I’m an introvert, and that doesn’t just mean that I’m shy. I find being around a lot of people draining. So business and first class is nice not just for a bigger seat, but to avoid being in a crowded sea of people. Similarly at a resort, I tend to like smaller properties or at least hotels with a lot of space per guest or where people tend to enjoy luxurious rooms rather than congregating in communal space.
“Resort factories” where you have to get up before 8 a.m. to place a book or beach towel on the chair if you don’t want to wind up four rows back from the ocean aren’t my idea of a relaxing vacation. But that excludes a lot of otherwise-great places, and often means staying someplace more expensive (either in dollars or points).
One guest, though, took a rogue approach to the reserved beach chair problem. They didn’t want to get up and play the reservation game, which is also unfair to other guests – it selfishly takes up a space that goes unused for hours at a time. So they literally removed all the towels from loungers.
I was on holidays in an all inclusive resort. First day, we couldn’t find any lounge chairs by the beach or by the sea, fair enough – we arrived in the afternoon. Next day, we go to find a spot.. but most of the spots were ‘taken’ by towels. We find an empty seat and to our surprise – many of the chairs stay reserved almost the whole day or never get used..
Third day, we decide to take some towels off two loungers, and enjoy our day. Four (!!) hours in, an older couple shows up that they had towels there, and kick us off with help from an attendant.
That pissed me off, so every following day I went to take the towels off of every unattended lounger after breakfast, and then went to watch the chaos from my balcony. Many many people complained and by the end of the week there was a sign that unattended towels would be removed. Success!
I took away all the ‘towel seat reservations’ at the resort
by u/konijn12 in pettyrevenge
Travelers flock to resorts where they get up at 6 a.m. just to reserve a pool or beach chairs and call that ‘relaxing’. I’ve seen this even at expensive resorts, like the Ritz-Carlton Grand Cayman. So I have to applaud those who are fighting back. Why do great hotels even allow scenes like this dad sprinting from lounge chair to lounge chair, putting down towels to mark territory? He’s ‘doing what he has to do’ for his family, but it’s a shame he has to do it!
Or at this resort in Tenerife, Spain where people lined up at 6:30 a.m., 90 minutes before the pool even opened, in order to be first in line to reserve chairs. Then they storm this relaxation area like it’s Black Friday at Walmart.
@chloeturner_1 Another day another sunbed war 😂 #holiday #tenerife #playadelasamericas #sunbeds ♬ original sound – Chloe Turner
In Tenerife, Spain I suppose this would be called “the running of the guests.” Your resort fees probably include the pool chairs, too.
LOL! That’s what these idiots pay for? Happiness is a thought! It has nothing to do with flying a public jet with snopts to any over done vacation spot. That’s why many of us already have PRIVATE vacation spots!
Dignity is ironically named, it seems.
A point in Kraig B. Richard’s favor is that at least he stuck with just blaming folks’ supposed bad behavior on their politics, not on their politics *and* their race.
How in the world would anyone remember what seats they had saved? I have no problem just moving stuff around. Throw their crap on another chair being ‘saved’ and have a seat. And without official assistance, I am not moving. And with official assistance, I am going to tell the assistant to find me a place to lounge.
When enough people have to pay for their towels, they will quit laying them around.
If they want to pay my bar tab, they can have the seat.
That’s supposed to be a vacation? Even if I was assured of getting a chair, I would *never* hang out in rows of people like that. Seeing their (mostly bad looking) half naked bodies up close, listening to their inane conversations. That’s hell, not a vacation.
There’s a lot of vacation rental bashing on this blog lately, but that is an advantage of renting your own house with pool. Privacy.
Me and my little brother did this decades ago in Gran Canaria where we had a condo. We threw all the towels into the pool. Looking down from the balcony as the chaos was golden.
I’ve seen this occasionally. I generally just sit in an occupied lounge chair. I rarely have been disturbed — that’s how long people save the chairs without even showing up.
Recently stayed at luxury resort in Bali, sign on lounger stated that if belongings were left unattended for >20 mins they were removed and placed in locker. Best idea ever!!!
@American, riddle me this in your scenario. . I prefer to spent 80% of my time in the water, pool or beach. My wife and i get our 2 chairs, and she prefers just to sun. Since my form of relaxation doesn’t model yours, do i need to hold my personal belongings with me the whole time? Or how about we remove all the pools to create more room for chairs? Bottom line patrons should not be touching other patrons belongings. Find a staff member, complain to management, get the policies changed, but never touch anyone else’s belongings.
The 80 year old’s play this game on Regent Seven Seas Cruises – they take 2 seats in the shade and 2 more in the sun. $1,500 per person per day and they still act like children.
White People Problem
Stayed in an hotel in Tunisia, a few years ago, where guests, of all nationalities, were doing the towel trick the night before. One night we threw the towels on top of the pool bar and in the pool. Next day guests we had chatted with were amongst those moaning about the people who’d thrown their towels off the sunbeds, we kept quiet but felt good.
The moral of the story is people with narcissistic personality disorders fight with other people that have narcissistic personality disorders.
The entire story sounds completely made up.
All that just to sit around a tiny pool in the middle of what looks like a crappy apartment complex? No thanks. That does not sound like a vacation at all.
This is nothing new. It is a problem that has been going on for a very long time, and I experienced it as far back as 30 years ago. Over the years, I have visited many places, large and small, around the world, and often have had to set my alarm for 6 am, grab towels and paperbacks, and rush out to reserve beach seats (depending on the location and time of the year, sometimes, it’s even still dark at 6 am!), and then go back to bed.
APM: If it’s a towel plus a book, sunglasses, etc., then yes. If it’s just a towel, especially a hotel towel, then no, the towel is not your “belongings”.
I am laughing at this as I sit at my homeowners association pool in my overseas gate community home watching the ocean. Oh by the way I am usually by myself.
The only word to describe people who ‘save’ lounge chairs is the word pathetic. Go to these lengths to cram yourself into a lounger that’s one of many loungers all lined up side by side? So you can get a tan? Get real, guys, UV rays cause skin cancer. Plan things to do that are interesting, not pathetic.
My wife (of 47 years) and I experienced all the above whether cruising or at a resort.
Disgusted with selfish crowds and such childish behavior, we realized we could instead spend these ridiculous expenses by transforming our existing back yard into our own private resort.
No rental cars, airline fees , hotel “resort fees”, or reservations required. All pay-as-you-go, at your
own pace.
We use our fire tables, BBQ, and pool side lounges whenever we wish. No interruptions, or shrieking unsupervised kids (and “parents”) while we enjoy quiet-pool side afternoons and evening dinners with music WE selected. The perfect continuous vacation waiting for us just outside the back door at anytime! Best investment we ever made.
This happens on cruise ships, too and is THE number one reason we will never go on a cruise again. As many people noted, there is nothing relaxing about getting up at 6:30 in the morning to save a chair. Totally defeats the purpose of a vacation. As the author notes, I’ve seen the same thing at the Ritz-Carlton on Grand Cayman and it’s the reason we don’t stay there. Hopefully the resorts get this figured out.