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Original poster

sun lounger bagging etiquette

115 replies

hwjm1945 · 04/09/2013 08:34

Ok,I know this is trivial but......on hols,about 120 sunloungers,maybe 70 of which offer umbrella shade,.every morning as soon as pool opens parade of people with towels,books, bagging the prime loungers and then going off for breakfast etc,and not reappearing for in some cases 2 or 3 hours.
In one memorable case,a family group did not have Enough towels to bag the number of loungers required so used a pile of cut leaves!I do not think this is decent behaviour,I think if you are using area for lounging,pool etc save for popping t o loo Tec or to get drink then bag a spot.if not using it for hour or so you should remove your stuff to free up for others.what do people think?

OP posts:
AllSWornOut · 04/09/2013 08:55

I would move their stuff, but then I'm arsey and frequently embarrass DH by doing this sort of thing but as DH is German it's likely we'd be one if the first 70 anyway Grin

NotSuchASmugMarriedNow · 04/09/2013 09:01

Yeah I move towels too. Nicely, though - not in a horrible chuck em in the pool way!

Sirzy · 04/09/2013 09:02

Check the hotel rules, many dont allow this.

I would move the towels, or if I was feeling really mean chuck them into the pool!

hermioneweasley · 04/09/2013 09:03

I move them too, also to DP's mortification. It really annoys me - if nobody reserved (except for popping for a quick snack, loo etc) then there woukd be enough at every resort i've been to.

Toughtimes30 · 04/09/2013 09:04

Most places have a no bagging rule don't they? We had the same thing last year one member of a large family would come and nab ten sun loungers while the rest slept off their hangovers!

Lovecat · 04/09/2013 09:07

One of my pet hates.

This year's holiday was marvellous because we had a swim up room with our own loungers on the terrace, so no need for that nonsense.

Unfortunately DD made friends with a little girl on the other side of the hotel so for a couple of days we had to schlep over there and sit on the loungers from 7am-8am (apparently the pool attendants would remove towels if unattended in this time but we never saw anyone do this) to make sure we had somewhere to sit down while they played together. By 7.10am not a single lounger was untowelled and we, being there from 8.30 after breakfast, were sadly unsurprised to see that some of them remained empty til about 1pm. So selfish.

PasswordProtected · 04/09/2013 09:10

I must confess that once (and only once) on holiday with German hysband and step-son I did go out at 06:30 in the morning to bag 3 loungers together using beach towels and books. Mostly because it was difficult to get a threesome.
Luckily the very nice pool staff adopted us and, for the rest of the holiday, always ensured there were 3 loungers together :-)
I felt very ashamed, though, not helped by the boys finding it hilariously funny.

CooEeeEldridge · 04/09/2013 09:14

At the hotel we went to this year, you picked an available sun lounger, a little tag went on and it was yours for the stay! Took all the hassle out of things, more should do this in my opinion!

LuisSuarezTeeth · 04/09/2013 09:19

It's the ones that put them out the night before that gives me the rage. Move the towels!

everlong · 04/09/2013 09:45

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

specialsubject · 04/09/2013 09:48

go to the beach. Usually much more pleasant anyway. Or perhaps set foot out of the hotel every so often?

sunloungers are reserved by placing buttocks on them. Nothing else counts. The idea of 'reserving for the stay' is equally ridiculous.

Original poster
hwjm1945 · 04/09/2013 09:51

Really glad to see my view is not unreasonable,

OP posts:
fatdaddy72 · 05/09/2013 12:57

I work on the following principle.
If they were left overnight on the loungers - into the pool.
If someone got up early - fair play as they probably had hangovers and had to get up early...

If I get up early and bag some, I expect to be using them within 2 hours other wise I won't bag them.

People who get up early and bag them then go on an excursion for the entire morning need beating by the shifty local police.

The rare breed of people who bag both beach and pool... well I will spend my entire holiday alternating between throwing your towels in the sea/pool depending on your location.

ILetHimKeep20Quid · 05/09/2013 13:00

I think on the way to breakfast and using it within an hour is fine

VenusRising · 05/09/2013 13:04

I remove the towels and laugh at the outraged Germans histrionics.

