Towels on sunloungers- scourge of the holiday

[Kiddiewinks2008]

I'm on holiday in france and theres a lovely pool with lots of sunloungers but always very busy.
Theres this one british family that go up there in the morning, take posession of 3 loungers and leave their towels there all day. We went up the other day & had to sit on the floor as there were none available but said family had gone off for lunch & came back 1 hour later leaving towels on loungers. I have been watching them and they do it every day. The day we had to sit on the floor, I moved one of their towels & took posession of one of their 3 loungers and when they came back the man complained as now they only had 2!
Aibu to think that this is just not reasonable behaviour?
(I am being slightly tongue in cheek with my post but I do think they are selfish twats!)

My friend told me about an incident in Sharm a few years ago. I think it involved Russians and Glaswegians and it didn't end well. Someone was punched in the face and there was a standing ovation

Leaving towels for lunch = fine

Bagging loungers at dawn and then disappearing all day = heinous

Imo the French, not the Germans are easily the worst offenders

Also stayed at a hotel in Egypt where people tipped the sunbed guys to bag loungers for them at dawn and then turned up about 4pm. It was infuriating.

I used to tell my clients to remove the towels give them to me and I'd hand them in at reception.
I had a rule of no reservation and no going for lunch and reserving.

It's a bloody cheek to stop somebody else from using them.
Some people may want to use them in the afternoon, so if you go to lunch you have to wait your turn the same as anyone else just coming into the area.

I wonder if some of us are just too polite or is the British inhibitions? The ones being ignorant or rude are the absent bed doggers and they shouldn't be allowed to get away with it.

I'm a bit worried about this, we're going away end of October and the reviews on TripAdvisor almost always mention people hogging the sunbeds. There are signs up telling people that sunbeds can't be reserved but apparently people do it anyway. In all other respects it gets fantastic reviews (and is one of the few places that has 2 bedroomed apartments, which we really wanted) but this is off-putting for sure.

I'd love to have the nerve to just neatly fold the towels and place them aside, but am so nervous of causing a row. WIBU to do that?! Or should we just contact pool staff and ask them to move them?

If I was you I'd ask the staff first but if that didn't work I'd take a brave pill and do it myself.

I'd ask the staff.

In my experience, 'reserving' isn't limited to any one nationality. The Germans seemed the worst year before last, but in 2015 we stayed in an all-British hotel (not intentionally, it just worked out that way) and that was just as bad as 2014. We always got a lounger so it wasn't a problem, it was just that some guests would be out at 7am to reserve the ones with the most sun.

This has happened at nearly every place I've been on holiday (5star included!) - I internally seeth then do nothing about it - like macnab says, I don't have the balls to cause an argument or even a minor drama!

We recently stayed in a, gasp three star hotel in Mallorca, which was very nice BTW, and there was none of this nonsense. Perhaps it was because most of the other guests were German?

Totally unacceptable and damn selfish if you're going out for the day. We're lucky that this generally doesn't affect us as we holiday in June or September when hotels aren't full and we are usually out and about or at the beach most days.

Where we go on holiday you have to pay a small fee for use of sun loungers and it totally stops this nonsense from happening. It is 2 Euros for a half day and 3 for a full day. There are plenty of tables for people who don't want to use one to put their bags, towels etc but in all the time we've been going we have never struggled to get a lounger. We only ever get one to stick our stuff on because the kids won't leave the pool and OH and I take it in turns to watch kids in pool and lie and read.

It does happen in 5 star hotels unfortunately.

I've only ever been on one holiday like this - it was so stressful! I can't sit in the sun now anyway, but this is the sort of shit i go on holiday to get away from

I'd move the towels and then move the sun lounger

that Gran Canaria one is awful - who would want to go through that on holiday?

But classic line, "I'm not French, fuck off!"

Hilarious editing.

We were in Spain I like the sun and h likes shade but a lovely spot was always reversed with towels one day fed up I folded the up the towels and put them on a chair, later the family came down and moaned and moaned about us in German ! We waited about 20 minutes then my husband responded - he's fluent in German ! Priceless!

at that you tube video. People queuing up while the staff are still cleaning and sorting stuff out.

If I were the staff, I'd leave all the beds chained up and go and find something else to do for a couple of hours.

But fair play to the staff actually, the guests put all the beds out for them. I wonder what time you have to get up to see that spectacle?

Keeping sun beds all day while you swan about and don't use them is just rude and inconsiderate. However, dumping someone's towel and possessions on the ground because they've left the sun bed for to go to the loo or have a swim is equally rude and inconsiderate. There needs to be a balance.

I can't understand wanting to go away to spend all day by the pool - especially with the kind of people being mentioned in the thread. Maybe small hotels are the way forward, with hardly any rooms but still a regular size pool? Out hotel last week had 28 rooms and q huge pool surrounded by cabana beds and no one was on them until 6pm or later. When I've stayed in larger hotels, I've seen some quite aggressive bust ups over bed umbrellas!

Ugh those videos - my idea of holiday hell.

I have seen two grown men doing a 'tug of war' slapstick style with a towel over a sun longer, both were loudly insisting it was them who had left the towel on the lounger. In the end pool staff had to intervene, they confiscated the towel and sent both men away, so neither got the lounger. I nabbed it then! It was hilarious.

I don't agree with people reserving sun loungers and disappearing all day but this year on holiday we would leave our towels out whilst we went to lunch, although the hotel we stayed it didn't have a shortage of sun loungers there was always some free.

I think its OK to leave to eat or swim but reserving for the whole day just in case you fancy it is not on. Personally I'd neatly fold the towels provided I knew they weren't eating/getting drink/swimming. Take the beds. I also hate reserving beds for every child. Most young children don't sunbathe so one bed is sufficient for 2 young children.

The latest video shows the ones I hate the most and are clearly the ones not planning to use beds - the people who lay 1 towel sideways across 2 beds.
They then take off to beach with the rest!

5* hotel in Mexico and we were up at 630 for a trip and already towels out and a few putting them out which seemed a bit crazy especially seeing there was a shortage of them either

I was looking at Majorca hotel reviews on tripadvisor last night and every hotel had reviews about this problem and shortage of Loungers.

Have decided im either paying extra for a room with a terrace and loungers or more likely an apartment/villa. Can't be doing with the stress.

Just got back off a cruise and they had a system where if you reserved a sunbed with towels and disappeared for a while, they would leave a card saying 'Your sunlounger is lonely. If you don't return within 45 minutes your possessions will be removed and can be collected from reception.'

It was enforced and seemed to work quite well. Lots of talk among the passengers about not taking too long at lunch as they didn't want to 'get a ticket!'