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.
It is what it is. Personally, I have no problem removing towels- and even personal items- if it’s in the morning and it has been empty for more than an hour.
But that also makes butler service important, and to be candid, butler/genie service on large cruise ships even more important because as long as you get up before the official debarkation at their private island, you will be the first off of the ship, and at least on Royal Caribbean, you also get a golf cart. From there, you can grab any of the dozens and dozens of ‘prime’ spots without having to pay extra, and some of these are actually better than the $2,500+ private day over-the-water cabanas they try to sell.
just like the overhead bins problem
SELL THE DAMN CHAIRS BY THE HOUR with surge pricing for peak demand periods
chairs rented in 3-hour blocks: 9-12, 12-3, 3-6 etc.
If one can go down to place a towel to “reserve” a chair, then they can sit in the chair at that time. No “reserving” a chair SHOULD be the standard practice at ALL resorts. Now, let’s hear from the entitled prima donna’s who don’t agree…
Yeah, someone needs to be present to ‘hold’ the seats. I’m fine with someone holding some seats for the rest of the party as long as they’re present, and then time restricted if all other seats are occupied / ‘reserved.’
But properties need to step up and manage this if the pool capacity doesn’t match the hotel guest capacity.
Gary, what is with your readers? On any sensitive topic (on race or LGBTQ+ matters) they reveal their bigoted nature. In a post like this, they reveal their antisocial nature.
Social norms are not written, they evolve with cultural practice and in a culture such as this where the norm is to save seats using towels, then removing those towels is a subversive act perpetrated by antisocial people who think their interpretation of laws is the correct one.
Gary, I wouldn’t want to be your readers. You know how reddit is lambasted for having a comment section full of 18-29yo incel men in their parents’ basements? View From The Wing might have a comment section full of 30-70yo perpetually single angry white men who shouldn’t be traveling because they are just spreading bigotry and grumpiness around the globe. I bet that EVA Air passenger who demanded the flight attendants wipe his buttocks was a View From The Wing commenter!
—
Simple ground rules
1. If a pool chair is “reserved,” move on. DO NOT MOVE other people’s belongings. If you do not agree with this reservation method, well then boo hoo! YOU should be the one booking vacations at higher end properties where a chair is always available.
If you are a 30+ year old white male AND NOT A LOSER then you should have an income of at least $5MM/year which allows you to easily afford such properties.
Thank you for your consideration.
Dignity – Congratulations! You have won the award for the dumbest response of the year with this asinine response — “1. If a pool chair is “reserved,” move on. DO NOT MOVE other people’s belongings. If you do not agree with this reservation method, well then boo hoo! YOU should be the one booking vacations at higher end properties where a chair is always available.” — In the future, change your name to “Karen”.
Sorry @Dignity but you are just wrong. It is very reasonable for a resort to have this policy and I have seen it enforced and enacted quite well in many places. The best will have attendants come around every 30 mins or so and leave a placard on your stuff explaining the policy. If it is in the same spot after another 30 mins they will take your items to the pool hut where you can collect it when you return. The notion that anyone should be able to pluck a couple chairs for the day then come back hours later while guests actually wanting to use the pool (and order drinks, etc.) should be denied because someone turned up at 6am and threw down a towel is just silly.
It is fine for resort staff to remove, or to allow the removal of, personal belongings. I am commenting on the case when the resort has no policy and no intervention on the matter.
I mean yes of course it is, but if that is the way it is done, then it is wrong for you to subvert it
It is extremely silly that we in the USA have a system of tipping every damn service person. It would be wrong for you to stiff them.
I am up early to save chairs at the beach for my wife and me, however I am in that chair except for meals and drink refills for the rest of the day.
Too many people save chairs at the pool and the beach so they can decide which they like better during the day.
This is the entitled passive aggressive behavior of people who where never taught manners, respect and sacrifice at home and has become the new norm for Americans.
I remove “saved” towels and books at the Cabo resorts all the time but I’m 6’3 280# former football player. Staff won’t do it because a complaint to management gets them chewed out by the wimps and sometimes fired. The wimps don’t confront me but some complain to their wives loudly.
This is just another breakdown in our society from a nation that was more respectful to others and is now: me me me me
Our church has had a problem like this in the past for Christmas Eve services. Karens would claim pew space an hour in advance, then disappear to hang out at a nearby wine bar, then return five minutes before the start of the service. Because of this, the church adopted a 15 minute rule for holding spaces.
