A British tourist has described the 'embarrassing' sunbed wars she witnessed during a recent holiday in Spain, as the battle for poolside spots descended into 'absolute carnage'.
Kirsty Sarbutts was visiting Spain last month and witnessed upwards of 50 fellow guests forming queues at 8am to reach the pool area, despite entry not being permitted until 9am.
The 38-year-old said scenes spiralled into disorder each morning, with visitors reportedly preventing others from getting past before racing to reserve their chosen sunbeds. She even alleges she observed one gentleman tumbling during the frantic rush.
'Embarrassing to Watch'
'It was embarrassing to watch,' Kirsty, from Manchester, 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.'
'We saw a woman send her child to the front once the door opens to get a certain sunbed which caused other adults to intervene as they weren't happy about queuing for an hour.'
Kirsty also claimed that throughout her seven-night stay, she only succeeded in securing a sunbed on one occasion, and that was late in the afternoon, after she and her husband opted to savour their breakfast instead of dashing to the pool at first light. Regrettably, this meant they frequently found themselves settling for plastic chairs instead.
Adults Arguing Over Sunbeds
Kirsty went on to describe how '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 should assign sunbeds to individual rooms in an attempt to create a more equitable system.
She provided a snapshot of the 'carnage' through a clip shared online, which promptly attracted a flurry of responses. One commenter observed: 'The Brits are so bad for this now,' while another remarked: '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.'
Hotels and Beaches Respond
Sunbed disputes have grown progressively more frequent during busy holiday periods. Frustrations mount when visitors drape their towels across loungers only to disappear for extended stretches, preventing others from enjoying the poolside despite numerous vacant beds.
Several hotels have begun introducing fresh regulations to tackle the problem. A widespread approach involves staff patrolling the pool area, collecting possessions left unattended for more than 30 minutes, with items transferred to an office where guests can subsequently collect them.
The issue extends beyond hotel grounds. Throughout Spain, numerous beaches have adopted comparable strategies to curtail this behaviour, with potentially significant penalties for those who flout the rules in an effort to discourage visitors from spreading out a towel before wandering off to explore the area, thereby depriving other beach users of space.
