Sun lounger towel battles in all inclusive holidays

[Gagamama2]

We are booking our first all inclusive for Oct half term. Looking at reviews many people mention having to get up at 6:30am to put towels on sunloungers in order to secure your lounger for the day. A couple of reviews said they got up at 4:30am to do it?!?

This seems completely ridiculous to me.

We have three young kids and I want some sleep / relaxing time, not to be stressing about sun loungers or having to use ones that are miles away from the pool / ones without shade, because my kids will need supervising in the pool and shade.

Are there unwritten sunlounger rules when going to these resorts or am I within my rights to remove someone’s towels and bag a lounger if they don’t seem to actually be at the sunlounger?? Like if we get down there in the morning and they aren’t to be seen for 15 mins or so, not if they just pop off to use the loo or something?

@Redfoxbluebunny where are you? It looks great!

We love all inc but do swim ups for ease.

I’ve been flamed before but I do think families could share- if you’re 2 adults, a baby and a 3 year old do you really need 4 sunloungers?

We’re at Lopesan Costa Meloneras resort and spa. There are swim up rooms here but as someone said upthread these are mainly in the shade. Lots of Germans and Spanish as well as the Brits. Check it out there is an amazing infinity pool and a massive lazy river pool. It’s a massive hotel but never feels overcrowded.

Inflatables are in the sea are incredibly dangerous, many hotels also ban them in pools as again they’re a danger and take up a huge amount of room.

There are hotels that show you a pool map, and you can pick your beds for the duration.

Ive been to hotels in Cyprus, Majorca and Greece with no sunbed issues. I read all the reviews.
Atlantica Cyprus (and has swim up)
Protur Biomar in Majorca (and has swim up)
Zafiro Palace Majorca (and has swim up)
Mitsis Laguna Crete

All these had plenty of beds (not pre- allocated).

Really? I understand reserving loungers while you go for breakfast, lunch or to do a short activity but surely you can see that if you are missing for half a day or worse, a day, then its not your base if you physically are not there. Why should having a base be more important than other people needing a lounger when they are actually there by the pool. Its very selfish.

Yes the lounger is the base for the day and the holidaymakers comes and go during the day for example does a half an hour aqua class, sunbathes for an hour, pops to the bar, sunbathes, goes to lunch etc etc.
I have never seen loungers with just a towel on and no person for half a day.

We are currently in France - went to a water park on Monday and people had reserved benches round the park with their towels!! I was really shocked by that, it’s a public bench surely you can’t reserve it with a towel.

Generally speaking I agree with the PP who said families can share. We only use 2 sun beds as DD8 will be in the pool the whole time and won’t use one, when she pops back for a drink she will sit with one of us.

Sadly I have a fair few times. People have gone on trips or into the local town and expect the sun lounger to be waiting when they return at 3pm or whatever. That's the really selfish behaviour

So selfish.

See I even find this odd! I get popping off to the loo, or to a bar within eyesight, or for a swim obviously. But going to lunch and expecting to still have your sunbed there waiting for you when you get back is strange…it doesn’t belong to anyone so why should it still be reserved for you when you could be gone 1.5 hrs for lunch?

It’s a shame that the hotels can’t come up with a different strategy around this , but unless your actually given your own lounger or brolly and can book it in advance , there isn’t much the hotels can do. I did stay somewhere once where you could do this , but not everyone wants to think about doing this and you had to know where you wanted to be the night before.
Some remove the towels , but that takes a degree of guts to do and many don’t want the confrontation on holiday !

In the hotel I've just returned from, the staff put a tag on empty beds (once spotted) with the time on it.

30 minutes of no use and everything removed.

If everyone took their stuff with them when going for lunch, their would be less need for anyone to reserve a bed. Easy and fair.

No early morning reserving…everyone can wander down.

Reserving, creates….reserving!

More pools is weirdly better than more sunbeds at one pool. The reason is people tend to congregate at the pool with the most facilities. Multi pool resorts often have at least one pool that is a bit tucked away. If you can get a room near that pool then you won't have a problem getting a sunbed, even later in the day.
At 2 different AI hotels recently we've seen the main pool rammed with towels by 9am, yet had no problems getting sunbeds at other pools at any time of day.

