A British tourist has described daily scenes of “absolute carnage” at a Spanish hotel, where more than 50 guests queued for an hour each morning before racing to secure sunbeds by the pool.
Kirsty Sarbutts, 38, from Manchester, was staying at the Ponient Dorada Palace in Salou for seven nights with her husband Hussain, 48, when she witnessed the daily scramble.
Guests queue from 8am
Kirsty said guests began gathering from 8am in the hope of securing their preferred spot. Tensions rose as soon as the doors opened at 9am, with guests allegedly blocking others before running towards the sunbeds. She claimed one man fell over during the rush.
Speaking to creatorzine.com, Kirsty said: “It was embarrassing to watch. It happened every morning. There were fully grown adults stopping other people passing at the doors. They were all running for sunbeds. One man fell over. It was absolute carnage.”
Child sent to front of queue
Kirsty described an incident where a woman sent her child to the front once the doors opened to secure a specific sunbed, which caused other adults to intervene as they were unhappy about queuing for an hour.
During their entire seven-night stay, Kirsty said she only managed to secure a sunbed once, and that was late in the afternoon. She and her husband preferred to take their time over breakfast rather than rushing to the pool, meaning they often had to make do with plastic chairs.
Hotel staff did not intervene
Kirsty said: “We won't be returning to this hotel. Staff didn't intervene at all. There were adults arguing for sunbeds throughout the day due to people removing towels on beds that had been left unoccupied all day. The only way to calm this situation would be the hotels allocating beds to rooms. It's the only fair way around these situations.”
A clip of the scenes, filmed on July 26, has been viewed more than 127,000 times on social media. One commenter said: “They'll race for sun beds but won't come down to use them until 1pm, takes away from others who want to use them in the morning.” Another added: “I hope this holiday never finds me.” A third said: “The Brits are so bad for this now.” A fourth wrote: “Just like kids being let out at break time.” Another commenter said: “This is why I love adults only hotels.”
Ponient Dorada Palace declined to comment.
