British Holiday Makers Unfairly Reserve Poolside Sun Loungers on Holiday

Sunshine has recently repeated an online survey that they had first performed in 2012. It shows that since then, British people are the worst culprits at unfairly reserving poolside loungers. Three years earlier, they were the fourth worst for this type of behaviour.

Sunshine, an online travel agency based in the UK, has recently repeated a piece of research that looked at how different nationalities behave when on holiday, focusing particularly on the unfair reservation of poolside loungers. The research has revealed that British people are the worst culprits of this type of behaviour. Interestingly, when the research was complete in 2012, it was found that the Germans were the worst for this behaviour.

Not only was it found that British people were the worst at unfairly reserving a lounger, meaning they would place belongings or towels on them even though they knew they would not be using them for a significant period of time, it was also found that other people noticed this behaviour. Indeed, 52% of those who admitted to reserving loungers also admitted to have received a warning from resort management in relation to this behaviour.

Sunshine studied 2,150 British people over the age of 18. All participants had been on a sun filled holiday abroad in the past year. They were first asked a simple yes or no question, which was whether or not they would unfairly reserve poolside loungers when they were on holiday. The question also explained what would quantify as “unfairly”. 71% of those who took part in the study admitted to doing this. Those who had answered “yes” were then asked whether they noticed any consequences of this behaviour, and 52% admitted to having been formally warned by resort management.

Perhaps more interestingly was the fact that 98% of those participating in the study admitted that they found it particularly irritating if someone else unfairly reserved a poolside lounger, as they wanted to use it themselves. Not just that, 87% admitted that they witnessed other people actually doing it.

Based on those statistics, Sunshine decided to look into the nationalities of people who were witnessed to unfairly reserve loungers and it was found that:

• 21% of respondents believed they had witnessed British people doing it.
• 19% believed that the people they witnessed unfairly reserving a lounger were German.
• 14% believed that they were Dutch.
• 12% believed that they were French.
• 9% believed that they were Russian.

This is a significant change from the same piece of research performed in 2012 by Sunshine Holidays. At that point, first place was taken up by the Germans, who have now dropped to second. Second place was owned by the Dutch, who have now dropped to third. Finally, third place was owned by the Russians, who are now in fifth position, after the French. As such, only the French and the British have gotten worse in their behaviour, with the British clearly becoming much worse. It is not clear what has caused this shift in behaviour.

Chris Clarkson, who is Sunshine’s Managing Director, commented on the findings with horror.

 “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.”