When people say they are going on a vacation abroad, we usually imagine a warm country with beautiful beaches and palm trees in the background. To have the full relaxing experience, some of them don’t mind staying at a more luxurious hotel as they usually offer activities that can be accessed without leaving the hotel.
The most popular attractions in a hotel are probably the pools. The only problem is that they have limited space and they can’t fit all the guests at the same time. Some people have discovered a hack of putting their towels and other belongings on the sunbeds early in the morning when it’s still empty to ‘reserve’ them.
A woman noticed that the GF Hotels in Tenerife don’t care how early you get up to mark your territory and they just collect all the towels and personal belongings, freeing the sunbeds of them. The video that captured the staff taking away the towels went viral and people who saw it had some opinions.
More info: TikTok
Some people think they can save a sunbed by leaving a towel on it, but this resort takes its rules seriously
Image credits: Studio Sarah Lou (not the actual photo)
TikToker Amanda Proctor is on vacation in Tenerife, one of the most popular holiday destinations in Spain, and the woman is staying at the GF Gran Costa Adeje Hotel. It’s a 5-star hotel just half a kilometer away from the Playa Duque beach, it has a PSA and sport facilities as well. It also boasts 4 beautiful pools.
In places like this, pools are usually crowded and you may have to make a few circles around the pool to find some free sunbeds. While walking around, you could get false hope by seeing that nobody is sitting on the sunbed only to realize someone’s already using it because their towel is put on top.
Image credits: mandsandrands
There is a rule at the GF Gran Costa Adeje Hotel that you can't 'reserve' a sunbed before 10am, but people do it anyway
Image credits: mandsandrands
So the staff just removes the towels and other belongings, freeing the sunbeds for other guests
Image credits: mandsandrands
The logical thing to assume is that the person went to get a drink or they are in the water wanting to cool off. But in some cases, the person is nowhere near the hotel and isn’t planning on returning for quite a while.
Tourists came up with the idea to put their towels on the sunbeds to make sure they will have a place to sit when the pool gets crowded. They usually get up earlier when there are plenty of sunbeds to choose from, leave their towels, bags or inflatables and maybe go back to bed or head to town.
Image credits: mandsandrands
It seems that quite a lot of people use this strategy, as the employee disappears in the pile of towels on his shoulders
Image credits: mandsandrands
You can watch the viral video down below
However, many hotels have a rule that you can’t actually reserve sunbeds with towels before 10am. Some people may not be aware of it, while some may be ignoring it on purpose and leaving their towels anyway.
You might want to reconsider because as Amanda Proctor witnessed, the staff will collect those towels and other belongings if you are not actually there. She recorded a couple of videos and they really blew up on TikTok, the first one raking in 4.5 million views and the second one 2.7 million views.
People in the comments mostly thought that what the staff was doing was only fair while others questioned if they do this to guests who just left to use the restroom
In those videos you can see the staff going around and just piling up towels on their shoulders. Amanda gave a little bit more context in the comments, saying that the staff not only took the towels, but people’s belongings as well, so they left a note on the sunbed that said where guests could get their things back.
Amanda also said that she was filming those videos at about 9:30am, so the staff had the right to take everything away as the rule states there can be no sunbed reservations with the towel until 10am.
The TikToker felt that they were doing the right thing because it’s not fair that people who want to lay there at that moment can’t do that and the people who reserve the sunbeds don’t come back until noon or even later.
While responding to the comments, Amanda revealed that she was quite disappointed that she couldn’t catch the reactions of the guests when they returned as it was quite entertaining.
The majority of the people in the comments reacting to the videos agreed with Amanda and considered guests who reserve the sunbeds for hours and don’t use them to be rude and inconsiderate. Some people pointed out that this is not very thought out, because if you were actually using the bed but went for a swim, to buy yourself a drink or to go to the bathroom, it wouldn’t be very nice to come back to a note that your stuff has been removed.
We would like to hear your thoughts on this issue. Do you think that guests should be able to reserve sunbeds for themselves by leaving a towel? Do you think people who block sunbeds get what they deserve as it states in the video that there are signs prohibiting saving beds? Have you ever done this and had your things removed? Let us know your reactions in the comments!