In Rome by the hotel pool, one woman got her boyfriend to berate me as his English was better than her's but looked so shamefaced I think he was secretly counting the days till he could dump her. She was incensed: magnificent really, practically stamping, but I just cracked up, she reminded me of an overgrown toddler.

GhostsInSnow · 05/09/2013 13:09

Tipping the towel boy is usually a winner. We went with the inlaws last year, including teen kids there were 9 of us in our group. It was a reasonably quiet week in the hotel anyway, but you had towel cards which you then exchanged with the towel boy for your pool towel.
We'd go down after breakfast to find 9 sun beds altogether with towels already on and umbrellas over them and he'd just take our cards then.
He was fab!

HandMini · 05/09/2013 13:12

it was difficult to get a threesome. I have this problem on holiday. Wink. Sorry Password I'm being immature about your post!

cantspel · 05/09/2013 13:14

My husband is a early riser. Even on holiday he will be up by 6 oclock and will take his book down to the pool, sort out the sunloungers and read his book until i appear at a more reasonable hour. We will then go to breakfast and could be gone for a hour or so. It would piss me off if someone then came along at 9.30 and nicked our loungers just because we were not on them at that particular moment.

Abra1d · 05/09/2013 13:19

Our holiday company had a rule about only being able to 'save' a sunlounger for 20 minutes, which I thought was reasonable. I had no compunction at all about carefully removing towels and folding them up so I could use a sunlounger if one had been left 'reserved' for some time.

LtEveDallas · 05/09/2013 13:21

I am always up early, generally between 0530-0600. Sadly holidays are no different. It means that it is years since I've had to play sun lounger bagsies Grin I actually enjoy watching the people that stumble out of their rooms at 0600, bleary eyed and quite often in their underwear/pyjamas just to put towels on sun beds.

It also means that I get to know the pool staff/cleaners etc, and can go off for breakfast with DD and DH at about 0800 without worrying that we'll then lose our beds.

This year was amusing. Where we stayed had the exact number of sun beds outside the rooms (rooms were situated around pools) and still there were towels left on beds overnight. Ridiculous really Smile

Arabesque · 05/09/2013 13:23

But they're not 'your' loungers cantspel. If people just used them as and when they needed to, there would be enough rotation for everyone to find an available one for the hour or two, here and there, where they want to lounge by the pool.

cantspel · 05/09/2013 13:27

But they have been in use and will be again once we have finished eating. Would you take the longer from someone who has popped to the loo or are you expected to glue yourself to it for the duration.

Arabesque · 05/09/2013 13:35

No, not from someone who has popped to the loo. But if people who are going for a meal, to do some shopping, to have a stroll and cool off or whatever didn't hang on to the loungers you would probably find that there would be enough coming and going to enable everyone to find loungers when they need them. It's people assuming that once they have plonked themselves (or their property) on a lounger that it's 'theirs' for the day that are the problem. I mean, you wouldn't have a cup of coffee in a restaurant and then leave your coat there so you could come back in an hour for your lunch. Why do this with sun loungers. It's just creating the problem that you're now trying to resolve.

GhostsInSnow · 05/09/2013 13:38

DS and his GF flew out on their hols this morning, just been reading reviews of their hotel and most of them cite the fact that there are not enough sun loungers for everyone and you need to be up at 6am waiting for them to be unchained Hmm

As neither DS or his GF are likely to see anything before 10am I suspect they will be sat on the floor all week.

farewellfigure · 05/09/2013 13:42

On holiday this year we tried to get to the beach for 9am (struggle) but mostly managed it by about 10. By this point the prime spots right by the water were gone. We managed to get earlier and earlier, then towards the end of the holiday we realised people were getting up early, setting up their stuff on the beach (beach, chairs, umbrella, towels whatever), then going back to their hotels for breakfast and not showing up until gone 11am. Now that REALLY gave me the rage. In the end we just shuffled ourselves into the smallest spots between two sets of abandoned beach equipment. Sometimes the people didn't even come back by the time we left for lunch!

Booking sun loungers with towels is evil and there should be a world-wide, NO, UNIVERSE-wide law against it.