Guilty! Yes we do the sunbed run, last time we were abroad somehow I ended up with the job. Usually went down between 7 - 7.30, have to say its lovely when its nice and quiet. We are a family of 6 and usually have between 4 and 6 sunbeds, but if the kids don't use theirs then we let them go. Once we've had breakfast we're back at the sunbeds and are there all day. Don't reserve them though if we are out for the morning, drives me mad when people leave them empty all day!

It's the one part of the day I dread though, and if we do go away this year I am tempted to say I refuse to do the run everyday and maybe opt for the beach instead. But the thought of a day without a sunbed......

TBH before we had children we didnt even know what the pool area looked like in most of the hotels or apartments we stayed in . As a couple we much preferred the beach .

Having children changed all that and the only place our children wanted to be was in the pool , all day, every day.

So I suppose for those of us that like to spend our holiday doing nothing much more than lying on a sunbed around the pool, reading a book, people watch, have a giggle at watching some of the antics and generally see our children playing and having fun then the whole sunbed /pool thing is fairly important . Yes Im afraid it is very high on my list of priorities for a family holiday abroad .
I'm never very good at sightseeing in the heat which is why we like to do a couple of city breaks or a cottage in this country too. funnily enough then I dont even want to sit down and we walk and walk and walk.

Laurel and who??????, don't you mean Ant and Dec.

Yet people seem to refer to us as 'Norfolk n' Good'

When I'm on holiday I spend just about ALL my time on the beach or in the sea, from early morning (so I see no problem in having my bed saved for me at 06.30 when I'll probably be on it by 07.15) til late afternoon so having a sunbed in a good position is important to me.

I don't like being around the pool, it's got to be the beach (it's got to be the beach at the Conrad to be more precise!) for me and I want MY sunbed to flop onto after I've been snorkelling which I do several times a day

Hi blondiescot
It's nice to see someone else who thinks the same. I couldn't agree with you more. People who "hog" sunbeds just don't care about anyone else but themselves. I've seen sunbeds covered in towels for most of the day before now, with hardly anyone using them. Some of the "better" hotels around the world have a strict poolside protocol and the attendants actually remove the offending towels - usually easily recognisable because they've been brought out from the hotel room and are the wrong colour!

It is still adults prices after 12 in most hotels,which is a bit unfair when we go AI, as he usually only has water,we take our own squash because he doesn't like fizzy.I don't however do the sunbed run,and if we're not using the beds for a while we take our towels off.

Hi
I used to be constantly looking over the balcony in the morning counting how many sunbeds were left, getting more anxious as they got less and less These days I cant be bothered getting into a panic about it, if there are some free we will spend some time round the pool, if not we will go to the beach.
Cant stand people who put towels on their sunbeds and do not return until afternoon.....if at all.
Just relax and enjoy your holiday

Although I said I'm guilty of getting up early to get a subed I do make full use of it and agree that they shouldn't be hogged and left covered with towels instead of bodies. I have no qualms about people removing towels if they're unoccupied for long periods of time.

Apart from when we go to brekkie, if we leave the pool area, we remove our towels.

I have never got up at stupid o'clock to bag some sunbeds but then I haven't had to. We have been lucky in that we go away in October and the hotels tend to be quieter then and there always seems to be plenty of sunbeds available. We were at the Holiday Village Viva a few years back and had read all the reports about the lack of sunbeds but we didn't have a problem when we went there was plenty for everyone. But even if there wasn't enough sunbeds I still wouldn't join the sunbed queue to put down towels at the crack of dawn. This summer I was horrified when friends told me of their experience when on holiday in Turkey, every day there seemed to be a massive row round the pool over people being accused of 'stealing' sunbeds. Usually it was Russian tourists that caused the rows but after a few days it involved most of the families by the pool. One morning the wife had gone to get a drink for her kids while hubby went for a swim and came back to find all their stuff dumped and their sunbeds gone. My friends stopped going to the pool and said there was a horrible atmosphere at their complex that carried on through to night time activities, mealtimes etc. It really spoiled their holiday seeing grown men and women actually coming to blows over a sunbed!

I cant believe when i hear the English making jokes about the Germans being up early to put their towels down on the sunbeds.

My expierience on holiday and going by whats being said on here, its the English who are most guilty.

whoever does it is the guilty party!
Don'y matter if they're English, Irish, black, white etc etc etc!

*raises hand* English, white and guilty!

As far as I can tell all Nationalities do it !

Have to say I don't feel 'guilty' - I would if we didn't use them but we do. There's no point in being principled and deciding to be one of those who don't reserve beds, when so many are doing it. When we went to Mexico there were signs everywhere telling you that beds were not to be reserved or towels would be removed. So we started off by going to breakfast and then going to the pool with our towels, only to find that no-one obeyed the signs and the towels weren't removed. As we don't really like the beach, we had no choice but to join in with the towel game, if wanted beds where we could easily see the children. As far as I'm concerned, worse than reserving beds is stealing other people's pool towels. Happened on our last day, went for a swim to find one of our towels gone. It might not have belonged to us, but it took a bit of pleading to make sure we didn't lose our deposit!!

Pam

Last year my hubby decided he couldnt be bothered gatting up early to do the pool run,even though we did get up at 8 but this wasnt early enough.We found that we liked sitting on the chairs round the bar and facing out to the sea(which was almost lapping at our feet) reading our books.Neither of us is a sunbather and there was plenty of shade where we sat.The kids were always off playing with their friends and when they needed a towel they just came to where we were.We usually ended up with a bed or 2 at some point in the day and really it made the whole holiday stress free not having to do the towel run.

Personally, I can't think of anything worse - I wouldn't dream of doing it and think those who put it at the top of their list of priorities are pretty sad to be honest. If that what's important to your holiday, fair enough, but I like to go on holiday to experience the sights and sounds of the place, not getting up at "stupid o'clock" just to bag a sunbed! I don't mind early rises in the slightest - but not for that reason!
Never mind, when I rule the world, I'll be up there on the roof - picking off all the early sunbed baggers! :sun2

At last the voice of reason, gotta admit it is one of my pet hates when I go on holiday although we only visit Goa now and rarely have this problem. I find it pathetic really and have seen it cause so much tension and friction that you have to ask yourself is it really worth the hassle ?
Tenerife used to be the worst place I have come across this, towels were put on at night before people went to bed Once in bed sound asleep out came the towel monster and threw them all in the pool so be afraid, be very afraid of the towel monster

we go on holiday with good friends, and they are usually up before us, and put some towells on the sunbeds, BUT we spend all day on them ( in july its too hot for sight seeing)

i get up about 7.30 or before, and go and sit by the pool, and have a coffee and read my book....its a lovely time.....and i am usually on my own but all the sunbeds will be taken,

some nutters put towells on the sunny side AND the shadey side, now thats wrong......

some nutters put towells down and then dont show till mid afternoon, now thats wrong.....

i dont agree with bagging sunbeds, and it really gets my goat, but if we didnt we wouldnt get any at all......

last year we went in sept, and the weather wasnt so good, so we decided to go out alot.......couldnt believe that people STILL put towells down in the drizzly rain and it was an all british place

I am the man who sits reading on a sunbed at 06.00,in my job here in the middle east I am at work by 05:45 body clock and all that (03:45)UK time,but I wait untill the wife arrives then we have breakfast.I dont put towels on the beds and go back to bed for 3-4hrs.When in Barbados I am sat on the balcony at 03:00am drinking coffee.So if you see a baldheaded old codger reading with a torch it could be me.We will be at the Riu Palace Macao Punta Cana in 6weeks.