Not being funny here, but why can't people just put their towels on the sunbeds the same time as they put their bums on them? i.e. when they are actually down at the pool for the day?

One person reserves sunbeds and then everyone else thinks they have to, and so it goes on and on and on....

Many times over the years, we have gone down to the pool between 9 -10 am to spend best part of the day there - only to be faced with no vacant sunbeds - no actual bums on seats but towels on every one of them.

It always caused grief, which to be honest we could do without, especially on holiday - that we had also paid good money for.

Lately we have been booking private apartments, but it's still happening round the poolsides there.

It really does my head in.

If in any way I offended some normal people, please accept my apologies

Normal people?

I am with Lyn and Shirley on this. I am a natural early riser (despite not wanting to be) and am usually around the pool by 7.30 - 8.00 enjoying my first coffee and swim of the day. Its lovely and peaceful and , yes ,I take the girls bits and bobs down as well. I call them for breakfast and we are all usually there by 9.30
If we are going for more than the time it takes to eat a snack then everything not coming with us goes back to the room and we find somewhere else when we return
I also have sunbeds for each of them as they are teenagers(pay full price) and spend most of their time on them or in the pool on our hotel days.
Lally

I used to stress on holiday about getting a sun lounger around the pool. These days though, I'd prefer to have a bit of a lie in, not getting up at 7am to put a towel down, before everybody else!! If there's no sun lounger around the pool, we just toddle off down to the beach to get one there, and come back later on in the afternoon. I must say though, we've been quite lucky with the places we've been, haven't had much hassle in getting a lounger around the pool area. Failing everything, I just send the hubby!!!!

After my 2 week stay in 2002 at the Coma Gran in Sa Coma Majorca , where people were getting up at 5am to get a sunbed around the pool I had had enough.
I don't normally sleep late so did get beds some days and we did occupy the beds from morning till afternoon but that place really took the biscuit.Itwas funny though listening to the swapped stories of what time peolple had got up to reserve their bed and particular spot and watching the fury on new arrivals faces when the couldn't get a bed at 10.00
Each day certain large groups would reserve lines of beds but some members of their party would barely grace the bed for an hour mid afternoon - how selfish is that?
As for us we spent a lot of time on the beach that year and if we wanted to go to the pool found lots of beds free later in the afternoon
Since then I have made a point of checking reviews on here and if places have a sunbed problem then they are crossed off the list , I just can't be doing with it , even though we've had several holidays during peak times since then I've not been anywhere where getting a sunbed was a problem.

Blackcat,No problem getting a sunbed on Seaburn beach

Thing is, though, you shouldn't have to avoid places where this is an issue, the hotels and campsites should be stricter on this problem - it's not as if it's a hard thing to sort out. A nice big sign saying 'no reserving sunbeds' in a few languages ought to be enough!!

Just because a place has problems with this issue though, doesn't mean it is a place full of pondlife although i do tend to avoid most places high season as we prefer the quiet life on holiday

Thing is, though, you shouldn't have to avoid places where this is an issue, the hotels and campsites should be stricter on this problem - it's not as if it's a hard thing to sort out. A nice big sign saying 'no reserving sunbeds' in a few languages ought to be enough!!

I couldn't agree more Cider Monster.

I don't think how much you have or haven't paid for people in your party should come into it when getting a sunbed.
(and yes, my husband and I pay full price for us all too)
The fact of the matter is, everyone there has spent their hard earned money to be there.

In an ideal situation, there would be enough sunbeds to go round so people wouldn't feel the need to reserve any beds.
(But then again, I bet some still would! )

But until managements of holiday properties do something to stop this infuriating practice, I doubt it will ever stop.
As I said previously - it really does my head in!

(Blackcat1, I've been one of those people with fury on their faces when they couldn't get a sunbed at 10 am)

I'll get my coat...>>>>>>>

Just remove the towels and this will stop as folk will at least get down to the sunbeds at a decent time ,not hours later

I'm with Milly Molly 100%. Cidermonster (I know you are a nice guy, especially with a name like yours). But, expecting these pondlife bullies to adhere to signs asking them not to 'reserve' sunbeds! Furthermore, expecting that hotel staff will listen to complaints about sunbed 'reservations.'

Wake up man, and smell the coffee (no offence meant) - These lowlife listen to nobody. Watch them, these same people are those that
(a) Break glasses, bottles etc around the swimming pool and fail to clear up.
(b) Leave a mess with empty lager cans purchased in the local supermarket.
(c) Play their ghetto blasters relentlessly and extra loudly.
(d) Run madly around with deplorable behaviour causing danger to young children.
(e) I've seen them discharge air guns with plastic pellets everywhere.
(f) Shout all the time.