The problem, however, was not immediately solved. Our ushers, reflecting a tendency of many mainline Protestant denominations to be inoffensive “pleasers,” were unwilling to confront the selfish, entitled Karens.
I, on the other hand, had no such qualms. At about the 20 minute* mark, if the Karens had not returned, I would invite congregants who did not have seats (and who would otherwise be forced to stand through the entire lengthy service) to take the clearly available pews. It was Christmas, after all.
For me, the joy of giving was only surpassed by the joy of seeing the reaction of the Karens upon returning to find “their” seats taken. When they started to direct their anger at the “interlopers,” I intervened and said “I’m sorry. They only let us hold seats for 15 minutes. I assumed something had come up and you weren’t coming back so I invited these folks to sit here.”
*I waited until the 20 minute mark to give the Karens a five minute grace period. It was Christmas after all.
Was just in Cancun and just learned of this unsavory action — thought it was a joke. I made a practice of sitting on ‘reserved’ chairs and towels, briefly as I only would jump in, air dry, and go about my business and come back a few hours later to cool off.
Never had a confrontation. Not an ex-football player (soccer instead), but I was prepared for any hostile action. I certainly wouldn’t react with violence (done enough of that in Iraq and Afghanistan), but would probably enter into some friendly banter 😉
At any of the resorts I have stayed at Miami Beach, one checks in with the attendant, who assigns the needed number of chairs and towels. If you leave, they’ll collect the towels and make the chair available for someone else. Of course, if you come back later they’ll give you a new chair and towel.
No idea why anyone would want to stay somewhere where you need to “reserve” a chair at 6 am
People who place towels on beach chairs early in the morning are bottom feeders. People who defend that slime are probably in the same untouchables class. If your spouse made you do it I give you a pass since you live in misery. Throw all the towels on the ground! WOOOOOOHOOO.
Has Tim Dunn changed his name to Dignity?
This Karen needs to start his/her own blog and quit wasting our time.
Back in 1986 there was a giant concert in Central Park to celebrate the 100th birthday of the Statue of Liberty featuring several A list singers and musicians performing that evening at 8:00 PM. We got to the park with a blanket at 10:00 AM to get a prime spot. As the day went on, the area around us filled up with people and their blankets. By 7:00 or so, there wasn’t a blade of grass exposed due to all the blankets touching each other. Well at about 7:50, a woman comes over and after walking on everyone’s blanket, plops herself down on the blanket of the people in front of us. Well you can imagine what happened next. The people whose blanket she was on, said basically, Are you kidding? We’ve been here for hours for this spot so get off our blanket. To make a long story shorter, I’ve never seen two women in a fist fight. Miss entitled was promptly removed from the area by the police.
I’m not a beach or pool person so I don’t encounter this crap but if you aren’t in the chair and aren’t in the bathroom then the chair ain’t yours.
More people should do as that person did.
This is the normal practice at hotels . To leave towels on the lounges when you go eat, swim in the pool or otherwise. I find all the anger strange. Hotels usually reserve rent out cabanas too.
I have no problem using the towels and chairs of those who leave them for my use. If they can chump me off when they arrive and protest, well good for them, otherwise, tough.
The world needs more of these heroes, until the resorts grow a spine and stop this selfish behavior.
Before I stay at a resort, I will call them and ask about their policy of reserving chairs. If they don’t clearly say they enforce removing belongings after a set time, I will tell them oh that’s disappointing, I’m going to cancel my booking and stay elsewhere.
Yea I dont play this game. It’s counter to a relaxing vacation to me and does that mean I lose out on the “best spot”. Yea probably. It cant remember times where I have had no where to sit though so it usually works out fine and by 2pm or so most people have grown bored and move on and the good spots magically appear. It’s annoying but never been a thing I think alot about.
At Orlando timeshare, I moved a chaise from an 4th row to the end of the first row next to the pool. I moved an umbrella 2 places over on the first row. Technically, I did not take a “reserved” chaise. When the part of 4 came up after 12 noon, they challenged me taking/moving their items.
The Hilton Hawaiian village has a line of people waiting for the gates to open for lounge chairs and the guest run like the Tenerife clip, but the worst… a resort in the hotel zone between Cabo and San Jose. The convention attendees would place items on chaises before sunrise and wouldn’t get back to them until 1pm.
This Dignity person can shove the towel and the chair where the sun doesn’t shine
Dignity is the greatest example of social issues today. Wow. You truly are a horrible human being.
I think a fairly high rental charge would be perfect. Give a receipt with the chair number on it. Then anybody squatting on a chair that they didn’t pay for could be removed. I wonder how soon overbooking will start.
