You think it's bad at resorts?

Try a cruise ship in the Caribbean! These people are ruthless!

Glad I'm going to the Baltics.

Besides, I thought most of were more concerned with skin cancer these days.

Kharma, perhaps. (not sure if I spelled that correctly)

isn't that a bit aggressive, donna? why would you risk a confrontation with a stranger over a towel? how do you know he or she wasn't saving it for an impaired person or eldrely person? what is about towels to reserve chairs that makes all you people so crazy? if you were to remove my towel, I'd wish you a good morning, and merely place it on another chair.

Rosemary1: yes some of us are concerned about skin cancer, so it is all the more insensitive of people to save umbrella chairs, leave for hours and leave those of us who would give our eye teeth for some shade to spend the day sweltering in the hot sun. Perhaps Bonnieboard the hotel should give out tickets or have a number lottery or something such as odd or even days (hehehe)! Just kidding. Maybe at the beginning of each week, hotels should have a mandatory etiquette meeting for hotel guests so that they can brush up on their manners!

I've experienced success with asking help from the attendant. I just approach the towel guy and ask him for two chairs together. He knows who hasn't been there for hours and will remove towels. He would much rather get his tip and the waitperson to serve drinks to people actully sitting in the chairs than to the phantom guests.

SoBeTraveller: "Oh, excuse me, was that your towel (smiling sweetly)? I'm so sorry, I didn't realize." I just had a brief vision of myself and a friend, running around from chair to chair (to the tune of the Pink Panther theme), swiping towels ... sometimes it's fun to be naughty.

Donna

Austin,
My point was that it could be considered rude. I'd prefer that it didn't happen. But, I'm not everybody and human nature being what it is - I doubt this will stop occurring (if you've ever been to a resort with Germans, you KNOW it'll always continue.)

If I'm spending several hundred a night for a nice beach hotel, I'd love to know I can get to the pool and get a nice chair at 10:00 a.m. But, reality is usually different than that.

Bottom line, if I have to I'm sticking my book on the chair at 7:45 when I'm usually up and out.

The moral of this story (or thread as it were)is to avoid big and impersonal hotels that are so crowded and hectic, the only way to get a chair by the pool is to rise at the crack of dawn (or bribe the pool boy).

Instead of being so mad at each other, why don't we direct our ire at the hotel that either doesn't provide enough chairs, or enough chairs with shade .
I've always wondered why hotels are so darn stingy with umbrellas or palapas...they must know how many guests they have...

Ugh. I had the worst time with this stuff at the Hyatt in Aruba. All I wanted to do was sleep late and relax under an umbrella by the pool. The first morning there I was s.o.o.l as I scanned the pool area for a vacant lounge chair in the shade. Shade at that hotel is as scarce as lefty sissors were in kindergarden. So many towels, so few people on them. I ended up stalling for time in the outdoor cafe until a chair opened up.

For the rest of the week my sleeping late was shot to hell for having to run to the pool at 7 am to put out a towel. Then I would go up and get ready for the pool, have breakfast, and be out on my chair at a reasonable 10 am. The whole thing sucked. I didn't like doing that any more than the rest of the newbies I saw day after day liked having it done to them. For what I was paying for that room, I was furious and will never go back. Or maybe I will, but I will tip the pool guy to have a chair waiting for me every day. I guess there is no way to resolve it so I will have to fend for myself. Just ridiculous, and one more reason to prefer sight seeing vacations instead of beached whale ones.

God, I love this thread...

Austin,
We had the same experience @ Las Ventanas in Cabo @ Thanksgiving '01.
All the early birds were Californians and nearly all "owned" wineries.
They would physically arrive about 12:30 PM.
One was gracious enough to let me continue to read the "magazine" someone placed about three hours earlier to reserve his spot.
Actually, I would simply "dump" the stuff next time if no one was there - possession is 9/10ths...
M

bugswife1, the "s.o.o.l" took me a second to get the meaning. May I suggest using "SOL", where the O is for "Outta". OTOH, some people might confuse that acronym with the "Standards of Learning" test that we have here in Virginia. Food for thought.

And for some of the kids taking the SOL test, they are SOL!

Well, headed to Vegas Sat and hopefully I'll be at the pool (Flamingo) early enuf (10 ish) and won't have to worry about it.

I think I like the possesion is 9/10ths philosophy best...

A question here - has anyone asked one of these resorts/their pool attendants what their policy is in regard to "reserving" chairs in this manner? Has the management said to you, "it's fine for people to tie up these chairs with just a towel for three hours while they're on the beach, we don't mind" OR is this just something people have decided to do, and other people put up with it?

We are always out sightseeing during the day, and only get in the pool at night so I never have had to deal with this.

Pool attendents have always moved towels off unused chairs when I've asked.

I can only remember a time at the Hilton on the BI (along the "river" pool") when there wasn't an attendent nearby. I put my things down on a table, drifted down the river, and when no one had returned to their chairs, moved their towels and belongings to a side table. Over an hour later a family of 5 returned (I'm sure they had been at the "beach". They glared - but what could/ would they do? They loudly gathered up chairs to move over closer to them...by dumping towels and belongings off someone else's "reserved" chairs!

The problem is that not all resorts have pool attendents. For instance, in the resort I stayed at in Bermuda, the only employees around the pool were waitstaff and the fellow who refilled the towel bin. And if there is an attendent, removing a towel might not be a big deal, but to remove someones personal "property" can become one for a hotel employee. People have become savy and realize that a towel is not enough to hold on to a chair for the entire day.

As for asking the hotel on what their policy is for such behavior I'd be very surprised if they could give a straight answer. This actually is becoming quiet amusing to me as my Bermudian hotel room had a huge void in it because it was missing two chairs - (I'll spare you from the boring details) So I couldn't get chairs in the shade by the pool and had no chairs to sit on in my room - maybe I'll pack one of those portable chairs...ya know the kind you take on a camping trip and cozy up to the hogs under the umbrella :)

I wonder if all of the rude people who "towel reserve" chairs were not to do so, there might actually be enough chairs to go around for everyone who really wants them since people's arrival/lounging times would naturally be staggered anyway. Just a thought.

Having the beach and the facilities largely to oneself is one of the great things about traveling during the off season.

Most of the resorts I have stayed in take a dim view of this practice, and do as some of the other posters have reported - remove unused towels every hour.

I think that is a great solution, and perhaps will make some of the "chair hogs" think twice next time.

Ryan, you're not only thoughtless but a bigot as well. Many of the places we've been to have had German tourists staying there as well, and I've never noticed their behavior to be any different than the rest of the people staying there.

Perhaps you need to upgrade the level of where you stay if you are encountering problems with fellow guests.

Thoughtless and a bigot? Wow, you can decipher all that from two posts, Diana. Perhaps you should consider getting a gig in Vegas as clearly you're clairvoyent. Of course, you missed that my Mom is German, so guess your powers of deduction aren't all that you think they are.

I'd also suggest that unless you actually HAD been with us last year at the Sheraton Algarve in Portugal, I'm probably a bit closer to those events than you are.

As I said, it'd be great not to worry about a chair at 7:45 and most of the time that's the way it works. But, when I've paid $600+ a night for a room at a hotel in Portugal or The Four Seasons in Bali, I'd rather just have the chair than the moral victory knowing that I was one of the FEW not getting my chair at breakfast.