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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:
Original poster
Hillingdon · 08/08/2017 17:25

I can see the issue is actually the confrontation. Just as you are removing someone comes back and claims they have a phone, watch etc. I actually think looking at the replies that it is down to the hotel.

Put notices up and enforce them. No one is surely going to complain to reception that they went away for 4 hours and someone removed their towels. Having said that you can imagine people claiming them were only gone 10 mins!

I could send my DH at 5.30 (yes he gets up at that time even on holiday!) or get the hotels to do something about it.

OP posts:
Whitecurrants · 08/08/2017 17:25

I think pools are normally cleared/cleaned overnight Hillingdon, so trying to reserve a place the night before wouldn’t work. I don’t think you could get up before you went to bed either, unless it was the previous morning in which case you’d be up anyway but before the pool gets cleaned. One person making an early start to drop off pool stuff shortly before breakfast is usually all it takes.

MyheartbelongstoG · 08/08/2017 17:28

I remove them and sit down.

thenightsky · 08/08/2017 17:28

I always check the sunbed situation on tripadvisor before I even book. Any mention of sunbed issues and go elsewhere.

I do love this though...

specialsubject · 08/08/2017 17:29

the way round this for hotels is to stack the sunbeds and chain them up each night. They don't get unchained until about 10am the next day and it is up to the guests to collect them.

I wondered why this was done, back in the days when people had manners. Now I know!

Fluffyears · 08/08/2017 17:30

So if I go to the toilet you'd remove my stuff?? You need to be sure the lounger you take is actually a puss taker and not someone who's nipped up for a drink or to the loo.

Iwanttobe8stoneagain · 08/08/2017 17:31

Just back. Security round the pool til 6 all loungers gone at 6:30 (some people sat in loungers waiting for security to go). Pain in tge arse but little option to join in. Just went back to sleep. You're not going to be able to stop it it's part and parcel of that kind of holiday now

sweetbitter · 08/08/2017 17:32

I think I'd firstly complain to hotel reception, see what their policy is.

If they say people shouldn't be doing it, then identify which loungers aren't actually being used by anyone in pool area, remove towels/belongings and take them for yourself. Reception should back you up if a fuss is made.

If hotel shrug their shoulders and say that's just the way it is, I'd play the game and send one of your party down early every day to reserve your sunbeds before breakfast.

Alternatively, we tend to try to get into a non-typical routine re: timings. We get up late, have a massive breakfast, skip lunch (or just have snacks and ice cream) and eat a big dinner. This means that often by the time we head to the pool there are already people leaving for lunch, so it's much easier to find sunloungers which are then yours for the day.

PeteAndManu · 08/08/2017 17:34

Thenightsky that is a great video. I hadn't realised there were so many different ways to do it. Not only do you need a sun bed but you need to reserve the place for it as well. Teamwork at its best.

Neutrogena · 08/08/2017 17:35

Take the towel off and move the sun lounger.
If there's confrontation, say you asked the hotel and they pointed at thi lounger and said "Take that one - it's free".

TroelsLovesSquinkies · 08/08/2017 17:35

There was a hotel near us in Gran Canaria that made the UK papers over this last week.
We upgraded and went to a nice place last week where we weren't subjected to the early morning sun bed hoggers.
Loads of beds which could be used throughout the day no matter what time you roll out of bed.
I'd read the reviews on trip advisor as theres bound to be complaints about it if it's a problem where you are going.
If it is a problem, just boot Dh out in his speedos to place your towels on early then go to breakfast like the people we watched last year. We had a lovely terrace with sunbeds only 50 feet from the pool so didn't need a sunbed that time.

fruitbats · 08/08/2017 17:37

Bluntness - your post has me howling with laughter. I would have loved to see the family sit down around the beds!! Fantastic Grin

Sorry, no advice OP other than to do the same. Have a nice holiday.

