A German tourist has won a payout of £850 after he was unable to secure a sun lounger at his holiday resort due to others reserving them with pool towels.
The unidentified man, who was on holiday in Greece in 2024, said he had to wake up at 6am and spend 20 minutes trying to find a sunlounger for his family of four.
After the holiday, he sued his tour operator for allowing guests to reserve sun loungers with their towels, arguing that it happened so often the loungers were unusable, according to the BBC.
He said that his children were forced to lie on the floor because of this.
The man told the court that the tour operator failed to enforce the resort’s ban on reserving loungers with a towel, stating that guests who were doing so were not confronted.
At the district court in Hanover, judges ruled in his favour and said the holidaymaker was entitled to a larger refund on the package family holiday as it had been “defective”.
While judges said the travel company did not run the hotel and could not ensure every hotel guest had access to a sun lounger throughout the day, the operator was obliged to ensure there was a structure in place to allow for a "reasonable" amount of loungers for guests.
The tour operator had initially paid out a refund of €350 (£302), yet judges in Hanover ruled the family was entitled to a refund of €986.70 (£852.89).
The man had initially paid €7,186 (£6,211) for the holiday on the Greek island of Kos.
Waking up early in the morning to reserve a lounger is a common practice in many European holiday resorts, often dubbed “sunbed wars”.
A video went viral two years ago as holidaymakers at Ohtels Vila Romana in Salou were filmed racing to reserve pool loungers before breakfast.
Sunbed wars escalated in Calpe, Spain, in July 2024 when tourists were warned not to reserve a lounger on the beach in the early morning or risk a fine.
The seaside town in Costa Blanca dissuaded tourists from setting up their loungers at sunrise with fines of up to €250 (£215) to halt sunbed wars in peak season.
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