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AIBU?

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Original poster

to think that holidaymakers leaving towels on sunbeds and disappearing for the morning/afternoon are selfish!

79 replies

timeforamoan · 21/08/2011 13:44

I cannot understand why people on holiday have the urge to put their beach towels on sunbeds and then disappear for the rest of the day, why do people do this, I have seen people as early as 6.00am rushing to put their towels on sunbeds in prime positions. I think hotels should stop this selfish act by thier guests and remove towels on unused sunbeds. Or put notices up that this is not allowed.

OP posts:
worraliberty · 21/08/2011 13:45

Almost every hotel I've been to has signs up telling people their towels will be removed if they do this.

sunbear · 21/08/2011 13:46

can't you just remove them? i've never understood why people can't :S

LIZS · 21/08/2011 13:46

lol Just spent a week at a hotel where the German/Dutch guests did this in spite of signs.

MightyQuim · 21/08/2011 13:49

I heard of someone - not sure if in rl or on here who chucks the towel in the pool and moves the sunbed somewhere else so they don't know it's her Grin

DevotionAndDesire · 21/08/2011 13:49

If I see this I am always happy to go and use the sunbeds, I just fold up the towel and put it at the side of the sunbed.
If the people come back I just explain that the sunbed was not in use when I arrived X hours before, and hand them their towel.
People have no right to 'claim' sunbeds in this way.

pippitysqueakity · 21/08/2011 13:54

God I miss holidays.
FWIW I would just move towels after 45 mins-hour.
If they complain, point them towards signs, and/or hotel staff.

lachesis · 21/08/2011 13:56

I do what Devon does. I tell them if they have a problem, go to the hotel management.

I'd also let the hotel management know people are doing this and the hotel is doing nothing to stop it, and that I'll be noting that on all the online trip reviews I do.

MrsSchadenfreude · 21/08/2011 13:58

My Auntie Madge used to get up early - just after the Germans (it always used to be the Germans that did this), and throw the towels in the pool while they were having breakfast. Grin

mamas12 · 21/08/2011 14:02

Give them to the hotel as lost propety and carry on with your sunbathing

eurochick · 21/08/2011 14:11

I have just come back from a holiday staying at a hotel where people did this. There were plenty of sunbeds but the best ones were reserved all day and hardly used. Even more annoying were the people who let their kids play in the main pool. There were two large family pools and one deeper pool that was supposed to be child free. It never was.

DontGoCurly · 21/08/2011 14:13

I've heard of a case where a family were bringing in the actual sunbeds at night and emerging again with them in the morning. Shock

TidyDancer · 21/08/2011 14:29

This happened to us a lot in Greece. And it was always German tourists doing it. Always.

DP got very annoyed with me because I am part-German and was refusing to join in with the dick-ish behaviour. Grin

We were inevitably one of the first families about because DS was an early riser.We would pile the towels up away from the sunbeds and choose which ones we wanted.

kat2504 · 21/08/2011 15:15

I have just returned from holiday in Turkey. There were no Germans in the hotel, just English people. Nevertheless, when I woke up in the morning and looked out of the window, many if not most sunbeds had been reserved with towels. Sometimes people have a bit of a cheek always blaming Germans, it seems that Brits can be just as bad. Fortunately, we weren't the types to just stick around the hotel all day long, and unlike the family with four matching England towels who always had the prime loungers reserved by breakfast time, we actually saw some of the local area.

thebeansmum · 21/08/2011 15:26

Brits ARE just as bad! The reason Germans used to have this reputation is 'cos most of them got up and down to the pool before midday, hence sunbed availability. However, leaving towels on beds unused for hours, whatever nationality the owner, should be chucked in the pool and reclaimed.

PacificDogwood · 21/08/2011 15:32

I am German and had never heard of this until I moved to the UK.
Disclaimer: I grew up going on camping holidays so was totally hotel-naive Grin.

However, during the first holiday my then BF/now DH went on (some cheap last-minute deal), a group of Brits and their German combatants had to spend a night in a Kenian prison for fighting over this very issue GrinShock!

BTW, I am a late riser and have never been guilty of this crime

Deesus · 21/08/2011 15:39

It is annoying (and 'fraid to say, yes, usually the germans)!!!

We heard a german family getting up at 5 every day to reserve the loungers and even saw some people putting towels down the evening before! Shock If everyone just used the loungers when they needed them there would never be any shortage.

PortBlacksandIsLovelyInAutumn · 21/08/2011 15:43

I feel as if i have woken up i a 1970s sitcom Grin

Is there a short Italian with a moustache who keeps calling you a "Preeeety Laaaaydee" and a bumbling Japanese tourist with 4 cameras round his neck....?

fifitrixibellesmith · 21/08/2011 15:51

either

a) take the towels off and dump them on the side
b) get a villa with a private pool

i tend to opt for b)

InTheNightKitchen · 21/08/2011 15:51

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

fifitrixibellesmith · 21/08/2011 15:53

lol, is it your human right to reserve a sun bed now

(wouldnt be at all surprised)

Groovee · 21/08/2011 15:56

One of the holidays we were on the reps removed all the towels if you'd not been seen by your bed since you put the towels on.

WannaBeMarryPoppins · 21/08/2011 15:56

I am german and I am hanging my head in shame for my fellow citizens!

I have never been to a fancy place where people reserve sunbeds, i usually go camping or to the beach.
I think if you plan on being at the pool all day and only leave for lunch or whatever shortly in between-fair enough. If they actually get up early to reserve the subeds-get rid of the towel.
Maybe you could use it and say you thought they were a service from the hotel-why else would they be lying on empty sunbeds for hours?

CBear6 · 21/08/2011 16:03

One hotel/apartment we stayed in had a notice up saying that sunbeds reserved with towels would have the towels removed and thrown in the pool - staff followed through on the threat too :o

Another place we went had numbers painted on the sunbeds that matched room numbers, every room had two sunbeds that were "theirs" and then x-amount of "free-for-all" sunbeds. It was a good system and stopped people reserving beds.

Chuck them in the pool I say!

RockStockAndTwoOpenBottles · 21/08/2011 16:03

I live in Spain and 9 times out of 10 it is the English (yes English, not British) who will put towels on the beds at our complex either very early or the night before.

What amuses me enormously is the towels on the lower (bigger) pool always get drenched at around 7.30am when the sprinklers go on for the grass. At the top pool the gardeners/handymen remove them all at around half 8, when they come to arrange the sunbeds from the day before, taking them to a locked storage room for safe keeping. So safe that said sunbed nabbers have no idea what to do. Sometime I'll tell them. Sometimes I won't.

Later on in the day I will move a towel(s) if I want a bed and there are none free, if said beds have not been occupied for half an hour or more.

occasionally I throw them all in the pool for a little light entertainment

catgirl1976 · 21/08/2011 16:03

A villa with a private pool is the best way to avoid this issue. But other than that, just remove the towels. I haven't been to the sort of place where people would do this, or where people take their own towels, but if I did, I would have no qualms about removing the towel.