Many vacationers want a lounger by the pool during their summer vacation. They often reserve them early in the morning with a towel. But the behavior leads to a lot of trouble with other guests. Many hotels set clear rules, others hire a law enforcement officer.
Who doesn’t know the stories of early in the morning at the hotel pool: as soon as the facility opens, dozens of holidaymakers rush off and occupy sun loungers with towels. Just secure the best seats first, then have a leisurely breakfast or even go to bed again. The main thing is that the territory is marked out, even if you only get to sunbathe hours later.
It’s called the “towel war.” The phenomenon may be ancient, but it could be causing a lot of trouble this year. “People have been waiting for their vacation for a long time due to the corona pandemic and perhaps have the feeling even more than before that they have to get the most out of their vacation,” says tourism expert Alexis Papathanassis.
“However, in many holiday destinations there is a shortage of skilled workers in the hotel industry, so there will be restrictions on services. If people are already dissatisfied because of this, small annoyances such as occupied sun loungers become even more important.” Papathanassis, rector of the Bremerhaven University of Applied Sciences and professor of business administration, business informatics and tourism/sea tourism, has researched the phenomenon.
Morning exercise in flip-flops is also part of the bathing holidays on holiday islands such as Mallorca or Tenerife in 2022. A hotel in Tenerife therefore has a “pool sheriff” on duty, as shown in a video on TikTok: He clears the reserved sun loungers in the morning because reservations before ten o’clock in the complex are forbidden. The sheriff’s mission is accompanied by a song by Bonnie Tyler “Holding out for a Hero” – “I’m waiting for a hero”.
The hotel responded to the video of a vacationer who had filmed a clean-up there. “Great, I’m so fed up with people who are breaking the rules and nobody is doing anything!” someone wrote on the vacationer’s video. This is a tricky problem for hotels. After all, you want completely satisfied guests – this also includes those who take part in the run on the sun loungers in the morning.
Holiday organizers and hotel chains are reluctant to respond to inquiries about how to deal with it. “There are no guidelines or anything like that from Accor on the subject of ‘reserving pool loungers’,” says the hotel chain of the same name. The travel agency Tui says that there are usually enough sun loungers for everyone in their hotels.
The staff are also happy to set up additional loungers or help to clear loungers that are apparently no longer used, says spokesman Aage Dünhaupt. In some hotel complexes you can also reserve a lounger for a fee. It’s becoming increasingly popular, he says. At Club Med there are usually enough loungers, says a spokeswoman. In smaller facilities, it is forbidden to reserve loungers.
In 2019, tourism expert Papathanassis, together with Stephanie Boecker, dealt with the towel war in a scientific anthology. They evaluated dozens of online sources and user comments, and conducted interviews with 28 tourists. They came to the conclusion that many holidaymakers are expecting a shortage of sunbeds because of the media reports.
They would therefore also reserve loungers by the pool from the outset. “It’s a bit like the toilet paper hamsters at the beginning of the corona pandemic,” says Papathanassis. “People hear that something is said to be tight and then act in such a way that it’s really tight.” In addition, many people assume that everyone else thinks the same way as they do. A need for routine and security is also given as a reason for occupying couches.
Britons like to denigrate Germans as “beach towel brigade”. Years ago, a British brewery made fun of it in a commercial: while a group of obese Germans ran excitedly to the pool, a cool Brit hurled a towel grenade out of the window. She jumps like a flat rock over the pool, lands on a sun lounger and the towel unrolls elegantly with a beer can inside.
The Swiss airline Swiss also targeted the Germans with an advertising campaign. She sent actors in the colorful uniforms of the Swiss Guard, which actually guards the Vatican, to the beach in Palma de Mallorca in 2016 to guard the loungers reserved by Germans and to serve cool drinks.
The Club Med spokeswoman says: “The more German guests, the more loungers are reserved – in Club Med Kamarina, the ban is even the only notice in the resort that has also been translated into German.” The cliché that it’s always only the Germans isn’t true: the British are also “bitter players in the towel war,” wrote the Accor hotel chain in its magazine. Papathanassis and his team also identified French, Greek and British occupants.
Many people are reluctant to clear occupied loungers themselves. This happens “for fear of confrontation with an angry sun lounger blocker,” wrote Papathanassis and his team. But that leads to frustration. Most people would therefore like clear rules that are enforced like in Tenerife. For some, the spectacle of occupied loungers is also amusing.
They “see their vacation enriched by the excitement of a confrontation,” it said. Papathanassis finds that the topic is being artificially exaggerated. “I also do research on tax evasion and money laundering, or alcohol and crime to sexual violence in the tourism industry. These are really scandalous issues that need to be tackled – but the biggest resonance is with towel wars. It’s an issue that really isn’t a top priority in the tourism sector.
(This article was first published on Sunday, July 24, 2022.)
