German successfully sues tour operator after sunlounger race

A German holidaymaker has successfully sued a tour operator after losing a 6am race to reserve a sunlounger with his towel.

The unnamed man, who travelled with his wife and two children to the Greek island of Kos in August 2024, had paid £6,200 for the break, expecting a relaxing stay at a large resort hotel.

Instead, a district court in Hanover heard how the family’s mornings quickly became a daily battle for space by the pool, with sunbeds effectively ‘reserved’ long before most guests were awake.

Although the hotel had an explicit rule banning reserving loungers with towels, it was widely ignored in practice.

The family said that even when they got up as early as 6am, most of the sunbeds had already been ‘taken’.

In his complaint, the man told the court the situation was so bad that the family were forced to spend up to 20 minutes each day simply trying to find a spot where all four of them could sit together.

On several occasions, he said, the children were left lying on the floor because there was nowhere else available.

Hotel staff, he claimed, refused to step in.

A German man who travelled to the Greek island of Kos in August 2024 is suing a tour operator on the island after losing a 6am race to reserve a sunlounger with his towel

The family said that even when they got up as early as 6am, most of the sunbeds had already been ‘taken’

The court ultimately sided with the holidaymaker, ruling that he was entitled to a partial refund of £850.

The tour operator, which was not named in the proceedings, had previously offered just £300.

In its judgment, the court found that the package holiday had been ‘defective’ because it had not provided the ‘character’ that the customer was contractually entitled to expect.

While acknowledging that the travel company did not operate the hotel itself and could not guarantee individual access to sunbeds at any given time, the judges said it still had a responsibility to ensure there was an organisational structure in place that provided a ‘reasonable’ ratio of loungers to guests. 

It comes after a swathe of similar sunbed wars that erupted last summer across several holiday hotspots.

In August last year, a mother on holiday with her family revealed how she was forced to get up early because of ‘unfair’ sunbed hogs.

Lianne Smith spent a week in Cala’n Bosch on the Spanish island of Menorca with her husband, two children, parents and her brother.

However, her £3,500 holiday wasn’t quite as relaxing as Lianne hoped, as she soon found herself battling other overly keen tourists for sun loungers in the mornings.

She revealed she found it hard to secure six beds together because of other eager holidaymakers reserving them in the early hours. 

‘It goes against what I think is right. It’s annoying, but you pay all that money – and if you can’t beat them, join them,’ the mother-of-two said. 

Lianne, from Bristol, recalled how even though the hotel pool didn’t officially open until 10am, nearly a third of the sun loungers were gone by 8.30am. 

She explained how a lot of the ‘taken’ sun beds were actually for children who would spend most of their time in the pool. 

And in May last year, British holidaymakers were seen queuing for over an hour in a bid to secure the best poolside spots at a Canary Islands resort.

Sunseekers armed with towels, suncream, and flip-flops were captured in bizarre footage on May 28 lining up for the pool at the Barceló Lanzarote Active Resort.

Queues have become a regular morning routine for holidaymakers at the Spanish hotel, guests said at the time.

Isabelle Hanssen, whose balcony overlooked the pool, watched as the poolgoers eagerly waited in line. She said they were usually made up of Brits with a few Germans also standing in line.

The Dutch tourist also revealed that the queues started as early as 8am despite the pool not opening until 9.30am.