awe of some of the posters on here.
@GreenCaterpillarOnALeaf Desperate to know more about being a recovering chav 🤣

I don't often have a problem because I don't sit in the sun and the beds in shade are the least popular.

I have never taken a towel off. For a start , how do you know they aren't in the pool??

My mum did in Tenerife years back.

When you pursue higher education and marry a posho you have to hand in your hoop earrings and tracksuits. DH is so posh he didn’t even know finders crispy pancakes or n dubs before we met, so when we got married my chaving days were definitely over. :( Now I have to do middle class passive aggression most of the time, I’m still not very good at it though.

Never actually removed towels but at the last hotel we stayed at there was a small rooftop pool with only 20 sun loungers. It's the sort of place where people go sight seeing rather than fly and flop. As we'd booked 10 days, we did a mixture of culture and relaxing by the pool. One day we went to the pool after breakfast to find the front 4 loungers had towels on. There were people in the pool so we thought they were their towels. We got 2 loungers and the others quickly filled up. Turns out that the 4 front 'reserved' loungers were not occupied by anyone already at the pool. The 1st of the CFers arrived at 11am by which time lots of people had come, discovered there were no loungers and left. DH was annoyed on behalf of those folk so he gave the CF a piece of his mind. She mumbled some excuse about flying home later that day so needed a base (she didn't have a suitcase or bag so assuming they had a room to leave their stuff in at least). Whilst she was being lectured by DH she was busy messaging her mates to tell them to get to the pool and occupy the loungers immediately. They stayed for 1 1/2 hours before deciding to go for lunch (so they spent less time on the loungers than their towels did!). Thankfully they removed the towels as they left - although I'm pretty sure if DH hadn't spoken to them they'd have continued to reserve their loungers for the rest of the afternoon! Their flight wasn't until 9pm and we were only 20 mins from the airport.
Some people are just selfish.

Just find a lounger when you get back from lunch then?

Just move the towels and when they come back say the staff did it