HOLIDAYMAKERS in Spain have been filmed getting up early to queue for a sun bed at a hotel.
Every summer, hotels become the sites of frantic battles, as guests try to reserve the best loungers with their towels first thing in the morning.
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At a hotel in Benidorm, guests have already been filmed getting up early to get their towels down to reserve their spot.
In a video shared on TikTok by holidaymaker Iain Railton (@iaingr79), a steady flow of people can be seen leaving their poolside markers at 8.27 am.
Despite it being early in the morning, the footage showed plenty of hotel guests in the hotel lobby in their swimsuits and carrying towels.
As Iain walked out towards the pool, he followed a queue of people who were already lining up for a coveted poolside spot.
Holidaymakers were then filmed placing their towels on the sun loungers – with many beds already taken by the time Iain got outside.
While the footage has only had a few hundred views, it’s already a marker of this year’s inevitable sun bed wars.
In recent weeks, other holidaymakers in Spain have been filmed battling for sun beds at the crack of dawn.
Thomas Clifford (@thomaswclifford) captured the footage during his holiday in Tenerife and shared it online.
In the video, people are seen queueing up around the pool, before darting towards the best spots, to make sure they get their towels down.
The footage starts with a close-up of Thomas’ watch, revealing that the charge towards the sunbeds is taking place at 7.47 am.
More than 3,000 users have seen the video since it was put online, with several people stunned by what they’d seen.
One wrote: “This isn’t a holiday.”
Another said: “Oh my god, hideous!”
In response to some comments, Thomas said that people were acting like snipers “by throwing their towels off the top of the stairs”.
Sun bed wars are extremely common throughout the summer months, but there are some rules that should be obeyed.
Renowned etiquette expert, William Hanson, believes there is a 30-minute grace period on poolside reservations.
This is where hotel guests can use a towel or a book to reserve a spot for no longer than half an hour.
William told the Sun Online Travel: “In the morning, at the start of the day, and you’re by the pool after breakfast, then it’s fine at 8.30 to put your towel on the bed to reserve your spot.”
“But later on in the day after you’ve used the lounger, and go off for a massage, for example, which is going to be an hour, then you can’t use a towel to reserve the sun lounger.”
If you’re grabbing some grub at lunchtime, William said holidaymakers are allowed to eat at the hotel bar or restaurant providing you’re not gone longer than 30 minutes.
He said: “It also gives your towel time to dry off.”
Despite the grace period, William said: “You can’t hog the sun lounger for the entire day.”
Meanwhile, Laura Akano, the Principal Coach and Trainer at Polished Manners, who is also an etiquette expert, doesn’t believe holidaymakers have a right to reserve a lounger at all.
She told the Sun Online Travel: “I think it should be a first come first serve basis – if the resort doesn’t have a booking system.”
In Laura’s view, the only appropriate way to reserve a lounger by the pool is through a booking system.
Staff at a hotel in Tenerife were caught removing them after cheeky tourists had dumped their belongings and left.
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