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?

Very entitled behaviour. Did you ever think that people would be waiting for a sun lounger, and it’s not fair that you go to lunch for an hour or so, leaving the sunbeds unused.

Stay in the best resort you can.
Sunbed wars aren't really a thing at 5* hotels.

Ive been to hotels that has ahd enough sunbeds so no need to fight. Latest ones didnt have enough, so we just went to the pool in the afternoon. But yeah, it is ridiculius and people reserve them and then go to breakfast/lunch. There were 'premium' ones that were empty cause they cost extra. People just used those for free.

Some places have a "horn" every 30min and people need to go to their loungers. Then those not there has their towels removed. I wish hotel staff was more uptight about reserving the sunbeds.

I’m with you. I’m a late afternoon pool user too. We visit the pool to cool off after being out and about all day. I don’t think we’ve ever been there from morning until evening.

There’s a difference between no sun loungers and “not quite where I want them to be “ sun loungers.

This sort of thing is indeed a total nightmare and tbh it happens at most AI hotels. I went to one hotel that had a policy of removing towels which were unattended for more than 25 minutes which I think is completely fair. Maybe look for an hotel that has a policy like this?

That doesn’t concur with my experiences.

Nothing to do with AI. Many package holidays are like this and have been since the 1980s.

Yes but it’s still very selfish to reserve the best loungers while you swan off for lunch or whatever, but some people just think their wants and desires absolve them of any need to consider others.

The reason it’s more of a thing at AI hotels is that people tend not to venture to other places to eat if they’ve paid for an AI holiday. But the thing is that people leave their towels and wander off for hours.

When my son was little I'd get up at stupid o'clock and go down with my book and a coffee to bagsy a couple of loungers with an umbrella, because he's the palest kid you ever did see and we need the shade.

It's a HORRIBLE system and I'm really glad he's older now and there's no need to secure a spot by the pool in order to ensure that I get a semblance of a holiday. We can all relax wherever, and go down at whatever time.

I have in the past moved towels from serial reservers though and give zero fucks. My husband is like yours and mortified by it, but they don't have a leg to stand on. If you want a premium spot, get your arse out of bed like I had to for years to secure it. You either get a lie in, or your preferred sunlounger. Not both.

If I had younger kids again, I'd definitely choose a resort with an actively managed lounger policy and I'd avoid AI with free for alls, because it just creates so much stress and there's no way NOT to play the stupid game. If you want to spend time by the pool, you need to be able to see it, you need an umbrella, it's ridiculous.

We are currently on holiday in a high end 5* resort (long haul) mostly filled with Italians, some French - and it’s almost impossible to get a sunbed. Not just towels but T-shirts, books, baseball caps used to ‘claim’ them all by 8am. Pool staff are oblivious. It’s on an island so there’s literally nothing else to do but sit by the pool. Why they don’t have enough sunbeds for everyone to have one beats me. Am currently sat on a very uncomfortable wire chair on the balcony of our room - I agree with posters who say it does spoil the holiday a bit - and going upscale hasn’t removed the issue!

Which hotel is this if you don’t mind? The problem is I find there’s a massive variation between 5 standards, for example I wouldn’t personally describe the Mitsis chain as 5, whereas ikos I would. We’ve never had a problem at the 5* all inclusive we’ve been to.

I would honestly book somewhere else and not All Inclusive. They are notoriously bad for sunbed wars. We have always booked really small apartment complexes or hotels and have never had a problem with sunbeds. Kids don't need the over-stimulating entertainment that comes with AI. They are happy splashing around in a pool all day and people-watching in the evening with an ice-cream. These AI resorts are so big that there are never ever going to be enough sunbeds for everyone. You cant go wrong with a small establishment near a beach and resort facilities.

I think Turkey had also become more popular these last few years. Pre covid I've stayed at Titanic Belek - son loved the boat ride to their beach area with restaurant and when he was older I loved the Olympic size adult only pool - and they have a large lagoon type pool , have also stayed at Regnum (now hideously expensive) - we also went in May half term and we never had a problem getting a lounge anywhere - we never got up particularly early - by the time we got to the pool it would be 10ish - equally we don' "reserve" beds - at Titanic if we were going to go to the beach area for lunch we would free up our pool loungers by taking our personal stuff with us.

I know I said it before , but why the hotels don’t do booking online for the loungers ( that are numbered) I’m not sure. Most places have apps or QR scanners.
It won’t suit everyone , but has to be a bit fairer , although I’m sure people may still sit on the wrong ones or ‘ not know about it’ !

Not really. As long as there are enough sunbeds for everyone (and normally there are), you’d still get the same complaints about them being booked , and wars , and the prime spots being taken and what not. Probably even more rage actually when those three super duper extra special sunloungers you wanted have been booked for the whole week/10 days.

Yeah, booking the loungers up the night before for the day on a hotel app wouldn’t necessarily stop all the arguing I suppose.
The hotel I stayed in once with a booking system only allowed a daily booking system , so it wasn’t for the entire time you were there though. I still heard the odd argument as you couldn’t book on the day you were leaving! Unless they have them chained up and given out one by one ( which isn’t feasible for big hotels) I fear that it’ll always be a bit of a problem for the guests.

Book one of those resorts where they throw all the towels that have been put out to reserve sun loungers at 4am in the pool 😁

I can’t see why the staff can’t round up the towels and put them to one side after an hour or something, but I suppose they have enough to do as it is and don’t want bad reviews for ruined / missing things or towels.

Don't be daft.

OP is booking an all inclusive holiday and wants to find a resort that has a sensible arrangement for the use of sunbeds (or sufficient capacity). The two things aren't connected 🙄

I'm currently in a hotel in Sardinia and there are lots of free sun beds. I think it's because we booked it ourselves (i.e. booked the hotel directly and separate flights) rather than as a package.

I’m not sure why you think that makes a difference, surely the hotel has a specific amount of sunbeds and this isn’t affected by how the guests book their travel arrangements?

@JimmyGiraffe I'm saying that if a hotel isn't available on the package websites then it's probably less likely to be crammed full of people which is when this issue arises. You can find nice hotels this way.

Not all inclusive, but we've stayed on a couple of sites in France where the lifeguards blow their whistles twice a day to get everyone out of the water and sitting on their sunbeds. They then go around removing all the towels from sunbeds that aren't being used. People are very supportive of this.

We stayed at a very quiet, peaceful resort this year in Tenerife and people were still at it - up at 8am to mark their territory, not showing up till mid afternoon. It didn't matter so much because empty sunbeds could be found, it was just a pain that the ones in the shade were generally taken.