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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Reserving sun beds - AIBU?

64 replies

Hillingdon · 08/08/2017 16:57

We are going to a busy holiday resort this month in Europe - stuck with school holidays otherwise I would go at another time.

I am fed up with people 'reserving' sun beds often at the crack of dawn and then not using them until well after breakfast knowing that no one will dare remove their plastic bucket or towel. Or going for lunch and a sleep and then coming back hours later

I have complained to hotels before and they do little about it apart from stating they put up signs but cannot stop people from doing it.

Any tips on stopping this sort of behaviour. Its all nationalities btw. We are all as bad as each other!

OP posts:
Mrscropley · 08/08/2017 16:58

Replace the towels with your arse and practice resting bitch face. .

WineAndTiramisu · 08/08/2017 16:59

Get up earlier and do the same? Grin

I'd just remove lots of them, then it'll look like the hotel has done it, but then again I hate confrontation!

x2boys · 08/08/2017 17:00

Throw their towels in the pool?smSeriously this used happen when I went on holiday with my parents in the 80,s very annoying.

StillStayingClassySanDiego · 08/08/2017 17:01

Are you hard faced?

Take the towels to reception and tell the staff that the beds in question are unattended then go back to the beds [that you've left your dh/dp/ sister guarding] and wait for the fireworks Grin..

Other than that, get up early and play them at the same game.

hellsbellsmelons · 08/08/2017 17:01

It's the resorts that need to sort this out.
I was in one a couple of years ago and it clearly stated if you left your bed for more than 1 hour towels would be removed.
And they were.
It even happened to us and were gone 1.5 hours as we took longer than we thought for lunch.
Too right as well!
Unfortunately there is not much YOU can do other than keep complaining.

InvisibleKittenAttack · 08/08/2017 17:01

Complain about the lack of sunloungers - if hotels have enough for everyone to have a sunlounger, then this wouldn't matter. If there's odd ones here and there that aren't together, get a member of staff to move them for you so they are together.

(I have just come back from a holiday in a hotel that's exclusive to TUI/Thompsons, there was more that enough sunloungers so it didn't matter when people reseved them, only thing was that you might not get your 'prefered' side of the pool).

Gromance02 · 08/08/2017 17:01

I don't think there is anything you can do but I agree it is very annoying. I wish hotels would clamp down on it but am yet to find anywhere that does.

Bejazzled · 08/08/2017 17:02

Knobheads reserve beds before breakfast and saunter down later. Complain to the hotel. If that doesn't work remove the stuff into a big pile on the end and blame the hotel.

Sunnydaysrock · 08/08/2017 17:02

You cld spend your holiday moaning and stressing about it...or just do the same! Life's too short to start a campaign on your holiday. It's not fair, but you're not going to change it in the short time you're there.

Whiterabbitears · 08/08/2017 17:03

I think I would very neatly fold them up and leave them by the side. I think unless you are actually sitting or lying on the sunbed it should be a free for all, a towel is not sufficient. No arse no bed!

catmumof1 · 08/08/2017 17:03

No advise as such but we went to the beach after not getting any beds at 8.30 on the first day of our holiday!
It was only €6.50 which is pretty reasonable for a bed not surrounded by other peoples children and they all had straw parasols and a little safe which was great for wallets and phones when we wanted to go in the sea!
This was in Alcudia Majorca but I think its similar everywhere but its the first time I've struggled to get a bed at any hotel I've stayed in.

Original poster
Hillingdon · 08/08/2017 17:05

I think some people do end up playing the same game. I have a very early rising DH. He would be able to get down before anyone else.

I think what I will do is complain to the hotel. The sunbeds belong to them and consequently some manky towel or dog eared book can just get removed.

Or better still, have the signs up and blooming well remove the offending items. Of course there will be the usual parents stating that they MUST be near the pool to allow themselves to keep an eye on snowflake which I understand but surely you can be with them in the pool or sitting at the side. You don't have to be RIGHT there sitting on a sunbed.

OP posts:
Theimpossiblegirl · 08/08/2017 17:06

I wouldn't reserve and then go out for hours, but if I go to get a drink or bite to eat I'd be pretty put out if someone moved my stuff. Hotels should have enough loungers.

JennyOnAPlate · 08/08/2017 17:08

It's really incredibly irritating!

