If I was in charge of sunloungers…

[SunSunSunGimmeSun]

…the front row (next to the pool) would be non-reservable. Only to be used by those people with children currently in the pool. No phones or books. “Eyes on”

All further back rows would be free for anyone, but they’d each feature a timer. If you leave your lounger, you’ve got 15 minutes ‘grace’ while you nip to the loo, go get a drink, drag child from pool, etc.

After those 15 minutes, a very loud alarm would sound, your things would be scooped up and piled into the Sin Bin.

I know, I know, you want to sit with your family, and it takes longer than 15 minutes to get your lunch, yadda yadda yadda… but if no one was hoarding loungers, there’d be plenty to go around; when you got back from your lunch, you’d find a row of lovely empty space, not rows and rows of abandoned towels.

<gavel>

I don’t get the whole sunloungers around the pool thing. Why do you want to look at the pool? Isn’t it baking hot in the sun?

You can’t for a minute imagine that people enjoy laying in the sun, and swimming in the pool, and having a place to lay in the sun near a pool is a convenient way to do both at the same time?

If the choice is look at the pool or look at the back of the head of the person in the row in front of you, then the pool is preferable. It can feel a bit hemmed in on the further back rows.

Weaving in and out of other people’s loungers to get to the pool also not ideal. At the front you can just jump straight in.

Sounds like a Communist beach holiday. Thanks, but I'll pass.

People are allowed to leave their sun lounger. We tend to get up early on holiday and I always go down early, pick where I want to be and then sit and read while it is quiet and cool. At some point we will go for breakfast, maybe 20 minutes, then back to the loungers. We will then be up and down in and out of the pool depending on how hot it is. Same again at lunch which takes a bit longer. I wouldn’t be happy to find my stuff gone on my return as my time away from the lounger is minimal. When I go away we have busy day and lazy days and I enjoy the lazy days not having to worry about anything while relaxing by and in the pool. If it is somewhere really hot I like to be close to the pool, why shouldn’t I be allowed to do that because I don’t have children with me.

Hmm… seems like the market for my hotel might be rather niche (or non-existant) 😂

To be clear though, I certainly don’t think I’m more entitled/worthy of a sun lounger because I have kids. I do think that if people weren’t so bloody selfish then there would be plenty to go around.

For context, I’ve been lying on one since starting the thread. The three next to me have been unoccupied the whole time. No bags / clothes / phones etc, just towels on all of them. Why does someone’s towel need a seat more than the families wandering around looking for one?

No. I love watching the sea but swimming pools just don’t do it for me and all the people lined up in rows is too claustrophobic. You can have my lounger!

Book a swim-up room then you don't have to worry about any of this.

I live dangerously

I am a towel mover

Not got in a fight about it yet 😁 if challenged I just say: I'm so sorry I did not know any peas using this lounger

Then I move someone else's towel

Could you make a rule that the front row of loungers must be at least 1.5m from the edge of the pool?!

I once stayed in a hotel where the sister hotel provided lunch snacks for AI (literally across the road!)

There was a rectangle pool with loungers side by side all the way around with the legs actually on the edge of the pool - I was surprised to find people in it as couldn't find a way on or put 😫

Luckily the hotel I was staying in with a mixture of nationalities and the pool situation was never an issue.

So, am I not allowed to go and swim in the pool because I am not allowed to leave my towel and book on the sun bed?

If anyone removed my stuff while I was using the pool I would be very angry. As for setting timers and klaxons to go off at intervals, that's just bizarre. Fuck that! It wouldn't make for a relaxing holiday at all.

Are you harking back to something like hi-de-hi?

Looks gorgeous I will take a look thank you

Went to a wonderful hotel in Bangkok (Banyan Tree) where the pool was run like OP's suggestion. If a sunlounger was unused for more than 10 - 15 minutes (perfecty long enough for a dip - the pool wasn't one you'd do lengths in as it was too small), the things on it would be removed and securely stored at the staff desk. It really stopped the hoggers.

I’ve got an idea. Why don’t hotels just provide enough sunbeds and allocate them per room. So you know which yours is. But like others I just wouldn’t go to the type of hotel where you are fighting over sunbeds at the crack of dawn.

Failing that I like the sign idea. People should get an hour or so grace to go to lunch but no longer if sunbeds are in short supply. But no loud klaxons every 15 minutes. And if you need to watch your kids sit on the side with them - or get in. Doesn’t mean you deserve a poolside sunbed

I always go to adults in hotels and there always seem to be enough loungers. Once though we were separated from a younger couple by just one lounger (we were there first). Her parents showed up and I gathered from the conversation they were staying at another hotel. The girls father took the lounger next to us, however the mother actually sat on the end of MY lounger that I was currently lying on!!! She moved sharpish when I asked what the fuck she thought she was doing!

Not very accessible which is a shame. It looks lovely ( child free?).

This looks lovely, what hotel?

At OP's pool they'll provide lockers.

Where do you all go on holiday? I have literally never stayed at a hotel where all the loungers are taken!

Stayed in a hotel once that had an app facility that allowed you to pre book the loungers the day before and each bed and brolly were numbered
It wasn't without its problems at times , but it seemed to work for us.

Hotel we stayed at once had a policy of if a sunbed with towels on went untouched for more than 2 hours the attendant would write down all the items on the sunbed then place them neatly on the table. It was very entertaining to watch when someone else used the sunbed and the original ' occupant' came back to discover what had happened. Would watch undetected from behind my sunglasses. Whatever the system some selfish people will ignore or abuse it.

@AgnesX it wasn't child free when I was there last year - I took my DD who was 14 and there were younger children there - it had a small children's area at the pool.

My room was on the ground level so didn't think about accessibility - a lot of people did joke about the hill to get back from the town and the steps up from the beach being a bit of a killer - I didn't find it bad but I'm fairly fit and well used to hills and steps where I live.

@Curlyblondefemale Tereza's sunset hotel , Agios Stefanos , Corfu.

Sorry OP but really dislike your idea.
I do however think hotels should have a booking/allocation system for loungers, I'd pay to rent a guaranteed lounger for the duration of my holiday.
I've nothing against saving a lounger while you go for breakfast/lunch, but those who bag one then decide to piss off to the beach for the day really piss me off. When i go to lunch i leave a book/inflatable/hats to show i'm coming back.
Where it's just a towel I'd guess they are away away and the towel should be removed by hotel staff.