Sitting by a beach or pool is a staple vacation experience. The sun, water, relaxation, it’s all almost too good to be true. Of course, seats in the shade or seats, in general, can often be in short supply, so people will go to all sorts of lengths to secure a spot.
An internet user shared the time she got a little bit devious and took some petty revenge on some holidaymakers. She grew tired of other guests “reserving” seats with a towel, despite not actually being by the pool for hours on end. So one morning, she hatched a plan and then watched the ensuing chaos from her balcony.
“Reserving” a seat with a towel can be pretty annoying for others if you just leave it there for hours
Image credits: Bi yasemin (not the actual photo)
A woman described the time she sabotaged all the “towel placers” by moving the towels while they weren’t watching
Image credits: Beachbumledford (not the actual photo)
Image credits: konijn12
Some people feel entitled enough to “reserve” almost everything they can find
People like to spend their vacations in a variety of ways, but if the destination is by the sea or a resort equipped with a pool, it’s a pretty safe bet that spending time in the water or by the water is in the cards. Unfortunately, this means sharing this space with a lot of other humans who all have a similar plan of action. The result, as OP shared, is a sort of cold war, involving towels, lounge chairs, and the weaponization of the unwritten rule of “dibs.” Now, most of us would honor the idea of dibs or first-come, first-serve, but as the women behind the post identified, there are people who use this honor system against others. Occupying a seat you aren’t using for hours is counterproductive and downright annoying.
In a move reminiscent of some of the brilliant generals of history, OP utilized the old wisdom of “divide and conquer,” removing all the towels, and pitting the hordes of vacation-goers against each other. Her petty revenge was clever enough as is, but a brilliant part that might go overlooked is making many if not most of the “towel placers” understand the silliness of their idea. Allow me to elaborate, had she just approached a person who did this, they would disregard her argument, as displayed in the story. Even worse, they would be backed up by the many other “towel placers,” who would want to keep doing it.
Instead, she let them draw their own conclusions in the ensuing chaos and the hotel intervened to prevent any more arguments. This is the best-case scenario in these sorts of situations. The comments give many other examples of places where common areas end up monopolized by people who think they are entitled to reserve space at their own leisure. This way, the hotel stops “towel reservations” in its tracks. While many shared their own examples of all the different things people called dibs on, it’s comforting to know that more and more locations are putting together rules to prevent these situations from arising. From a purely selfish perspective, it’s good for hotels and resorts as well, as staff doesn’t have to waste as much time resolving conflicts.
Image credits: bigwilliec (not the actual photo)
Readers shared some similar experiences with “reservations” that took it too far
Others expressed their mirth at the situation
A resort I frequent allows you to reserve lounge chairs online in a certain section for 4 hours if you’re willing to pay $75. Otherwise your unattended towel is thrown into the lost and found and your seat is up for grabs if you haven’t made an appearance after 30 minutes.
At Myrtle Beach you can reserve chairs / umbrella for $45 a day IF there’s any still open which has to be reserved THE DAY BEFORE by 5:00 PM. Ppl leave their towels & stuff at their umbrellas sometimes until the umbrellas are taken down by the lifeguard @ 4:30 PM and barely make an appearance, but if they’ve paid $45 then it doesn’t matter, that is THEIR umbrella, not yours to take over.
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Wait wait wait. The towels on the loungers are put there by guests!?!? My first (and only) time I was at one of these resorts, I got to the pool early. I was the only person there, but every lounger had a towel on it. So I thought they were courtesy towels put there by the hotel so guests wouldn't have to bring their own towel from their room. I used the pool, used a towel to dry myself off, and dropped it in a basket the hotel had set up for guests to drop off wet hotel towels.
Hotelier, here! A resort on the beach. We have a separate section roped off for members of our beach club. Their seats are assigned the duration of their visit. The vast majority of our loungers, umbrellas, tables & chairs are for resort guests. All of our beach furniture is lettered & numbered. You can access the control pad in the room or the app on your phone to reserve a particular set. No more than guests registered to room. One table per room, one umbrella per two loungers, chairs or loungers but not both. The beach is divided into sections. Each piece is in a particular section. Guests can move their furniture within the general area or section. For those who haven’t reserved, the beach attendants assign them seating that we keep out of reservation system. We have 215 rooms with max occupancy of 1100. We have about 300 seats on the beach. We’ve rarely had issues and no guest stresses about a place to relax. It’s convoluted, I know. We’ve been refining it since 1967.
Side note: our avg occupancy is under 450. Many prowl golf, site search, get treatments. The beach rarely has 150 people on it at any given time. Still, that’s fluid and everyone wants to be o the beach for a couple hours a day. They don’t have to save seats at 7AM with towels, tho.
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A resort I frequent allows you to reserve lounge chairs online in a certain section for 4 hours if you’re willing to pay $75. Otherwise your unattended towel is thrown into the lost and found and your seat is up for grabs if you haven’t made an appearance after 30 minutes.
At Myrtle Beach you can reserve chairs / umbrella for $45 a day IF there’s any still open which has to be reserved THE DAY BEFORE by 5:00 PM. Ppl leave their towels & stuff at their umbrellas sometimes until the umbrellas are taken down by the lifeguard @ 4:30 PM and barely make an appearance, but if they’ve paid $45 then it doesn’t matter, that is THEIR umbrella, not yours to take over.
Load More Replies... Wait wait wait. The towels on the loungers are put there by guests!?!? My first (and only) time I was at one of these resorts, I got to the pool early. I was the only person there, but every lounger had a towel on it. So I thought they were courtesy towels put there by the hotel so guests wouldn't have to bring their own towel from their room. I used the pool, used a towel to dry myself off, and dropped it in a basket the hotel had set up for guests to drop off wet hotel towels.
Hotelier, here! A resort on the beach. We have a separate section roped off for members of our beach club. Their seats are assigned the duration of their visit. The vast majority of our loungers, umbrellas, tables & chairs are for resort guests. All of our beach furniture is lettered & numbered. You can access the control pad in the room or the app on your phone to reserve a particular set. No more than guests registered to room. One table per room, one umbrella per two loungers, chairs or loungers but not both. The beach is divided into sections. Each piece is in a particular section. Guests can move their furniture within the general area or section. For those who haven’t reserved, the beach attendants assign them seating that we keep out of reservation system. We have 215 rooms with max occupancy of 1100. We have about 300 seats on the beach. We’ve rarely had issues and no guest stresses about a place to relax. It’s convoluted, I know. We’ve been refining it since 1967.
Side note: our avg occupancy is under 450. Many prowl golf, site search, get treatments. The beach rarely has 150 people on it at any given time. Still, that’s fluid and everyone wants to be o the beach for a couple hours a day. They don’t have to save seats at 7AM with towels, tho.
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