We went to an AI recently where the pools didn't open for putting towels down until 9am, which I thought worked well. It was hit and miss at different times of day as to whether you'd get beds but in terms of 'culture' it was accepted that beds could be left unattended and still be 'yours' and it would have been an absolute no-no to do what you've suggested. I'd say no one would dream of doing that there.
I'd say it worked quite well, actually. Yes you might turn up one pm and there weren't beds and you'd have to sit on the pool edge or grab a table by the bar. But equally another day you might well grab beds early and not be on them the whole day but you didn't feel guilty about it knowing you were in the other situation the day before. It was sort of an accepted swings and roundabouts scenario, I think.

If these are genuine reviews (putting towels down at 4.30 to get a bed AT ALL and not just the prime spots) I think I'd avoid if the ratio is clearly just not enough beds to people.

I refuse to get up early on holiday. The problems are

1. people getting loungers for whole families when their little ones are in the pool all day
2. reserving and then not coming back

this year, the lifeguards would ring a bell and you had to go back to your sunbed and they cleared away towels for those not at their sunbeds.

we do find that non British hotels are better. This year was mostly French and Dutch and if we couldn’t find a bed upon arrival, we got one within 20 minutes.

if you spot sunbeds that aren’t used, take their towels off and move the sunbeds so they don’t know it’s you.

i hope you have a lovely holiday!!

I think ‘sunbed reserving’ spectating ( and meddling) has officially become my holiday sport! 😉

From my balcony, I watched the “early birds”—usually husbands under strict orders—marching out at 6:30am to claim their spot with towels.

Observing the die-hards who must have their bed. The look of dismay when a newcomer dares to sit there is priceless.

There’s the chaos when towels are shuffled between beds (guilty😊), moved, or handed back to staff. Sometimes I’ll casually pile a couple on the floor, and like magic, others follow suit.

And the best bit? Removing a towel when I don’t even want the bed—only to watch the awkward confusion when the “rightful owner” comes back to find someone else happily stretched out. At least the person stretched out is genuinely innocent.

The truth is—’WE’ haveall created the sunbed-reserving culture by playing along.
If everyone just stopped, or simply ignored the towels, reserving would disappear overnight.

Not read all the replies but there are at least two hotels in Paphos, Cyprus where you are allocated sunbeds on arrival. That I've been recommended. One was adults only and one was family. I'm considering booking next year.

I will not set my alarm on holiday for a sunbed.

This year was a Beachcomber hotel in Mauritius for us, same price if not cheaper than the med in August but downaide is two long haul flights. Sunbeds readily available at 10am straight after breakfast.

What really pisses me off is families who reserve 4 or 6 loungers by the pool, including for all their young children who never spend any time using them because they are in the pool or running about the whole day. But for the 2 seconds their kids sat still, they occupy a lounger for them with their towel for 8 or 10 hours.
These sorts of people are selfish fuckers.

I completely agree, very selfish and bad manners. If you’re going off for a meal you should take your things and allow someone else to use the lounger while you’re gone unless you are literally grabbing a slice of pizza and returning to your bed.

We’ve never personally had this issue as often get a private pool or stay in high end places but it would really cheese me off.

We've been on a few of these types of holiday - never had a problem getting a lounger whenever we wanted. The towel hoggers are just idiots.

4 is usually OK, 3 a nightmare I'd rather stay at home.

This.

We don’t usually do this type of holiday and don’t usually sit by a pool until after lunch. I refuse to go out and bag a bed. I have a strategy that usually works, but not always. I find one one the people who run the pool/towels. I ask them if there are any beds. They usually move someone’s stuff from a vacant bed. I give them a large tip. The next day they will approach me and ask me if we need beds.
I don’t agree that if you pay more you will not have this problem. It happens everywhere.

The Kanika hotel chain in Cyprus allocate your sunbeds for your entire stay.

Probably to bed so they can get up at sparrow fart the next day and get a sun lounger! Absolute lunacy to me but each to their own I guess!