Holiday pool lounger etiquette - who’s right?

[BlueyTuesdays]

Intrigued what people think on this one.

On holiday abroad somewhere hot and sunny last week. Hotel pool had (not enough) loungers, pool towels were available at the pool and given out as you arrive.

YANBU : if you are vacating your lounger for whatever reason - going for a swim, a walk, the loo, a very long lunch (another issue maybe) then you need to leave something on your lounger as well as the hotel pool towel that says it’s still in use. Your book, your own towel, a pair of sunglasses, your bag, your shoes next to the lounger. Anything.

YABU - leaving the hotel issue towel and nothing else is sufficient to keep your lounger held for your use whilst you’re away from it.

TL:DR I took a lounger (no others obviously available) that had only a hotel towel on it and 2 hours later a cross man turned up and demanded his lounger back - was IBU?

Well as I said we rarely use loungers anyway.

But if there are say 30 loungers not being sat on, why on earth should someone who actually wants to use one, (as opposed to letting their towel get nice and warm) not be able to?

It makes zero sense.

I agree in principle but don’t think 30 mins is long enough. Sometimes I’ll stay in the pool for longer than that and no one wants to come out dripping wet and start looking for another sun bed.

An hour limit would be better.

We did this first time this summer gone. Hotel in Cyprus that had an allocated sun beds. You can change your beds daily if you wanted to try different spots. It was brilliant. Removed all the agro and anxiety, don’t think I can go back to the old style now.

Bollocks to people who reserve sun loungers. If I don't see you for 30 minutes I'm having the lounger.

Poop card?

@Iwantmyoldnameback what's a poop card?

I always look at the reviews and if it mentions any fighting over sun loungers or having to get up at the break of dawn to put towels on we stay well clear. Can’t be arsed with all that on holiday.

More than 10-20 mins is unreasonable to block a sunlounger for. Even for lunch most pools offer food so you don’t have to give up your lounger to go get food.

Fine to leave towel while you are in the pool /toilet/ getting a drink. Not fine to reserve a bed while you do a different activity.

I think.leaving a lounger to go fir lunch then turning up hours later is ridiculous. Going for a swim etc yes fine. Going off for lunch not fine.

In a hotel in Costa Brava, the Germans reserved loungers with their own towel before breakfast. It is not stereotyping as seen it myself. Plus I know they are German as did GCSE in it

A member of the pool staff/lifeguard went around the loungers and took towels, folded them and placed on a wall by the door to hotel. The towel owners weren't happy

As to another poster's question of why doesn't the hotel provide enough loungers. Simple answer is space. The hotel I recently stayed at had 225 rooms. If you use 2.15 people a room (there were a few kids - not many as its term time) - that means 480 guests staying at once - another 100 more in peak holiday times. Then you would be complaining that you are lounging right on top of strangers.

So on the towel point you're wrong, a towel means reserved, doesn't matter whether it's just the hotel towel and nothing else.

But on taking it when the man was away for 2+ hours, you were right.

YWBU as there was a towel on the sun lounger, however the other guest WABU for leaving the sun lounger for two hours.

Hotel towel is not enough. CF leaving it for two hours. Well, more selfish F than cheeky. There'd be enough loungers for all if people weren't weirdos about them. Such gross behaviour! If I really, really wanted to keep it while off to lunch I'd leave poolside items on it too esp my own towel. but I'd feel guilty every minute of that plate of chips and salad. And if a wee family were crowded round one lounger because of my selfishness I'd be so embarrassed coming back to 'my' lounger.

Pop to the bar, loo, or have lunch (max of 1 hour) all ok. Any longer you need to remove all items to free up the sunbed.

In Turkey a family bagsied rows of sunbeds then went out for the day, returning at 4pm for a dip. Beyond selfish. I was so tempted to tip their stuff in the pool after a few margaritas ….

Yanbu. I always hover around for 10 mins or so. It's clearly been abandoned for now I take the towel off and give the oerson a mouthful if they cone back after a few hours. But usually no-one says anything because they know if absolutely wrong to leave towels on sunbeds and piss off for a few hrs. If people stopped doing that there would be enough loungers for when people want them. Stupidity at its highest . I love the uae nicer hotels though they toss the towels aside immediately if they see you leaving the pool area and clearly going back into the hotel.

10 min is quite reasonable, they could have just got up to get a drink or a new book. But yes the ones who reserve beds first thing in the morning and then dissapear until afternoon need to be dealt with.
I of course blame the hotels as well - if you go to a place that actually has plenty of sunbends for your clientele, there are no towel wars.

A towel still on it laid out would indicate to me it was being used. Agree that it’s rude going off for hours but a towel on a bed is usually sufficient to know it’s in use

Yes a hotel towel means its being used, I was once on holiday with my son and in the time it took to change his nappy in the poolside toilets someone had taken the hotel towel off (and thrown it in the bin!) and was sat on the lounger.

Anything more than about 20 minutes is fair game, not waiting three and disposing of things takes the piss.

OP, please please say you didn't just sit on the man's towel, you removed it first

10 minutes 🤣 You don't want to ho to the "supposedly" 5 star place I just stayed in Sicily then. It took at least twice that to get a drink at the bar closest to the pool area even if it was just a bottle of water. Let alone lunch!

So did you acknowledge it had had a towel on and give it back or did you lie and say it was free when you got there?

When I read these comments I think thank goodness we’ve moved to France and have our own pool.
Never any problems here.
My bar tender is rather forward though. 😂

The best sunshine holiday-type hotel I stayed in had a system where a lounger with just a hotel towel on it would have a card put on warning that the towel would be removed after a certain time. I think it was two hours later.

You'd still have an issue getting a lounger if you got up late, but at least you could usually get one by the afternoon for a post-lunch laze with a top notch work of literature trashy cheap piece of holiday pulp fiction.

It's a good job I spend as little time as possible sitting around the pool. Doing that all day, all holiday will do my head in.

And unfortuantely there are also plenty of people who cannot be arsed to remove their towels, even when they have no intentions to return. Anything more than half an hour is a fair game in my book - if you went for a 2h lunch, you simply need to find another sunbed for the afternoon.