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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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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:

youarenotkiddingme · 08/08/2017 18:16

Don't chuck towels in pool - that's just cruel.

I also hate sunbed reservers - so I just take a lilo down and put it where I want it! If there's a bed left unoccupied from breakfast (or dawn!) and is still unoccupied at midday fold towels onto one of the beds and take the others or put them on the floor.

I personally will put towels on bed on way to breakfast if there's any free but I sit there and do cream - then eat in restaurant and return afterwards. I only do this if I'm planning on actually settling there!

youarenotkiddingme · 08/08/2017 18:21

Although last year in majorca we were Ina quiet hotel that formed part of a group of 3. You ate lunch at one over the road and it also had the snack bar (AI).

I was awake one night and went onto balcony at 3am. There were already reserved beds and people out there reserving.

The next day I looked over at about 11am and the towels and stuff on them were totally undisturbed and clearly they hadn't been used

youarenotkiddingme · 08/08/2017 18:23

Btw this was hotel over the road.

The hotel I stayed in always had them free still at 11am! Might not have been the ones in the sun all day but I don't go on holiday to do that!

CherryChasingDotMuncher · 08/08/2017 18:24

Last year we went to a busy resort where the pool wasn't open until 9am, I always used to be at the front of the queue. However people used to sneak out beforehand via the fire exit to put their towels on the sun beds. I had no problem at all taking them off when we got in, and just explained "you can't reserve sunbeds, your towels are over there"

MrsJamesAspey · 08/08/2017 18:26

When we went on holiday last year enough people complained that they did start enforcing the no sunbeds reserved before breakfast and no reserves for more than an hour, one of the mums in our party got all her towels removed as she put them out too early. She'd been one of the most vocal complainers too it was hilarious 😂

FreyaJade · 08/08/2017 19:06

Why not go to the beach instead? Most beaches I've been on always have enough sun loungers, some are owned by bars who will bring you drinks / snacks if you pay.
Yes it's extra cost but I rarely stay in hotels, for example I did air b'n'b last holiday.

We went to a lovely beach at a nature reserve that was empty except for a few nudists, when our towels got to hot to lie on we went in the sea.

I can't stand crowds of people, does my head in so I just avoid situations like sunbed wars.

Mayvis · 08/08/2017 19:12

We've just returned from a hotel where most sun beds were reserved by 5am. Morning prayer sounded then, so it was like a sunbed alarm clock. We had to join in, the kids were constantly in and out of the children's pool and we wanted to be close by to be able to supervise them properly. Husband stayed outside, think it was the most peace and quiet he got.

Although looking at more recent trip advisor reviews, sunbeds wars have kicked off majorly since we got home. There was one argument where the 'reservers' went on a day trip, didn't actually take their places on the beds til gone 4pm.

TheNaze73 · 08/08/2017 19:15

Chuck them in the swimming pool.

chocatoo · 08/08/2017 19:20

That would drive me nuts! If noone has been anywhere near the lounger for over an hour I would assume they had forgotten their towel and fold it neatly by the side! People reserving loungers in the middle of the night is just bonkers...

emilybrontescorset · 08/08/2017 19:23

Im an early riser and quite often have to wait until the poolside has been cleaned before putting my towel on a sunbed.
I'll often sit there for while just soaking in the view, then head off for breakfast. I wouldn't dream of leaving my towel on a sunbed and going away from the hotel.
I actually remember when you didn't need to reserve a sunbed, our European cousins started the trend.

CV893 · 08/08/2017 19:36

nightsky-Trip Advisor is your friend in these situations. Any mention of Sunbed issues and I am not going. One hotel we stayed in had their own towels that they laid out every night so every sunbed had a towel with the hotels logo on it. This stopped it. They had a sign saying anyone who left a towel or book or anything else on a sunbed before 8.30am would have it removed. There were actually pretty much enough beds for everyone anyway.

What I don't like is people thinking they have a right to have the same beds everyday and also people who reserve 5 beds when their 3 kids probably spend 20 mins a day on them and the rest in the pool.

youarenotkiddingme · 08/08/2017 21:04

CV that is what pisses me off most. Reserving - yep annoying. Reserving 6 sun beds right next to the pool for 2 adults and 4 children under 10 - grrrrrrr!
Especially as most of the day 5 of them are empty as parents tag team the kids who are in the pool they needed to be by.

In fact I reckon most hotels would have enough sun beds if they weren't reserved for the children too!

I take a lilo and get a sunbed if one is free. Ds is 12. On the rare occasion he wants to lay down I sit on the end, either one of us uses the lilo or he lays next to me.

CherryChasingDotMuncher · 08/08/2017 21:53

My friend went to the hotel where they film Benidorm and they were actually filming, so half the pool was cordoned off. She said there wasn't even any room to put a towel on the floor, as sunbeds and floor space was full, so they had to go to the beach

PenguinOfDoom · 08/08/2017 22:18

I will never forget the time I was on holiday in Portugal with two friends. One snored and I couldn't sleep so went down to sit in the loungers by the pool at 3am for some peace and quiet to read/doze.

At 3.30am, a guy came down and laid towels on the loungers next to me. I must have looked a bit WTF because he looked sheepish and said he wanted him and his DP to get the best place to sit.

3.30am. And you are on holiday, getting up earlier than you get up for work, just to reserve a nice space by a pool you will never see again after a week. People are just weird.

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