A mother has described how holidaymakers recruited their children to sprint and claim sunbeds at a Spanish hotel, leaving her family unable to sunbathe onsite for half of their trip. Cait Fennel, 42, from Liverpool, travelled to Salou, Spain, with her husband Matty Fennel, 34, and their five-year-old son Ralphy Fennel for a week-long stay at Hotel Best Oasis Park.
On arrival, Cait noticed there were no free sun loungers. She said holidaymakers would begin queuing outside the pool area at around 8:45am, even though the doors did not open until 10am. The moment the doors opened, guests would 'charge' towards the beds, with speedy children apparently 'unleashed' to get there first.
Queue tactics and gym 'sneak-ins'
Cait said guests left their beach bags in a queue to reserve their place and would even 'sneak' in through the hotel gym to reach the pool first. Footage she posted online shows children sprinting to the sunbeds while adults speedwalk behind, throwing towels onto the loungers. Photos also show sunseekers dumping their beach bags in the hour-long queue.
“The door opened at 10am and people started queuing at 8.45am. It was kids and adults every day, some were queuing inside as well. They'd leave their bags in the queue - there was a queue of beach bags,” Cait said. “The second they opened the doors they would charge. They definitely enlisted the kids to run and get the sunbeds. It was madness. I've been on a lot of holidays and never experienced anything like that.”
“There was a gym in the hotel and what people were doing was sneaking in the gym and as soon as the doors opened they would come out. That was the lengths people went to,” she added.
Family avoided the pool for three days
The situation became so chaotic that Cait's family avoided the pool altogether for the first three days of their holiday. “The first three days we didn't go to the pool for that reason. We saw how busy it was and never got beds. We had to get involved to an extent. We actually went down and attempted to get a bed, we didn't run. The rest of the time we spent our time on the beach,” she said.
Cait said the daily scramble took the relaxation out of their £3,000 holiday and believes the hotel could have done more to prevent the chaos. “It's not what you're on holiday for, you go on holiday to relax. It was chaos, it was stressful. There were beds you had to get yourself and there were people running to the beds stacked up, which contributed to the chaos. It is just madness, it made no sense. The holidaymakers did what they had to do. We didn't want to get involved in the chaos but we ended up having to queue,” she said.
Online reaction and response
Cait's post racked up more than 27,000 views, with commenters criticising the behaviour. One wrote: “Worst nightmare.” Another commented: “Sad people,” while one added: “It is absolutely embarrassing.” Best Oasis Park has been contacted for comment.