And, you think they will obey signs or listen to hotel staff (who themselves don't want to listen to anybody in the first place).

Believe me, I have complained, I have pointed out notices, I have even begged. [I'm nearly in a rage, just thinking about the subject and am surprised at the reaction here].

One Scottish vicar (jokingly) came up with a brilliant suggestion to keep these people away from the hotel/apartments - Keep tomato ketchup away. Perhaps, it would be worth a try as everything else failed. (I have just thought of an episode in Lanzarote a few years ago that maddens me - I'll post on this forum shortly, it is quite a story).

leprosy
you need to use HT reviews so you don't end up in the hotels you seem to pick. I hope you have also reviewed those hotels for us so no-one makes the same mistakes.

Just because a place has problems with this issue though, doesn't mean it is a place full of pond life

No it doesn't and what gives anybody the right to categorise another human being as "lowlife" "pond life" for going on holiday within their budget and enjoying themselves?
Their behaviour may not come up to my standards, they may not wear the appropriate clothes and they may be acting selfishly, but I would prefer to use the word lowlife for someone who has stolen/mugged/robbed another person, not someone who is looking out for their own interests and is inconsiderate.

Why do some people have to think it's not the done thing to wear a football shirt on holiday and tar everybody with the same brush?
Just in case you've forgotten, the Euro 2008 is in full flow and my resort was/is full of people of all ages (men & women) wearing their national team shirts and I didn't see any hooligans amongst them, they were mature people who appreciated the game of football, and considering the resort had a large Dutch occupancy in all the hotels, who got knocked out of the tournament, they didn't go on the rampage after the match.

As England is not in the tournament, I wore my Spanish football shirt during the holiday and I even travelled home in it on Sunday night as Spain was playing Italy, but please, I'm no pondlife or a hooligan.

I returned from a 4* hotel on the Costa del Sol and I would say 93% of the guests of all nationalities were above the age of 50 years old, and during the fortnight there were a couple of families in the hotel who had obviously been allocated on arrival as there is absolutely nothing for children in this hotel, and if I was being a trifle snobbish, then I would say that they couldn't afford the prices to stay there, and some of these guests looked at these kiddies splashing about in the pool and doing what children do, as though they had been spawned by Satan.

If I was being totally honest, the reason why the sunbeds were all taken before 7am, is because the people were too bleddy tight with their money and wouldn't pay €9 across the promenade on the beach"¦"¦the very same people won't pay the hotel prices for drinks and go sit in a dive in a filthy back street drinking watered down beer and spirits all night long, but they walk around the hotel like half pint millionaires, all glitter and cheap cr@p jewellery.

So, how do you equate your general synopsis of people who get up at the crack of dawn to reserve sunbeds with lowlife and pondlife, when I've just given you a perfect example of the other end of the spectrum.?

Judge not, that ye be not judged. !

Sanji

Edit: Grammatical error.

In an ideal situation, there would be enough sunbeds to go round so people wouldn't feel the need to reserve any beds

In the majority of cases this is really all thats needed . Obviously nobody wants to be packed in like tight sardines around a poolside but im sure hotels could set aside an area of the grounds in a grassed area for a few more sunbeds in high season. I agree milly We have all paid a lot for our holiday the point I was making was that just because we pay a lower price for children under a certain age shouldnt mean they arnt entited to a sunbed if they are using it . My bum does go on my sunbed at an early time ,usually by 7am if Im allowed on the poolside .Ok the rest of my family are not with me but I am an early riser . I dont set an alarm clock to be up for a sunbed run I enjoy the early morning and im not going to sit in a stuffy room waiting for the rest of my family to wake .In egypt it is even common and acceptable pratice for guests to tip the pool guy who then puts out their towels in the morning . I have never done this as I want to be there anyway

Leprosy I agree with fiona you really do need to check reviews a little closer if you end up in hotels like that . Never in my life have I experienced any of those people on your list in anywhere Ive stayed .

the hotel I stayed in last year did actually have a policy of no reserving beds before 8am. the pool area was taped off and out of use until this time and it only made the situation worse and in fact bordering on the dangerous. from 7am onwards a queue formed at various entrances to the pool . at 8am the turkish guy released the tape and everyone ran and skidded like the january sales literally throwing the towels at the sunbeds . you had no time to unfold them. Just ridiculous. By 2 minutes past 8 most mornings every bed had gone around the poolside so I really cant see what difference it would make

Just remove the towels and this will stop as folk will at least get down to the sunbeds at a decent time ,not hours later

Have you ever done that?

