Measures introduced by hotels trying to reassure holidaymakers that they won’t face a 100m-style sprint to bag a sun lounger this summer have been branded ‘silly’ by one self-confessed sunbed hogger.
Sun lounger wars have been raging for years across popular holiday spots including Spain, the Canary Islands, Cyprus and Turkey – with hotels often left scratching their heads on how to stop competitive tourists embarking on dawn dashes to secure their place in the sun.
Johnny Seifert, 33, says a raft of new apps designed to help guests formally book a sun lounger are unlikely to make an impact – and might even cause more chaos as people try to outwit them.
The Londoner admits he’s the first at the swimming pool on holiday every day and secures a spot ‘right in the sunshine’ using a tried-and-tested technique.
Seifert says his kit includes: ‘A towel plus a t-shirt and a book that’s already open, so it looks like I’ve gone to the toilet.’
‘Then I’ll go off to breakfast, do what I need to, go for a walk, and then I’ll come back and be on my sunbed,’ he tells the Daily Mail.
And it’s an eight-hour strategy, he says. ‘I leave my sunbed to go for lunch and go for a walk. I reserve my sunbed for the whole day.’
Self-proclaimed sunbed king Johnny Seifert, pictured, is not shy about reserving a lounger by the pool
Johnny admits he wakes up at 7am to secure the best spot in the sun on holiday
Johnny, who hosts the Secure The Insecure podcast, explains how he gets up at 7am to nab a bed by the pool – and even earlier if he wants several.
Last summer, several clips went viral of guests rushing in the early hours of the morning to secure sunbeds for their family and some hotels have even gone as far as introducing security guards to manage the situation.
One holidaymaker, David Eggert, was recently awarded £851.75 after he took his tour operator to court. The German said he had got up early every morning during his ten-night stay to try and secure a sunbed but was never able to.
Others have reported similar situations, a tourist on Reddit posted: ‘We went out to the preferred club pool at 8am and there’s not a single pair of sunbeds with an umbrella that’s not “reserved”!
‘There were 5 actual people at the pool. Pretty much the same story at the other pool too.’
The days of the early morning sunbed rush could soon be over though with hotels clamping down and getting tougher on those guilty of throwing a cheeky towel on a lounger.
Johnny thinks the measures, which include apps, security patrolling and even staff removing towels, are ‘all silly’.
An application, called Reservato, has been launched and can be used by hotels around the world.
It pitches itself as ‘the ultimate resolution to the sunbed wars’ and allows guests to book a lounger.
Users enter their name and room number in the app and are then required to hold their smartphone near a Reservato device attached to a sunbed.
The application then shares whether the lounger is available to reserve.
Guests can stay on the sunbed for as long as they like, but once they leave it unattended, they can only hold it for 30, 45 or 60 minutes before someone else will be able to book it.
A countdown on the app, much like a parking spot reservation, shows how long is left. There are even options to pay for ‘premium’ sunbed bookings.
If a guest leaves their belongings on a sunbed after their booking is over, a hotel staff member can remove the items and log on the app what they picked up, informing the guest.
But for Johnny, the ability to freely select a sunbed and not be restricted is one of the positives of being on holiday.
‘If you’re going to start having to book on an app then that’s not holiday, that’s regimented, that’s like being at work,’ he insists.
‘The freedom is that you choose when you get a sunbed, and if you’re going to get down later, you know you won’t get those best sunbeds, or you have to sit by the pool or sit on a chair.’
The sunbed expert argues, ‘If you want the best sunbed, then get up early and get it.’
Hotels are now bringing in measures to help manage the long queues of holidaymakers waiting to participate in a morning rush for a sunbed, like the scenes pictured here back in 2024
Hotels are already using similar apps to Reservato, and a review of a hotel in Tenerife on Tripadvisor reads, ‘One of the best part of this whole experience was using the app to reserve your sun-beds. What a brilliant idea, very easy to use and allowed you to book at your leisure.’
Other hotels seem to be hiring staff to help clamp down on the issue.
A guest at a holiday camp on France’s Mediterranean coast told the BBC how ‘twice a day they sound a horn and if you’re not at the lounger, all the items are removed to lost property’.
Meanwhile St George Beach Hotel and Spa Resort in Cyprus has a ‘sun lounger allocation’ policy that sees guests given a specific sunbed for their entire holiday.
The hotel is flexible to changes, and its website reads, ‘Recognizing that preferences may change, we offer the flexibility for guests to adjust their sunbed allocation.’
Staff promise to ‘go above and beyond’ to help ensure guests are happy with their sun lounger and to accommodate guests based on availability.
Other hotels are taking slightly different approaches to tackling sunbed hogging, including simply removing items from unused loungers.
‘I went to a resort in the DR once that had a lifeguard who would patrol around and gather “left behind” towels/belongings and take them to the towel return area,’ a holidaymaker shared on Reddit. ‘It was amazing and every resort should do this.’
Holidaymakers in Costa Del Sol were spotted racing each other to nab poolside sun loungers the moment the doors opened in 2024
Someone else experienced a similar tactic and explained: ‘Recently stayed some place with a very simple rule posted by their pools “all items left unattended for 45 minutes will be moved to the Lost&Found”.
‘I assume it must be enforced, because it seems to work pretty well and we’ve been able to find loungers at almost all times, except when people are actively using them.’
Security guards and bouncers have even been hired in some locations, like Sunset Beach Club hotel in Benalmádena, Costa Del Sol.
The Sun reported in 2023 how the hotel had security workers to unlock gates to the pool and sunbed area at 9am and if any sunbeds were unoccupied by 10am, the towels would be removed.
Will all these measures dispel the sunbed wars this summer? It’s yet to be seen – so let the battles commence!
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