The controversy surrounding reserving pool chairs at hotels is nothing new, though it comes in different forms. In the United States, you might see people place towels on chairs in the morning, and then return a while later. However, broadly speaking, Brits seem to be in a league of their own when it comes to…
Continue reading: Absurd: Hotel Guests Sleep On Pool Chairs To Reserve Best Spots
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
I 100% agree with you. I can stay home and be stressed. Do a little research, there are plenty of hotels (sometimes better and less expensive boutique ones) that have plenty of seating if you just go a little outside the main tourist area.
Why go all the way to Pamplona to watch the running of the bulls when you can watch it for free from your balcony at your local resort? No, you do not need to sit right next to the pool, and no, you don't need a chair for every person in your party. This stuff is ridiculous, and if you do it, you're a moron and a loser.
100% agree. Moved away from big resorts to small boutique hotels for all our European vacations. Night and day experience. Just stayed at a fabulous family owned place in Italy with only 20 rooms. Treated like king, zero stress, pool basically only for ourselves.
Vacation or not, I tend to awaken at 5am and out for daily exercise shortly after rising. So grabbing some towels and dropping them to my preferred loungers becomes part of the daily vacation routine.
On our honeymoon stay last month at the St Regis in Aruba, we saw firsthand how this was extra stressful (infuriating even) for guests who sauntered over to the beach after finishing breakfast at 10am expecting first row beach chairs to be available, only to learn that even the second row beach chairs were fully occupied and they had their choice of loungers by the kiddie pool.
Early bird does get the worm, sometimes.
The narrator on the second last video is amazing. Felt like national geographic
I think the actual issue is that hotels do not have enough spots for people to lay out and relax so people feel the need to do this.
Just absolutely insane to me that people go on vacation and stress themselves like this. I've done a couple trips to Excellence brand all-inclusives in the Caribbean and never experienced anything like those videos, there's always plenty of loungers and poolside space.
Wow, this whole “pool chair Olympics” is honestly wild . I can’t wrap my head around the idea of paying hundreds of dollars a night at a beautiful resort only to end up sleeping on a sun lounger just to “secure a spot.” Is not vacation supposed to be about relaxing, not competing?
I totally agree that hotels need a better system — whether it’s time limits, booking slots, or simply enforcing the “no unattended towel” rule. Otherwise, it becomes less about enjoying the pool and more about playing a stressful game no one actually signed up for.
At the end of the day, vacations should be about soaking up the sun, sipping a cocktail, and forgetting the clock — not racing for chairs before sunrise. Honestly, if I ever find myself in this situation, I’d rather sleep in my comfy bed and enjoy the pool later than ruin my trip stressing over a lounger.
Germans love getting up at 6am to reserve their pool chairs. It's like part of their vacation routine 🙂
I see this simply as a FAIL for the property. If I were expecting poolside lounging, I'd expect the property to deliver. In some cases, it probably means they didn't build a big enough pool, or purchase enough chaises longues. Or, maybe they didn't staff the pool deck enough, or they should ban "reserving" a chair you're not using. I'd like to see online ratings of hotel pool deck crowding. There must be pleanty of resorts where this doesn't happen. I'd like to know about that, so I can avoid the ones that FAIL.
Not just Americans. Not just Germans. There are people who won't believe this, but it's true. Obviously Canadians don't behave this way.
Why not buy a cheap $25 beach chair on Amazon and have it delivered to you at the hotel?
Why not buy a cheap $25 beach chair on Amazon and have it delivered to you at the hotel?
I would want nothing to do with BS like this. Personally, I'd prefer a nice boutique hotel or a rental from the likes of VRBO or Booking.com. Nor would I care to spend the day sitting by the pool unless it's at my own villa.
These people are sheep who actually think they're wolves.
Ben, I take exception to you only singling out “Brits” for the subjects of your article.
Your German pals have been world renowned for inventing the practice over 60 years ago.
My takeaway from this whole topic is: build a much bigger pool and the problems go away. This issue doesn't come up at Sukhothai Bangkok, Raffles Grand Hotel d'Angkor Siem Reap.
