British tourists have taken sunbed wars to new extremes by sleeping on loungers overnight to reserve the best poolside spot at a Spanish hotel.
Ben Smith was left stunned after he noticed the best loungers at his Tenerife resort were already taken – three hours before the pool opened.
Despite it still being dark outside, the majority of poolside beds were occupied – apparently by guests who had slept on them overnight to save their place.
Holidaymaker Ben, 30, of Sheffield, described the bizarre scene as a ‘vicious circle’.
He captured footage of the bizarre ritual at the £259-a-night-per-person Gf Fanabe Hotel – a four-star resort that seems to have fallen victim to this year’s sunbed wars.
The footage was shot on Monday August 25 at the start of Ben’s two-week summer holiday.
‘People sleep on sun loungers to reserve their spot,’ he said.
‘They reserve the beds, but the hotel has a policy that if your bed is left unattended, they will remove the towels – so they just lay in them.
‘Some even look to be asleep.
‘It’s a bit silly. I do get why people do it, but it’s a vicious circle, so to speak.
‘They’re the ones creating the problem that they’re aiming to avoid.
‘If people didn’t reserve beds they didn’t need, then there wouldn’t be an issue.
‘I haven’t seen the beds anywhere near full in terms of people, just towels.
‘We got one bed between three of us the other day, and a lady kindly said we could have one of hers – it wasn’t being used and she told us to take her towel off.
‘I mean, in a sense, it’s nice of her, but in another, why is her towel on it when she’s not using it?
‘It’s mostly selfishness.’
The Gf Fanabe Hotel has been approached for comment.