Myrtle Beach. You want 2 chairs and an umbrella? $40 for the day, discount for extra day reservations. Sit in an empty set the chair attendant will be around in 3 minutes to get your money. I’ve seen people get up and leave then not wanting to pay.
You can’t get 2 chairs and an umbrella at the Walmart there for $40.
The solution is in the hands of the resort: ban such reserving. I was in a laundromat recently for the first time in a long time. I was so pleased to see the sign inviting patrons to remove clothes from a stopped dryer and place them in provided baskets. It was slow, and I had no need to. But, having a sign like that would have been great in the past.
The interesting twist here is that many of those crack of dawn reservers might actually be happier sleeping in and still getting a fair shot a good spot.
I can’t recall if it was Bali or somewhere else in the region.. but .. I stayed at a nicer (read 4+ star) hotel and they had a small staffed kiosk at the pool entrance. When you entered, the staff showed you the current “map”
of open loungers – you took the one you wanted and s/he used your room key card as authentication…
but.. if you left the enclosed pool area for more than 60 minutes, the system would automatically cancel your chair assignment and now show it as “open” and available for another guest…. of course, if you told them you’re done and leaving, then that too would trigger the system to show your old chair as being open as well.
Some of the higher rooms (ie suites) categories were allowed to pre-book a seat the night before .. but otherwise it was first-come, first-served pool side.
I liked this as it eliminated the whole issue of someone dropping their towel in the AM but coming back hours later.
Stayed at a resort in Cancun where you could always get chairs. It was wonderful. Obviously, you can’t get the best spot on a beach, but you could find something reasonable or by the pool at the least. I would go back there purely for this feature alone. I don’t want to spend my day competing for resources that are artificially scarce. And just like the runs on bread and milk before a storm, that perception of scarcity brings out the worst forms of hoarding (people taking/buying things they don’t need for fear of “losing out” later). During the early pandemic, I had a friend buy 30 packets of yeast — he didn’t really know that much about making bread. The selfishness cultivated around perceived scarcity is a character trait in human beings I don’t want to see. I would rather go to another restaurant than wait for a table, and I’m not organizing my morning on a vacation around a fu#$*%& chair.
I would do take those towels and book etc and drop them in the lost and found box. Just because i hate this #$%#%@#
That’s why I just go to Boracay. Sure the place may be a little over crowded. But always room for one more in the sea.
@Arturo- your’s is quite a different situation, since those people were on their blanket at the time.
That’s like if paul and Lee Fennema sat on someone’s lap when taking beach chairs- I’d guess despite their football/soccer training, they’d still get kicked out!
I would agree- no dibsies without being there to use the chairs!
Now I know where I’m never gonna take a vacation. Thanks.
Some resorts have a policy that if the lounger chairs remain empty for more than an hour or something like that, then they will clear them for other guests. Given how long meals may take to get at resorts or for guests to avoid paying the resort’s premium for food by going off-premises, it seems to work to open lounge chairs if it also to get people ordering food and beverages on-premises.
If a chair has a hotel towel on it, you’re not removing anyone’s personal property. I say go for it. But of course in the US you’re likely to invite a violent response when the “owner” of the chair shows up.
Oh, and sad to see racists like @Dignity showing up here.
@Dignity: You wrote, “If you are a 30+ year old white male AND NOT A LOSER then you should have an income of at least $5MM/year which allows you to easily afford such properties.”
I don’t know if you realized it, but what you said means you consider every 30+ year old white male whose income is less than $5 million a year to be a loser.
Not all heros wear capes!
And that is why I have a policy of never going on vacation to places that have “charter” and “vacation packages”
That eliminates the chance of encountering white trash americans and euro trash
This does not happen in anguila, barbados, martinique, etc etc
It happens in mexico and punta cana, both white trash magnets
That’s the way to do it. If someone leaves their belongings for hours unoccupied that is their problem. It needs to be removed. On the other hand glad I’m not one of those sun worshipping folks.
@Jon Biedermann, while RCCL is a fine cruise line but, if their Royal Class Suites don’t include a private beach then I’d move on. Many other cruise lines have the butler service, golf carts, etc. but also include a private, uncrowded beach, and separate facilities as well. MSC Yacht Club at Ocean Cay is one example. I believe RCCL does still has a private suites area at Labadee but slumming it on the beach with the commoners on Coco Cay…the horror 🙂
In all seriousness many cruise lines battled the towel issue for years and most have resolved it. Now they still allow some wiggle room just to be nice and on uncrowded days it’s not such an issue but here is just one example from Carnival. https://help.carnival.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/1121/~/reserving-sun-loungers
@Dignty, please check the person in your mirror. He is a prime example of every derogatory label you described in your comment. You need to work on being a little less entitled and a great deal less judgemental.