I once stayed at a resort at Kata beach in Phuket, where pool staff tracked each chair and after 31 minutes stuff was removed and the chair "officially" made available for any guest. Sign clearly said unused chairs would be cleared after half an hour. It was fun to watch.
Can someone explain to me why people go to beach destinations and camp at the pool day?
Why are people planning to spend their holidays next to the pool anyway? They don't have pools back home? Go do something on your vacation
I'm fine with three hours at a pool, but a whole day at one is ridiculous. And I can't imagine caring about which chair I have.
@Ben, it's a little different from Florida, where shades are a premium and people will park 100+ yards away in an empty lot, just to be under a tree. These Brits probably only get 13 days of sunshine a year where you can actually be shirtless.
You're taking a chair, putting a towel on it and not using it for several hours. You're not part of the problem. You ARE the problem.
This is similar to allocated bourbon drops here in the US. I have seen mostly men camp out at liquor stores in order to be the first or nearly first in line to get a good bourbon.
"These Brits probably only get 13 days of sunshine a year where you can actually be shirtless."
And most of them should have the good sense not to be.
Just don't stay at any hotel that is that difficult to secure a pool chair. Read a few reviews before booking. This 6am que for a pool chair crap comes up a lot in reviews.
Even with high SPF, pasty white Mel O'Noma probably shouldn't spend more than about an hour in one of those beach chairs in summer...
Jeff, Matteo …. it is so true, a great question well presented Matteo, sadly with many people, it comes down to some very simple things which please little people with very little minds.
A pool is usually very close to a bar, therefore, less effort to obtain a drink.
A pool is considered by many to be much cleaner than any nearby open water.
In the pool the swimmers cannot see the microscopic creatures which might do them harm.
In open water there maybe ‘dung fish’ or other nasties, plus that sandy material gets into all sorts of crevices.
One could tabulate so many reasons why the annual traveler confines themselves to their hotel.
Outside, beyond the hotel, etc, there lies local people who are probably thinking that it could be nice here if all the tourists went home! …. 🙂
Boooooo. “A part of the daily routine” to reserve loungers I’m fairly sure you don’t use daily use most of the day.
Indeed, you are the problem
I've heard of this and will never do it. Worst case scenario, hire somebody on TaskRabbit to wait for you.
Ironic blaming Brits when you hold a German passport.
Germany has the worst reputation for sunbed blocking all over Europe
You underestimate the working class brit. Growing up in a deprived area I learned that an important part of white working class culture is walking around topless if the sun came out with the mercury passing 16c...
Very accepting culture too as there is no body that is exempt from this practice!
Every time I see any sort of internet reel about loud and annoying Americans, I think of the Brit’s and Germans in these videos.
I have seen people reserve three loungers on a cruise ship. I have seen people getting into fistfights over loungers.
Going for a swim in the early morning I have seen people going to reserve loungers and the go to breakfast, just to get their favorite one.
What I have not seen is any place or ship actually enforcing the 30 minute rule.
That would help.
A pool much cleaner than the ocean... You gots to be joking. I bet you are from the UK where literal crap has been pumped into your waterways. Pools are petri dishes of foulness. Why people... ugh.... just the though of a pool gives me the willies...
A**holes ruin everything. It's not limited to any one country or any one interest.
Well when you can provide a video of a nutty German we can make fun of that person as well. Until then, we're on this brit.
@Otto. Thank you. Other Canadian highlights, personally:
- Being stopped on the street by MTL police while walking to pick up dry cleaning, not told at all why I was being detained and when questioning the reason, told "Shut up, man, if you know what's good for you."
- TTC bus driver telling me how muslims are "animals, they are breeding at an alarming rate". I was simply asking for a light at a layover at the Beaches.
- Calgary house party I was at being stormed by... god knows who... Trans person at party stomped out
- Bikers on SkyTrain in Vancouver (ironic) calling 16-year-old me "Tonto" because of my skin color and threatening to hit me with a large piece of wood one of them had. One of them was also eating McDonald's fries at the time, which I found funny in hindsight.
