We’ve all been there haven’t we?
Saved up for months. Ten days away. All inclusive. Wristbands. Overcast. Watered down lager. That’s what we live for. That’s what we dream about on murky days in January.
But what do you do when you finally get there and clock people reserving sunbeds almost four hours before the pool opens. It’s a nightmarish scenario. It truly doesn’t get much worse.
Unfortunately that’s exactly the scene which fell upon the eyes of 46-year-old, Matthew Vine, a company director from Wetherby, West Yorkshire.
Matthew had two weeks booked in the Globales Suneo Tamaimo Tropical. A hotel in Puerto De Santiago, Tenerife, Spain.
Alongside his wife, Sarah, and their two kids, Matthew was absolutely buzzing to get into his shorts and hit the pool but one morning, while sat with his morning coffee at 6:30am, he was shocked to see his biggest fear unfolding before his eyes: people taking sunbeds.
Not only were they taking sunbeds but they were doing so three and a half hours before the pool even opened.
Matthew explained that the hotel was massive and said: “There were two pools and plenty of sunbeds. When we went down around 9am there were still plenty of beds to go around.
“I took the video around 6.30am when people started to lay out their beds – which were still chained up at the time.
“I never did it, but I did enjoy laughing at them – why not just wait?”
He added: “I think they see one do it and panic sets in – suddenly they’re all doing it.”
A representative of the hotel also commented on the matter saying: “It is forbidden to reserve sunbeds in all our hotels, it is verbally indicated to guests when checking in, and in the sunbathing areas it is also indicated with signs.
“We are doing our best, including measures such as the one you can see in the video, chaining sunbeds so that people do not come to book sunbeds at unseemly hours despite the fact that we have enough sunbeds.
“This is not a problem unique to our hotel, but is repeated in many hotels.
“We are looking for solutions to this problem that do not cause even bigger problems, although all this would not be necessary if people took heed of our indications.”
There needs to be some serious repercussions for sunbed stealers like these. It’s the only way people learn.
