BRITISH HOLIDAY MAKERS UNFAIRLY RESERVE POOLSIDE SUN LOUNGERS ON HOLIDAY

Estimated read time 3 min read

A recent online survey by Sunshine showed that British holiday makers were the worst unfairly reserving poolside sun loungers. The same survey had been performed in 2012, when British people took fourth, rather than first place in this behaviour.

A UK based online travel agency, Sunshine.co.uk, regularly looks into the behaviours of British holiday makers. This year, they repeated a piece of research they had also conducted in 2012, in which they look at which nationalities were worst at unfairly reserving poolside loungers, meaning they would leave towels or belongings on them even if they knew they would be away for a significant period of time. In 2012, the Germans were the worst for this, but this year, the British took that spot.

Interestingly, it was also discovered that unfairly reserving pool loungers was done quite obviously. Of those who admitted that they had indeed left belongings on their loungers, 52% stated that resort management had given them warnings about discontinuing this behaviour. Yet, it seems that this was not a deterrent.

In the Sunshine survey, some 2,150 British people aged at least 18, all residents of the United Kingdom and all having been on a holiday abroad in the last 12 months, were interviewed. The first question looked at whether or not people would reserve pool loungers on holiday. 71% of respondents answered yes to this question. Of these, over half stated that they had also received a warning from management telling them to stop this behaviour.

The survey also asked about how people felt about this behaviour. Interestingly, 98% said that they found unfair reservations irritating, which means that most people who did actually engage in this behaviour were irritated by others doing exactly the same. Furthermore, 87% of respondents said they had actually seen people do this. These people were asked whether they knew the nationalities of the people they saw unfairly reserving poolside loungers. This question uncovered which nationalities were the worst for this behaviour and they were:

  1. The British (21%)
  2. The Germans (19%)
  3. The Dutch (14%)
  4. The French (12%)
  5. The Russians (9%)

When Sunshine performed the same research three years ago, the results were very different. Indeed, back then, the order was the Germans, the Dutch, the Russians, the British and the French. It may be that this is because Sunshine now offers some of the cheapest holidays, which means that there are more British people who are around to unfairly reserve poolside loungers.

When the recession first hit, which was still in full flow in 2012, British people were encouraged to “staycation”, which meant that they would not go on holiday abroad but rather stay within the country as this was more affordable and supported the local economy. However, the recession is supposedly over, which means that more people now have the opportunity to once again go abroad. Whether or not this is the only reason into the shift of statistics is unclear.

The managing director of Sunshine, Chris Clarkson, has commented on the findings of the study.

“Reserving sunbeds is one of the biggest holiday taboos and something which annoys the most people. However, that doesn’t stop people from doing it themselves! To see that us Brits have overtaken Germans in the sunbed hogging stakes is a sign that our holiday etiquette has perhaps gone out the window! People should remember that if the habit irritates them, they shouldn’t do it themselves! Where your sunbed is positioned around the pool isn’t going to determine whether or not you have a good holiday.”

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