Absurd: Hotel Guests Sleep On Pool Chairs To Reserve Best Spots

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 making reserving pool chairs a competitive sport.

While I’ve seen a lot of examples of this, I’ve never seen anything quite like this…

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Guests at Tenerife resort sleep on pool chairs

There’s video footage going viral from the Gf Fanabe Hotel, a four-starresort in Tenerife, Spain, where rates are often $500+ per night in peak season (not exactly cheap!). In a video clip posted online, you can see that it’s still dark outside, yet a good percentage of the pool chairs are already reserved. Many of the pool chairs even have sleeping hotel guests on them, as if they’re hotel beds.

This was filmed by a 30-year-old guest on Monday, August 25, 2025, as he was on a two-week holiday at the resort. As the guest explained:

“People sleep on sun loungers to reserve their spot. They reserve the beds, but the hotel has a policy that if your bed is left unattended, they will remove the towels – so they just lay in them. Some even look to be asleep. It’s a bit silly. I do get why people do it, but it’s a vicious circle, so to speak.”

“They’re the ones creating the problem that they’re aiming to avoid. If people didn’t reserve beds they didn’t need, then there wouldn’t be an issue. I haven’t seen the beds anywhere near full in terms of people, just towels. We got one bed between three of us the other day, and a lady kindly said we could have one of hers – it wasn’t being used and she told us to take her towel off. I mean, in a sense, it’s nice of her, but in another, why is her towel on it when she’s not using it? It’s mostly selfishness.”

More often than not, we see these kinds of hotels only open the pool area at a certain time, to avoid this kind of situation. When that happens, you’ll sometimes see a stampede the moment the gates open, with all chairs being reserved within minutes.

Honestly, I’m not even sure which system is worse. At least the hotel where people are sleeping on the loungers (in theory) requires guests to stay with their towels, and at least this avoids a wild stampede.

I don’t really understand the psychology of this?

I don’t know about you, but when I go to a resort for a vacation, my goal is to relax. That sort of involves doing what I want, when I want, and not being on anyone else’s schedule. Yet somehow, it seems that at so many of these resorts, it almost turns into a competitive game of who can claim pool chairs the earliest.

Do people actually enjoy this? Like, at this point, why go on vacation? You’re going to sleep on a pool chair rather than a comfortable bed, just so you can maximize your rays during the day? Do hotel guests who deal with this think “I can’t wait to book my vacation here next year?” Before anyone accuses me of being classist, or anything, let me remind you that these hotels often aren’t cheap. People are spending a lot of money for the privilege of this “experience.”

From a guest experience perspective, it always amazes me how hotels don’t do more to manage this ridiculous practice. At the of the day you presumably have fewer pool chairs than guests who want them, yet “first come, first served” is the only system that hotels can come up with?

The problem with any of these unmonitored system is that 100% of the pool chairs might be reserved, while only a small percentage are actually being used at any given point. So whether it’s a case where people sleep on the chairs or simply storm the pool when the gates open, it seems like there should be a better way to handle this:

• If a pool chair isn’t occupied for some amount of time (30 minutes, one hour, etc.), it should be given up to a guest who wants it
• Maybe each guest should get a certain amount of time in a pool chair, and sessions can be broken up so that you can be guaranteed a pool chair either in the morning or in the afternoon
• Not to suggest more revenue opportunities, but maybe pool chairs should cost extra and have dynamic pricing, so that guests can pay a little extra but actually enjoy their vacation; I wouldn’t actually like to see this, but it seems more rational than spending over $500 per night, only to sleep on a pool chair

Below are a few more clips of “stampedes” at resorts in Spain. In particular, the commentary in the first video cracks me up, starting around two minutes in:

• “We’re all watching it, because we’re all horrified that we’re about to do this every day on holiday, this has ruined my holiday”
• “Look, they’re all like bloody locusts, I’ve been a locust too”
• “I’ve done it every day, the stress involved in getting a sun lounger has been horrendous”
• “It’s actually made me feel really poorly”

Bottom line

Reserving pool chairs is basically a competitive sport at many resorts in Spain in summer, especially those frequented by Brits. The most common practice we see is that the gates to the pool open at a certain hour, and then there’s a stampede.

However, one resort in Tenerife doesn’t seem to only open its pool gates at a certain hour, but does require people to stay with their towels. As a result, some guests seemingly sleep on these chairs long before the sun rises. This can’t be fun, can it?

What do you make of this whole pool chair fiasco?