The childish, unconditional puppy love of Canada by Americans is really precious.
"Not many pools at home in Britain or Germany."
Have you never held an approach fix over Surrey??
Wow, what a trashy resort they they obviously don't have enough pool space (or even lounge chairs) for their guests.
Look at all the bad vibes I caused by spouting patriotic nonsense. Sorry all.
"Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel."
- George Bernard Shaw
It's vitally important that first, we agree on rankings of nations. Which are the goodies and which are the baddies. After we all agree on the rankings, we can address the actual topic of the post. Let's begin.
“Frankfurt tower, this is speedbird 123 requesting pushback clearance”
“123 this is tower, hold until approved”
“Frankfurt tower, this is lufthansa 456 requesting pushback clearance”
“456 this is tower- clearance approved”
“Err, tower- speedbird 123. Why did you approve Lufthansa when we are still waiting?”
Unknown voice “ Vell, ve jairmans, ve get up early and leave our towels on ze runway”
Step 1: Toss a non-story to the lemmings, making sure there's enough potential for national/ethnic/religious/political conflict.
Step 2: Watch the lemmings fight each other.
Step 3: Collect your $$$$ from all those clicks.
Step 4: Burn in Hell. (Eventually)
Oh look, the beer and chips brigade being totally chav in order to later boil like lobsters in the sun. It's akin to the Russians storming the buffets at the all-inclusive hotels in Cyprus because uh the food might run out?
Are these tourists aware that they can leave the hotel grounds and perhaps sunbathe at a local beach?
Anyone ever thought of why Condor has this cool striped livery?
The stripes depict the towels for which the Germans are infamous using them to block sun loungers.
But sleeping on them really takes it to another level.
“Do people actually enjoy this?”
Ben, the same someone can ask about our passion of maximizing miles and points. Why invest huge amout of time to understand and navigate through this extremely complex systems of miles and points just to get a better deal? So At the end it is very similar. They just want to get a better deal and they are willing to go far beyond of what the other people would go. And it might look funny.
That being said, the rules you suggest should be implemented and enforced to make sure it doesn’t bother/ limit other from using the pool services.
Hey @Lucky, have you seen this? Definitely the funniest video I've seen about the sun lounger dash... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZ9L8KAjPA8
It’s definitely the Germans that are the worst nation in general at reserving the sun beds, not the British.
Pathetic people at pathetic overcrowded noisy resort hotels... you can have them.
All in our years at Asian pools, resorts, it was always the Germans and Brits vying to take over the chairs, towels and white socks.
Thanks to some great staff they found us chairs. I presume they knew the deal and wanted to service all guests.
At the same time there were some places after 2 hours vacant they removed the towels
There are now much larger problems facing German, France, England and the rest of Europe. Check the financial pages to see who is short on their fiscal budgets. That could have a huge impact on travel and hotels.
Easy for me... When I want a chair... Look at the reserved chairs... I watch the pool for a bit. Observe who is in the pool, see where they are sitting. When I see no one in the chair, I swoop in, put the towels and stuff in a pile and claim the chairs.
I have been there for hours and had no one come by and claim their stuff. If they do come later, I just say it was like that when I got there. Done and done.
If a few people claim a dozen chairs, we will grab a few in the middle. When the complaint comes, I simply repeat the hotel/resort policy... there is no reserving of chairs. Done and done.
The problem of limited chairs is brought on by the hotels. Just like resort fees, the hotels have brought in pay for reserved seats and cabanas while also reducing the number of "free" or "no pay" chairs.
It's a huge problem and not just by the Brits. At the JW Marriott in Scottsdale they have very few " no pay" chairs and competition is fierce for those. Meanwhile the cabanas and the pay chairs are mostly empty.
I wish hotels had a pay for resort fee and that included ample chairs for guests.
@SN
(me blocks empty chair from 5am - 10am).
Also me: "why are people extra stressed and infuriated for not finding a chair? Someone should look into that."