I have....and jeez - there was MURDER! Absolute BLUE MURDER!
(and yes, I was told to do it by the reception. )

NEVER AGAIN!

I don't need that sort of grief (don't need any sort of grief - I get enough at home which is
why my holidays are so very precious to me and mine.)

Here in the UK, I HAVE to be up at 5am - 5.30am at the very latest.
I'll be damned if I am going to get up at stupid o'clock when I am on holiday just to get a sunbed
that I should be entitled to.
(Even though I am always up and about by 7.30am anyway...my body clock won't let me lie in. )

But principles won't allow me (or my husband - and the kids dare not!) to go down to the pool and
reserve sunbeds.

I know how I feel when I go down to the pool and I can't get a bed, and I wouldn't inflict that feeling
on anyone else.

Daft - maybe. It's just the way I am.

Staff at the hotels/apartments should enforce the policy of no reserving sunbeds.
There should be signs up, and if they are ignored, the towels etc should be removed by the staff.

My experience has been that the people who reserve sunbeds are far from 'pondlife' who breaks glasses and leave supermarket beercans lying around etc. This is a problem in any large hotel which doesn't have enough sunbeds for all the guests that might like to use them. It is not a premise of the large group all wearing football shirts, it's something that happens everywhere with all types of holidaymaker, most of them being just as 'normal' as the rest of us on here.

It happens because it becomes a cycle, most people I would say genuinely go with the 'if you can't beat em, join em' attitude. It's not ideal but then you can't always guarantee that other people are going to be the non-selfish type. Describing everybody who does the 'sunbed' thing as above is loading a bleddy great brush with a bleddy great dollop of tar, isn't it really?

I haven't had a problem in this area for years, because I go to smaller hotels in smaller resorts where it just doesn't happen. For a lot of people, especially those with families, they have to go at peak times, they like the hustle and bustle and entertainment of a large hotel or complex and that their kids have plenty of opportunity to make other friends. It's probably only the one area where they might have a niggling concern on an otherwise ideal holiday for them. These are the 'normal' people that have been spoken about I guess?

As for those who get up early and put towels on a sunbed. There is nothing wrong with doing that. You are up anyway, you are preparing for the day ahead and you will all be down using those beds within a couple of hours. It's the ones who do it overnight or get up then go back to bed which irritate me a bit.

I really dislike when people have a view of one kind of behaviour on holiday that they presume that this means they are 'pondlife' who also display various other aspects of antisocial behaviour. It's so not the case and in my opinion very narrow minded to think so.

I certainly wouldn't class the serious bed reservers as "pondlife", my worst experience was in a nice family self catering aparthotel in sa coma , never saw a lager lout , the resort was lovely .Simply was the pool area was not big enough and there were not enough beds .Luckily it was only 5 minutes walk from a lovely beach and if I wasn't up I was happy to pay the euros and have a nice day there , hell there were beds available by the pool from about 4.00 anyway.
We have tended to stick to places where there wasn't a problem as my kids do like the pool.
Last year we had a week in Majorca in a small apartment complex with a nice little pool that wasn't used a lot as we were very close to the beach, the apartments allowed us to use the larger pool at another complex owned by them, this hotel had 99% guests from germany/holland/scandinavia , the day we went the pool was packed but we got beds and when the beds ran out they had lovely comfy lie back chairs that were actually nicer to sit and read in.Lovely laid back atmosphere too.
All this talking about sunbeds makes me wish I was by a lovely pool right now (bed or not !!)

The topic is getting out of hand. We are arguing about people abusing their position regarding the 'booking' of sunbeds. Nobody is saying anything adverse about people who obey the rules and use common sense.

As in everything there are people who make up their own rules and have no consideration for others. These are the same people who jump the queues at airports, car-rental agencies and passport control. They are always looking for some way to improve their own situation only at the loss to the silent majority. I don't care what their occupation is or where they live or what amount they have in the bank, they are pondlife and should be treated as such.

The question was asked:- Why don't I write a review on these places? I'm the guy who pays the money up front; I'm the guy who waits in the queue; I'm the guy who empathises with nearly everybody; I'm the guy who keeps his mouth shut and smiles caringly- I'm the guy who does not go back.

And with 50% of others who now book privately owned apartments instead of through Travel agents - I win. Perhaps I will write a review on the options available?

Please desist from using the word "pondlife" and other similar derogatory comments. I'm sure you can all continue this conversation without resorting to such comments.

Any further posts which contain derogatory comments will be deleted. Anyone who ignores this request may be issued with a warning or may even find their membership of the site terminated.

luci