Incidentally, the chairs poolside or beachside at these venues are for the use of ALL the guests. If it is not in use, it is available. Manners and sharing are important lessons that should be taught early in life. Being just plain ignorant is unacceptable.
@George… My point was that the woman who arrived 10 minutes before the concert was entitled and selfish. She thought that she didn’t have to be at a certain place at a certain time to reap the benefits of a prime spot. That’s kind of like people who reserve a chair but then don’t have to be at the chair at a certain time (mainly for hours) either.
I think you should be able to reserve a chair for 1 hour. You should reserve with your room number. If you do not show up within 1 hour, then your room will be charged x amount for every half hour you are late. If you leave for lunch, you have 1 hour, and then again, you are charged if you are late. Everyone there is on vacation, and everyone should be able to enjoy the beach or pool. We shouldn’t have to get up at the crack of dawn just to get the best chair. It should be fair for all vacationers!
@Lee Fennema — I stay at a lot of resorts (on points) and had never really seen this “extreme lounger hoarding” that I’ve read about, until I encountered it at an all-inclusive resort near Cancun last November. It was before 9 am and I went down to the pool because my wife wanted to do yoga there. I went to sit and relax in a poolside lounger and they were all taken — despite nobody else being at the pool!
I have, of course, seen lots of pool loungers being largely unused by people who’ve thrown stuff on them and gone off to do other things. But at the places I stay there are usually enough loungers available that it’s not a huge deal. That said, with hotels now restricting the number of free loungers and using that space to sell “cabanas” and such, it seems to be becoming a bigger problem. I think having a pool attendant monitor and assign chairs is the solution, but I’m not sure most resorts will want to add the labor cost necessary to implement this solution.
Here is what I think the strategy should be. If chairs seems ‘reserved’ by a books or whatever, then just move them to the ground and take the chair. After a half hour, one person in your party takes all the clearly lost items to the resort lost and found and says they found these items and walk away. When the other people show up 4 hours later, just say you never saw their stuff, and that no you’re not moving. “Oh that’s awful that your items are missing but we haven’t seen them. We’ve been here for a couple hours though, so it is no wonder that after being left so long someone stole them.”
If the staff then ‘helps’ by trying to get you to move, complain vociferously. “There was nothing here when we arrived and it has been a couple hours!! You can’t possibly believe these people were here first. They just as likely could be falsely saying that to make us have to move!!!” Really dig in. Resorts will quickly learn allowing this behavior is more untenable than it already obviously is.
On the other hand, if the people show up within the half hour, apologize and give up the chair. You win some, you lose some.
Items left should absolutely be considered lost. Resorts, charging you money, should have their own strategies for preventing the idea of ‘reserving’. That’s partly what you’re paying for: fairness of practice and policies. So, when you book a resort, definitely ask what their policy is in this regard. If they don’t have an enforcement plan, well then just don’t book. Such a resort can’t possibly understand what makes for a good experience.
I first encountered this selfish phenomenon on the island of Maui, Hawaii. We were staying at a lovely resort that was part timeshare. Sure enough while I sat and had my coffee every morning on the balcony, I’d witnessed an older gentleman take the resort pool towels and clothes pin them to 6 lounge chairs that were in the best spot right in front of the main pool. He’d then head to the breakfast buffet. His family wouldn’t show up for hours later. In Hawaii those coming from the East Coast had an advantage of the 5 hour time change so Gramps was easily able to get up at the crack of dawn to hoard chairs.
Reminds me of the not unfortunate squabbling over divers between the halves of a polo match. Stories like these would be less prevalent if not for the scourge of Reaganomics.
Yeah, no, there’s never been a running of the bulls in the Canary Islands, which is 2000 km away from where it actually takes place. And bullfighting never picked up there either. The bullring in Tenerife hasn’t seen a bullfight since 1977. The bullring in Gran Canaria last saw a bullfight in 1971. The fact that there’s a law banning that kind of spectacle in the Canaries since the 1980s is a testament to the lack of bullfighting culture there.
Also, resort fees not a thing outside of the US of A. Or at least not a thing in Spain.
And at 6:15 every morning I would go around collecting all the towels and then put them all in a single pile.