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?

If challenged about anything and to diffuse a lot of situations, I find it helpful to pretend being anything other than Brit.
(a few words of amateur German, Spanish, French is all it takes, and a shoulder shrug / quizzical look is enough for most people to give up).

(Except it backfired when I mentioned to lady from East Mids Airport who was smoking next to me indoors inside in a restaurant in Spain….I said something like “no se permitte esto aqui en el restaurante….”….but we then had to spend an agonising next hour sitting eating our lunch in silence not speaking English, as she loudly announced to everyone who would listen that “that woman has told me off” 😂

I’ve never been on a holiday where people were leaving towels etc on sun beds, we tend to holiday in villas where there’s enough beds. Hotels we go to now the concierge sorts the towels for you going down. Some of the videos I’ve seen of people literally running to secure sun beds in hotels would be my idea of hell.

I’ve had this a couple of times at hotels, a towel is placed on loungers and no one is around for a few hours, sometimes even a whole day. Luckily in my cases I’ve got a sun-bed anyway but I’d be seriously hacked off if I couldn’t get one, wanted to use it and a towel was reserving one and no one was using it. There should be a proper system in place for using sun-beds.

It really annoys me when hotels claim to have a policy but do nothing to enforce it. It's part of customer service surely.

I'd have no issue removing things but I'd be very self conscious about it and worried I'd be challenged. I'd probably just lie and say it was empty when I arrived which is a bit cowardly but that's the way it is. If everyone used them when they need them the issue wouldn't arise in the first place. Plus many of the hoggers don't even get up early they put them there the night before.

I also think a policy or area for people with smaller children should be in place. Kids need heavy supervision in a pool and a parent who can't get a seat nearby is unable to sit at all, whereas sometimes the optimum pool side seats are occupied by people who are either absent or not intending to swim. I think there should be a section for parents only, overlooking the pool where they can watch kids but leave as soon as the kids leave the pool and dry off and make room for the next group.

“Recovering chav” made me laugh. My inner chav always makes an appearance at these moments too!

This is the hotels fault for not having enough sunloungers

Honestly, I would not even consider holidaying somewhere you had to reserve or rush to get a sun lounger. Absolute madness. My idea of hell.

There was a reservation system in a camp site I was in Italy a few years ago. It can't be that expensive or difficult to organise and enforce. You paid at a machine like car parking and displayed a ticket. If staff saw an expired ticket with items on it they removed them and kept them neatly nearby. Not once did I see this happen because the system ensured there were always enough beds and once people grasped it they were ok with it. The hourly charge was small enough, but you could also book a half day or full day. The full day charge was hefty enough as a disincentive. Everyone was happy

Someone tried to take my umbrella once, whilst I was sitting on my sunbed reading with it open keeping me in the shade.
Her view was she wanted it for her child as I was an adult and didn't need it.
She soon skulked off when I told her where to go.

I know this isn’t the point - but I just don’t get who wants to be the front next to the pool?! Why are these the premium?! They’re loud and splashy!

admittedly we don’t tend to do AI often, but when we have I’ve been amazed that we can grab the beautiful quiet ones 30 seconds from the pool, that are more private/quiet/relaxed at 9am!

more on topic, DH is more likely just to move towels however I’m a wimp made worse by the fact that when we were in Egypt a few years ago, asleep on our sunbeds we’d been in since after breakfast, and two women woke us up ‘YOU HAVE TAKEN OUR SUNBEDS’ we said we hadn’t, and they were about to argue, when one went ‘oh no there we are!’ And trotted off without an apology. 🤯

I’ve seen kids monopolise a sun bed (by placing towels and/or belongings on them) but spend most of the day in the pool. And hardly any time sitting or lying on the sun bed. That’s ridiculous. Parents don’t care.

When I was a child we went on holiday where a family buried their towels in plastic bags in a shaded area on the beach and included their flight times- implying it was their saved area until then!!!

Should be able to use apps and have to scan in these days, and if you leave the pool area, as you would have to scan out, the beds you were on go back to free. Some places actually do have sunbed booking now. The downside is if you've not been to that hotel before, you might not know which area you want.

Best place we went to used to stack all the sun beds overnight, then they wouldn't un stack them until the man came and sorted out the pool and cleaned the area around the pool. Then he'd start, if anyone tried to take one he'd tell them off in Spanish and put it back. He used to start working on the pool later and later as the week went on. It was hilarious to watch. Our room had a private patio right by the pool, so we'd sit on our sun beds and watch.
If I notice towel on beds for hours unused or if no one is swimming and there are towels on beds I pile them up and use the beds, usually no one turns up in the hour or two I use them. I'd tell people the staff moved them if they asked.

It’s never occurred to me to reserve a lounger, if there isn’t one free I go off and do something else, if there is one I use it for a bit then remove my stuff and go. People can be so selfish.

The hotel we’re going to soon has higher priced rooms that include a reserved sun lounger within what you pay. Apparently a little notice is placed on the back of the lounger notifying others it’s reserved. It seems that’s removed at 1pm if there’s no one sitting on it. From what I read on reviews, even this causes problems as the little notices aren’t obvious and those who don’t read reviews or join the FB group, they’re probably unaware of this.
This is one of the reasons we’ve booked a swim up room which has its own two loungers.

What is the massed mind's opinion of snaging a sunbed by the sea at early o'clock, and then not using it until (purely hypothetically, you understand) until after breakfast and maybe a nap?

Towels on sunbeds is like an extreme version of reserving tables in cafes in that it increases the 'time used' factor beyond capacity and is therefore a self fulfilling prophecy.

IMHO you should only have a towel on a sunbed if you're actually laying on it, you're in the pool or you leave very quickly ie to go to the toilet or to pick something up from your room. If you're going for a meal, back for a nap or out and about you move your stuff and someone else can use the sunbed.

I reality we spend the mornings reading on our own balcony, having breakfast or going out and about and tend to go to the beach in the afternoon so would only use a pool and loungers in the later afternoon when many of the 'spend the day by the pool' people have moved on.

I was just thinking how stressful it all sounds. Lots of excellent reasons not to go on holidays involving sun loungers.

most loungers by the sea are charged for, at a rate of roughly 15 Euros per two beds plus parasol. If Ive paid to hire loungers, I can come and go as I please!

The hotel I’m at now is a bit of a nightmare for sun loungers and we’ve had to resort to getting to the pool by 8 to get a spot. Unlike many of the others we go after breakfast and are in the pool as soon as the lifeguards start at 8.30am. It’s not exactly the relaxed start to the day I had envisioned but I guess if you can’t beat them join them.

Sorry but what are you talking about? If you don't want to be on your sun bed at 7am then don't.

If you're not using it someone else can use it.

You don't get to put a towel on at 7am and expect it still to be there at 10am. It means nothing.

Yes of course you can go for lunch. But you can’t keep your Sun lounger when you do. You’re not there, why would you need a lounger??

Not my kinda holiday. Been 30 yrs ago and vowed never again. Not my kinda vibe.

says a lot about the place when this happens

You can't expect to keep a public sunbed you're not using whilst you swan off for an hour to eat in the cafe/ restaurant 😅 Don't be ridiculous.