A British holidaymaker has described witnessing “absolute carnage” as fellow tourists fought over sunbeds at a hotel in Spain. Kirsty Sarbutts, 38, from Manchester, said the rush for poolside spots descended into chaos every morning during her stay last month.
More than 50 tourists queue before doors open
Kirsty claimed she saw over 50 tourists queuing at 8am to get to the pool, despite the doors not opening until 9am. She said the situation quickly turned chaotic, with guests allegedly stopping others from passing before sprinting to secure their preferred sunbeds. She also claimed she spotted one man falling over during the mad dash.
“It was embarrassing to watch,” Kirsty told creatorzine.com. “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 secure sunbed sparks intervention
Kirsty said she saw a woman send her child to the front once the door opened to get a certain sunbed, which caused other adults to intervene as they were unhappy about queuing for an hour. During her seven-night stay, she only managed to bag a sunbed once, and only late in the afternoon, as she and her husband preferred to enjoy breakfast rather than rush to the pool. This meant they often ended up making do with plastic chairs.
Kirsty added that “there were adults arguing for sunbeds throughout the day due to people removing towels on beds that had been left unoccupied all day.” She suggested that hotels allocate sunbeds to bedrooms to make the process fairer.
Social media reaction and hotel measures
Kirsty posted a video of the “carnage” on social media, with commenters reacting. One person wrote, “The Brits are so bad for this now,” while another added, “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.”
Sunbed wars have become increasingly common during peak holiday seasons. Tensions rise when people leave towels on sunbeds but don't return for hours, leaving others unable to enjoy the pool despite empty beds. Some hotels have implemented rules to combat the issue, such as staff removing belongings left unattended for over half an hour, with items taken to an office for retrieval.
Across Spain, several beaches have similar measures, with potentially hefty fines for rule-breakers to deter people from laying out towels and then leaving, reducing space for other beachgoers.
