People reserving hotel sun loungers with their towels...

[MoreCatsForMePlease]

Arrrggghhhh!

I just returned from a lovely week away in the Algarve.

I was not able to get a sun lounger by the pool during my entire stay! Every time I went to the pool, all of the sun loungers were reserved with towels/ books. There'd only be actual people on around half the loungers.

There were signs up everywhere asking people not to do this, yet every morning, without fail, a scrum of people would run out and do it anyway!

I'm not brave enough to tell anyone off or complain

Has anyone been at a hotel that has actually put a stop to this twattery?

I've been waiting for this thread....I declare the pandemic over!

@Soringhaze

Just move the towels and take the chair!

@Sunnytwobridges

If I noticed one with a towel/book unattended for more than 15mins I would just move it and deal with whoever. Usually they would just move on.

I'm currently on holiday & spent 2 hours in the pool yesterday - I've never been in for less than 15mins.

When we went to the Caribbean, mostly Mexico, this never happened. But as a precious poster said, they generally have people that take you to a sun lounger and sort it out for you, so they are generally the more expensive hotels. We went to a couple of different hotels a few times and we never struggled to get a sun lounger, even if we turned up at 11am!

@Jedsnewstar

Where I go in France every few hrs an alarm goes off for everyone to return to their loungers and get out of the pool. The lifeguards run around are remove all towels from Loungers with nobody on there, all the guests there help, they play funny music while doing it, it’s brilliant. Takes 10mins. Then about 4is onwards the beach going selfish twats return and seeing their face when they get told off and pointed towards a pile of towels is priceless.

I love this idea

You need to get up earlier and get your towel down first.
Or just take the totes off and sit them on a chair.
If anyone comes up to complain just ignore them.

It does make me chuckle that people get so hung up on getting 'their' sunbeds.

One year we were in Turkey.
Arrived at the pool with baby with us. No where to sit as all beds reserved with towels etc.
One nice lady said to us to sit on a bed next to her as the couple who had reserved it had been out all day & not used them.
Anyway about an hour or so later they arrived. A couple. Woman kicked off saying they're our beds we reserved them.
It was now about 4pm! They'd been on a day trip all day.
Taking the piss.

Can't be doing with the pool dramas so I prefer the beach. Much more chilled.

I just ask people sat nearby if anyone has been seen/in pool/getting a drink..... if the answer is no then I move the towel and plonk myself down!
I also move sunloungers depending on the time as we need shade for young children.

We are off on holiday in June and will be doing exactly the same. With a water keen toddler we spend a good few hours at the pool after dragging him out in the morning to visit places when it's cooler.

I must admit I always reserve sun beds whilst we go to breakfast otherwise we wouldn't get one. It was important when the dcs were young as we needed one so I could see the whole pool to supervise and these ones went first. I always only took 2/3 rather than 4. Also, we always used them all day. I never took the mick by reserving and then not turning up for hours later.

@thenightsky

I always type 'sunbeds' into the search box on the hotel's Trip Advisor page. You'll find out if a scrum is the norm. I don't book that hotel if there are people reporting having to get up at 5am to reserve!

Thank you for this! I often do it with the word ‘parking’ for small hotels or to check whether I need to allow extra time to get to a restaurant reservation but have never thought of it for sunbeds.

I dont go on holiday to sit by a pool.

Problem solved

Totally agree with the comments, but what if someone leaves a towel and property on a lounger if they are in the pool swimming?

@Overthebow

I’ve always just taken towels off and sat on the sun lounger.

Have done this and referred people to reception and the sign reading not to do it.

Twattish behaviour.

I just remove them. I’m not allowing a towel to get a suntan whilst I stand around getting fuming. I’ve had people come up to me hours later telling me to move and it’s ‘their sunbed’ and I just tell them to take it up with staff. Funnily enough, they either never do or the staff side with me.

Laughing at all the comments about "throw the towels in the pool" or "just move them". I've just come back from a week in the Canaries where people started putting their towels down on beds during the night. Not once did I see anyone take them to task, move their towels or throw them in the pool.

Quite! I don't believe the people claiming to do this either.

The big problem is how do you know if somebody has gone out for hours or if they've just gone to get a drink/get something from their room/whatever? It's hardly going to be a great holiday if you spend your mornings staring at sunbeds and counting down a reasonable time until you can move a towel.

Hotel staff need to deal with it, but most places won't pay to employ someone whose sole purpose is upsetting guests by moving their precious towels.

Before you book somewhere, look it up on TripAdvisor and type in 'sunbed'. The reviews will tell you if it's a place you need to avoid.

The best solution: don’t go anywhere with a small pool area that’s not big enough for the hotel.

This practice has been going on since G-d was a boy. The worst is when someone from one (extended?) family goes down at the crack of dawn and places towels on half a dozen or so beds! Good for those hotels who don't stand this nonsense.

If a group of sunbeds (what’s the collective noun for that, “a tan”?!) are unattended for more than 30 mins towels should be removed, simple as. Whole families don’t got to the loo together. They might swim together but if they’re in the pool for an hour + at a time why should someone else be deprived of using a facility and it be ‘sat there’ unused. If you’re going for lunch for an hour, you need to move all your stuff. People have lunch over a 3 hour window probably and if everyone was sensible there wouldn’t be an issue BA use it would naturally rotate a bit.

The mentality is just so weird to me.

It’s all to do with winning and getting what you want first. I have avoided this type of place since the early 80s and I’d rather be elsewhere. I’d rather not be staying with people like this. It’s hardly an enjoyable experience.

I don't put up with this crap. Once an extended family were piled around a group of beds clearly wanting the extra space. I just went round, sat on the vacant bed and put my headphones on and ignored their indignant chuntering.

I've only been to a hotel once where they did this. There was a massive extended family who literally reserved the whole poolside shallow end every single day I was there. They did spend most of the day by the pool but they only actually used half the loungers at any one time.

AI places are the worst for this

Yes, I've stayed in places where the pool attendants remove towels at around 9am if there wasn't anyone with them. Lots of signs saying towels are removed, but some idiots still did it and then whinged when they couldn't get a sun bed when they finally came down just before lunch!

Put a complaint on a review site like Tripadvisor about it, might encourage the hotel to do somethign more than just put up signs that are ignored.