Starlight2345 · 08/08/2017 17:38

I do the same nightsky

I am on holiday and don't want to get up early. As a LP I can't go out anyway till DS is up

Rhayader · 08/08/2017 17:41

I've been to a hotel a number of times that provides towels next to the pool free of charge but you are not allowed to bring your own. Any towels that are left abandoned are collected for laundering. Much better.

TheFairyCaravan · 08/08/2017 17:42

A couple of years ago DH and I went to a hotel in Fuerteventura that had a rooftop terrace with loungers on. It was sort of over the top of the restaurant. There was, also, two pools and huge gardens so getting a lounger wasn't a problem.

We came back at about midnight one night, looked out over the terrace and all the loungers were already taken with towels for the next morning. We did laugh.

Last year in Gran Canaria there was almost a fight because someone moved the towels. The behaviour was shocking.

I watched that Holiday Resort program on Channel 4 on Friday night, people were going out so early it was still dark to reserve their loungers. That program was an education in itself, tbh.

GreekGod · 08/08/2017 17:50

No tips at all I'm afraid anymore. You cannot win at this. I always have a "if you can't beat them join them" strategy now and simply give up. I'm embarrassed to say that one of us gets up early and puts towels on five sun beds as I also used to in the past, tut tut, complain to hotels etc, reps etc but it got me nowhere.

bimbobaggins · 08/08/2017 17:52

2014, unfortunately the issue still persists in better hotels. We have just returned from a 5 star hotel and exactly the same thing happened. Most of the beds were reserved by about 9.30, some people were down at 7 am reserving them. It really is a case of if you can't beat them join them.
We had a private terrace with a swim up pool with our own loungers.
A lot of the loungers were unused until mid afternoon. The hotel really should do more

Partypolitics99 · 08/08/2017 17:54

My had some cheeky fuckers try to nick my DHs and DSs sunbed while inlaws and I were led there. DH and DS were in the pool. This was a four in the afternoon and they said they had just got to the hotel on the first day and were tired and needed a bed in the shade. They did not even ask just started dragging them round the back of my sunbed and plonked themselves down. Her feet would have been next to my head.

They got told, the next day DH and I went for an early morning walk at about 7am and we saw them on the beds. They pointed at and and laughed and pointed at the beds. There smile soon dropped when I said in a loud voice how sad it was that the coach was coming to take the Airport in an hour Grin

FoxyinherRoxy · 08/08/2017 17:59

I'm guilty of this, and i hate it. But I travel with 4 DCs and we wouldn't be able to pitch up together if I didn't. In my defence I get up early anyway and read by the pool, so I am present - I'm not reserving them and leaving. And I only do it because everyone else is!

TSSDNCOP · 08/08/2017 18:00

I've just returned from a hotel that removed towels and stuff from reserved beds, folded the gear into a neat pile and left a polite note so no one was under the incorrect assumption it was a guest that had moved it.

To be fair, there were many beds but not enough at the pool and there were beds available all day at the beach.

I think the hotel must have a clear policy: not on a reserved bed by 9.30, you're bounced. Also, the hotel must up the number of available beds as I don't think they include kids in their figuring.

RuskBaby · 08/08/2017 18:04

It's hell. We have been to a hotel in Cyprus where you have a reserved bed for your stay. This year we are going to a villa. In the Dominican a few years ago, we were next to 2 towels that had been put out before we got to the pool, they stayed alone until around 4pm when the owner came and took them to the other pool.

mineofuselessinformation · 08/08/2017 18:05

I've just come back from a holiday where it was made clear that sun beds couldn't be reserved. They used a ticket system with the time on - if the ticket was still there an hour later, the things were removed. It made good entertainment on the day when some people decided to kick up a stink when they came back! Smile

StealthPolarBear · 08/08/2017 18:06

This sounds like a lot of stress for a holiday. Take my advice, you don't get this in a Premier inn :o

thenightsky · 08/08/2017 18:12

i've seen people put towels and books on beds then bugger off on the bus into town Shock

Jaimx86 · 08/08/2017 18:16

I've just stayed in two hotels where no one really used the pools - not a reserved bed any where. Your hotel might be okay, Op. wait and see the situation when you get there.

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