From a dimension of travel I simply do not understand comes the concept of reserving pool chairs and the insanity of lining up like a Black Friday Walmart sale to reserve them at the crack of dawn or in some cases…at 1:00 AM.
A Relaxing Vacation? Reserving Pool Chairs At 1:00 AM
As someone with sensitive skin who is generally averse to the sun, you won’t find me at the pool or on the beach unless it is dusk or dawn…my skin simply cannot tolerate it. But even if that were not the case, I don’t think I’ll ever understand the appeal of folks lining up at daybreak to claim a prime chair by the pool.
I get that not everyone stays at five-star hotels where there are enough chairs for everyone. What I do not understand is how a vacation is even remotely relaxing when you have to stress over what chair you will get and interrupt your sleep in order to get it. Like really, do people think, “Well, I won’t sleep well tonight because I’ll be able to sleep well during the day on my pool chair?”
One young British couple has taken to a true extreme by reserving their chairs at 1:00 am…they’re willing to sleep on the chairs in order to ensure they have a prime spot the following morning.
This couple laments, “In the hotel we stayed at, if we didn’t get those certain sunbeds we would’ve had to pay €7.50 each for a bed.” Sounds like a bargain to me compared to camping out on the chairs overnight or rising at the crack of dawn…
I suspect this “solution” does not work at many resorts where pool gates are locked overnight (hence the stampede videos on social media of the pool area opening at 7:00 am), but this sounds like misery to me. It’s misery to wait in any line, but especially at a hotel…you sacrifice sleep and wait 90 minutes in line to reserve a chair so you can “relax.”
I’d rather stay home.
It’s a bit frustrating when I see this as these chairs end up not being used 90% of the day but are littered with towels or books.
These days, when I go on vacation, I go to places that are hidden gems. Less hassle and more relaxing at the cost of a going a bit out of my way to get there.
@Malik … Exactly . Top class exclusive .
@Malik: +1. I have been going to Europe for over 10 years in the summer and other than when in large cities, I never stayed at a hotel from a chain or a resort. It has always been small locally owned hidden gems like you said and it has been absolutely heaven. Some of these places have less than 10 rooms and they treat you like royalty. Sometimes we had the pool just for ourselves, no need to worry about chairs or anything. Also, I learned in Italy that most of the beaches have what they call “lidos” and which are small beach clubs that provide beach chairs, umbrella and access to a restaurant, shower, bathrooms for a fee. Depending where you go you pay €30 for two chairs, umbrella, etc…. And those chairs are yours for the entire day. You ask the local people from the hotel to call them and make a reservation. Even on the most amazing beaches where people fight to get a spot early in the morning, you can arrive at 11am and your place is reserved in the best location. Absolutely worth it. Thus, examples like the one on this post is not what I call vacation.
It’s a race every morning in Vegas to get one of the few available chairs each morning at opening. People line up an hour before opening to be at the front of the line.
But the casinos created this by charging for 75% of the seats over time. Years ago it was just cabanas but now it’s even for single and double chairs and day beds.
Stories like this make a lawnchair and backyard wading pool attractive.
Even at upscale mid-size to large resorts, this issue exists in some way. If it’s not a dash for any beach/pool chair, then it’s a dash for the ocean front row of chairs or the most desirably located pool chairs. Depending on how much chair location impacts the enjoyability of the overall vacation, one will undertake commensurate efforts to secure such chairs. It’s not hard to understand once you understand that, for many people, the whole point of the vacation is sitting by the pool or beach in a lounger.
Sleeping on a beach chair overnight in lieu of paying seven quid is a bit extreme, though. Even for a cheapskate like me.
1am sounds like the sort of time I would return from a night out and start getting ready for bed. I don’t normally stay in fly-and-flop resorts, but it wouldn’t be hard to just throw a towel and a book on a lounger if I really needed one the following morning.
I heard Paris left this off of the list of Olympic events because they didn’t want to guarantee the Germans a gold medal.
Cruise passengers have entered the chat…
airbnb
I am very skeptical of Airbnb in countries I am not very familiar. You hear amazing stories but some horrible ones as well. I prefer hotels because at least you have someone there to assist if you need anything. Also, there are more people around which makes me feel more comfortable rather than being isolated in an unknown place. But that’s just me.
If I saw a chair empty for one hour, I would neatly fold and place any towels next to the chair and occupy it. Why are people so averse to sitting where there is obviously no one there, no one nearby saying it is theirs, no one coming back to it ?. You come back, you confront me, go tell it to the front desk – let the pool staff become hotel police, judge, jury and executioner. Nobody should be afraid to occupy “phantom” space !
Quite right. This reserving of pool chars nonsense is especially prevalent in Las Vegas and Orlando by classless Eurotrash visitors on holiday. Too cheap or too stupid to reserve a cabana in the proper way. Nonetheless, when I arrive at a pool at official opening time – or shortly thereafter – and find massive blocks of seemingly reserved lounge chairs, I don’t hesitate to enforce the rules of common courtesy. I can only assume the resident towels, sunscreen, sunglasses, and other personal effects are unwanted and forgotten leftovers from the day prior. As such, I recycle and discard them as needed into the nearest refuse bin and take happy ownership of clusters of the most welcoming and smartly positioned chaise lounge chairs.
We have taken several trips to resorts with family where this sort of behavior happens. I have no problem removing the towels and sitting down if it appears it was a “saving” situation, (I would never move belongings if it appeared the guests were swimming or having lunch.)
It’s good I find laying out on a deck chair a terrible bore. I suspect I do there with an empty box, write “Lost and Found” on it, spy a nice “reserved” chair, give them 15 minutes, scoop their booty in the box, and place the box away from me. “That’s my chair.” “It was empty when I arrived.” “Where’s my stuff?” “Did you check the lost and foung?”
Terrible hotels attracting even more terrible clients.
Mass market tourism has its downsides. I would personally pay the 8 pounds to know my chair is booked if I had to travel to one of these places, but would rather go someplace like a good homestay or a boutique hotel where the experience is more personalised.
When my friends and I stayed at a Marriott resort in Fiji a couple of years ago, we found out that the covered cabanas were first come, first serve so we would get up at 7am or earlier and walk over to to the adult pool where the bar was at and plop down our towels and other non-valuables. Then we would go to the breakfast buffet and eat, go back to our room for a bit if we needed to and then go to the adult pool and spend a majority of the morning. The views were fantastic and the infinity pool was great. I still can’t believe that they didn’t charge for the cabanas.