The problem with removing towels is that you never know whether the person has left the towel and buggered off out, or if they're just in the pool and will be back in ten minutes. I'd have no problem moving their towel in the first scenario, but the second is different.

Some families on our last holiday in Majorca were actually having breakfast in shifts so that one of them could stay in the subbed queue. Utter madness.

NotSuchASmugMarriedNow1 · 08/08/2017 17:08

Just fold them and place them somewhere else and then sit down. Don't through them in the pool.

JennyOnAPlate · 08/08/2017 17:09

*sun bed not subbed

InvisibleKittenAttack · 08/08/2017 17:10

Also, are people really reserving sunloungers at "crack of dawn" or are they just going to breakfast earlier than you and dumping their towels/pool crap on a sunlounger rather than taking it with them into breakfast or have to go back up and down to the room?

Just PIL always complain about this sort of thing, but when I went on a holiday with them to Spain, we discovered it took until after 11am each day to get them organised enough to get to the pool/go out for the day. In a hotel holiday, they'd get up around 9am, get properly dressed (rather than t-shirt and shorts thrown over swimmers), go for breakfast, be back up in the room at 10:30am (because you can't rush breakfast), then get completely changed again for the pool, put on suncream, faff about wha they wanted to take back downstairs again, and we'd have had several hours playing with the DCs in the pool before they were ready to start the day.

obviously different people want different things from holidays, but if you arent going to want to get up at 'normal' work type times (and why should you if your DCs will sleep later/you don't suffer from the mid-day heat), then you do need to make sure you only book the sort of resort that has enough loungers.

tiggytape · 08/08/2017 17:10

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Whitecurrants · 08/08/2017 17:11

If the resort allows this to happen, just get up earlier

Original poster
Hillingdon · 08/08/2017 17:15

You see lots on this thread are saying just get up earlier.

What about before you go to bed, earlier than that?

What about reserving for the whole week? I like the idea of removing the lounger rather than the towel. Very funny. Wouldn't throw towels in the pool. Its nice on a thread to suggest that but I have never stayed in a hotel where towel are randomly floating in a pool!

OP posts:
Bluntness100 · 08/08/2017 17:18

I have been at one hotel which removed them, it was good entertainment, people would come back from breakfast , a long swim, a drink or lunch and find their stuff all in the beach towel hut. It caused the staff a total headache as people kicked off and searched for their stuff underneath an avalanche of other folks stuff, I've not seen it done otherwise.

I did see some folks try to move other people's towels in the Caribbean last month and that was also good entertainment because without fail they always removed someone's towel who was just coming back and ended up in a massive confrontation situation, and every single towel mover gave in and slunk off.

The best I saw was one couple move a families stuff and the family came back and just sat there round them. On the ground, right next to their original beds on their dumped towels. Whilst saying things like " no that's fine, you have them" .Was very very awkward. Eventually the newbies moved.

Personally I don't like it, but I wouldn't move someone's towel for the simple fact I wouldn't want the confrontation associated with it. I also can see why hotels don't like doing it because it just opens up a load of grief for the staff, particularly when you get folks then saying some valuables have gone missing in the moving of the stuff and rhe hotel becomes liable. It really is a can of worms.

user1492287253 · 08/08/2017 17:19

Last time we went to Portugal we tutted for 2 days then just joined in!

InvisibleKittenAttack · 08/08/2017 17:20

Nope, because the hotel staff have usually cleaned the pool area overnight/the real crack of dawn, and taken any left towels/books/pool crap to be cleaned/lost property.

too late now, but if you know you aren't the sort to be 'pool ready' until late morning and don't want to drop off your towel and stuff at the pool on way to breakfast, then you do need to only book hotels that have enough loungers.

Or go for 'swim up rooms' - this solves the problem as everyone with a swim up room has their own bit of the pool side and a couple of sun loungers that belong to their room. If you are the sort to get anoyed that arriving at the pool at 11am there's no loungers left, then it's worth it for your blood pressure!

Aeroflotgirl · 08/08/2017 17:21

If the hotel has stated that this is not allowed and there are signs up, I would take their stuff put it on the floor and take the sunbed.

2014newme · 08/08/2017 17:22

Go to a better hotel with more loungers.
Or do take their stuff to the concierge or lost property. Is there a beach concierge? They'll usually move stuff off loungers

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