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.

Stayed in a hotel in Cyprus one year where the lifeguard team would do a final wash down of the equipment at 8:30 am, just before the pool was officially open. Every bed and floor got a spray and if you were daft enough to leave a towel on a bed before then then so did your towel. There were signs up everywhere.

We want sun-beds in the full shade which apparently are less desirable spots and sometimes we can snag them if it’s late in the day. If I am doing a sit by the pool the whole vacation type of trip though, I only book ones where someone else reserves the lounger for me. If your plan for the day is to sit by the pool reading and sipping a cocktail, it’s kind of hard to do if you can’t get a spot.

We have just returned from a hotel in Greece where this was 'strictly forbidden'. We could come down to pool at any time of the day and get a good spot straight away. I wish they would all do this. I'm not getting up at 6am when I'm on holiday!

We stayed at a beautiful adults only resort in Greece last summer with maybe 10 sun beds that were almost in the pool with the same people using them every single day.
On our last day I thought I’d get up early to bag myself one so woke up at 6am. I felt so embarrassed going out to put my towel down at that time but they were all already reserved! I’m convinced people were doing it before they went to bed.

Urrgghh!! We witnessed this for the first time last year in Kos and were having none of it.

We spoke to the lifeguards who said guests aren't really meant to do it - they didn't want to get involved but said if we want to remove the towels and sit on sunbeds that hadn't been used for an hour or so, that was fine.

So that's what we did for the rest of the holiday! Only one couple (non-British) kicked up a fuss, the rest just returned then sheepishly backed off when they saw us.

What you do is remove the towels from unused loungers and use them!

I did this last year in Tuscany, one woman went mental. She really thought she could keep 6 loungers in a prime spot free with a towel each and disappear for hours...not a chance! A staff member intervened and told her I was quite right and that they would be keeping an eye on her for the rest of the week...the language out of her was something else.

The last hotel I stayed in provided the towels, so when you went to the pool, you collected a towel and wipes for the lounger. Then put the towels in the laundry when leaving the poolside.

There were always loungers available.

To add to my earlier post about Sandals, I went to the pool early one morning (7 ish) to sit on a bed and get another for my husband and the butler was busy reserving practically every bed. Two didn’t have the coolers or a name on, the pool boy removed the towels for us, I sat down on one, put our second towel and a bag on DH’s one and when the butler saw me she went apeshit. She accused me of removing the towels, which I hadn’t, accused me of hiding the name card, which I hadn’t either. She called her supervisor, who dealt with it by bringing two more beds from somewhere else and had the butler reserve them. When the guests came down 3 hours later, they gave us evils all day.
Our next holiday is somewhere that has suites with private pools, we’ve reserved one of those.

This is such a good point. If people don't reserve there are generally always enough loungers. Because then there's not always a proportion unused and "reserved".

Not ace at all. It is twattish to throw the towels in the pool. Would cause unnecessary washing, and potentially interfere with the use of the pool for swimmers.

Just pile them up somewhere else, it’s not hard.

I have a glass back so I’m always up early (don’t sleep past 5am). It’s a good thing twice a year - one of those being the annual holiday.

I go down about 6am and stay down till DH and DD join me around 8/9. DD and I then go off for breakfast. No matter where we go I’m always amused by the number of beds already reserved when I come down. We tend to stay by the pool or beach most days, but if we are having a day out I don’t reserve - only twats do that.

It’s led to some amusing moments mind. One year in Tunisia I had an eyeful of the French chap who ran out naked from his ground floor room to bag a couple of sun beds. His face when he saw me 😱. The following day he was in his pants 😂