Towels on sunbeds abroad.

[Bestseasonever]

Just read an article about people getting up early on holiday to save a sun bed with a towel. I really don’t understand why people do this. First come first serve I say. How silly.

This is why I don't stay at package holiday Hotels and only at small places with more sunbeds than rooms. Bliss (and no evening 'animation' either <shudder>

I remember being about 8 and my Godfather coming on holiday with us. By week two he was that fed up of there being no sun loungers that he went down to the pool (after all loungers has been taken) and tipped the lot in to the pool.

There was a lot of grumbling from people but from memory it was much easier for our second week.

I don’t think I’d ever be brave enough though…

We went to a Sandals resort last September and butlers were up at 5am reserving beds at both the pool and beach for their guests. Beds with coolers etc would stay empty for most of the day and no-one ever removed the stuff from the beds. I’m always up early on holiday, particularly in the Caribbean and would be actually sitting on my sun bed by 7am waiting for DH to get up, almost all the other beds would be taken by the butlers. Some of these guests would appear by the pool for an hour or so then go to their reserved beds on the beach, pissed me right off.

I'd always thought towels on loungers was one of those things that gets exaggerated for comic effect, but from what people are saying here, clearly not!

I've only ever been on one pool/lounger type holiday and it didn't seem to be an issue at all there. Although, thinking back it would have been right at the end of the holiday season, and in term time, so it probably wasn't busy enough for dawn sun lounger bagging to be necessary.

Well they have come first?

As they should. 30 minute absence is fine, you could be in the pool or bar, but anything beyond that is selfish.

5am is ridiculous. It indicates there are not enough sun beds for the place really. Normally if we are spending a day by the pool we'd come down after breakfast but most places we've stayed as long as you are there before 11 there should be sunbeds.

My favourite was Club Med where they really take this seriously - you only use the towels you borrow there by the pool (for a small deposit). If there are towels unattended for more than about half an hour during the day the lifeguard will come round, clear them up and put them in the wash.

It is ridiculous, but in all honesty, what do you do?

Get a swim up room or private pool.

Alternatively if you are sure a set of loungers/towels are not being used (for over 30 minutes or so) take them off and place them elsewhere, feign ignorance and say there were no towels when you sat down.

I hate this so much. It’s a real pet peeve. I try not to let it bother me, but I have often wondered why more places don’t have a policy of removing items from unattended sunbeds.

My DD and I where in Palma Nova Majorca 3 weeks ago for a mum & daughter week whilst there we watched guests waiting for the pool entrance doors to be unlocked whilst they finished cleaning the pool they where 30mins late doing this and the guests where irate.
Once the cleaning was finished the life guard opened the pool area and the rush for sunbeds was unbelievable !! people who used walking aids and mobility scooters during the day where like Linford Christie getting to their chosen specks.

This is why I like hotels that lock them overnight in piles!

I once stayed at one that unlocked them at 9am when the pool opened and the lifeguards went on duty.

People queued up to get a bed in the walkway to the pool and it was very civilised - at least when I was there! There was also a large grassy area with parasols so always a sun bed whenever you wanted one.

But yes - it was always people wanting certain sun beds everyday in the same place that did the 5am dash.
I can never imagine booking a week away and planning to spend in all in a 2m2 space!

We stayed at a place in Italy for a few years with our kids and friends .Every chalet gets two sunbeds and one umbrella per family which are used for the duration of the holiday .Simple .No storming to the beach to reserve .No altercations .Kids got a beach blanket to lie on and were happy.

Thank you for posting this. It gave me a well needed laugh this morning!

That was in response to the Carling ad!

Our favourite hotel in northern Italy has several pools and enough sun loungers for twice the number of hotel guests.
So the towel reservation thing is unnecessary, thank god.
It's all very civilised. Staff keep an eye on it anyway and remove damp towels from around the pool area regularly. (As well as cleaning your sunglasses and offering complimentary skewers of fresh fruit and pre-lunch aperitifs.)

@Bonjovispjs

'This has been going on since the beginning of time'

Yes, I think there is even a mention of it in the Bible with regards to Noah's Ark but it was the hyenas that did this on the deck.

Cats didn't bother about things like this - they slept on Noah's bed. (he slept on the floor)

‘Twas ever thus. Costa del Sol, 1969. Beds all “booked” by 7am.

Human nature.

Sorry you're married to such a twat.

Sorry you're married to such a twat.

Sorry. Were they your towels?

are they? That's not my experience.

I would prefer to hotels to ban (and enforce said ban) reserving beds. You have to go with whatever the process is at your hotel though. On our holiday last summer we, on oour first mroning, arrived at the pool when it opened to find not a single set of beds anywhere near the pool, yet reserved beds stood empty right next to it all day. It was super annoying and when small children need to be supervised in the pool it's extra annoying (as an aside, I don't get why adults without children want to liue right next to the pool and be splashed and run past continuously). After that we went down and reserved beds (which we then used all day) like everyone else.

Oh im sorry, i thought you said you were ashamed of him. I was commiserating with you.

Our last two holidays I've booked swim up rooms to a avoid this (and because it's just so nice to have easy access to your room and bathroom during the day, I like a break from the sun) we're relatively new to hotel holidays and found it all added unnecessary stress.

On our last holiday we couldn't get a late check out and had a late flight ( rearranged by the tour operator from an originally better flight time unfortunately) so we needed sun loungers on our last day. I hadn't previously paid much attention but som were definitely reserved before people went to bed, and when I got up at 7:30 they were starting to fill up in the spots around the pool.

Went to Tenerife in September and they wouldn't let people put towels on until 7.30am. Honestly by that point the queue was insane, and people were literally running and throwing their towels on the beds to beat others.

Same people would then go off to breakfast/for a walk and sometimes not come back until midday.

Selfish behaviour, there should be a ban on reserving beds for over an hour!

My husband is German(I'm Irish) and he got a Union Jack towel as a present from his British colleagues years ago .We always used it on holidays until it was stolen a few years ago from our sunbed.Should get another one !

He sounds ace, not a twat