A tourist went to court after being unable to find sun loungers due to the recurring practice of reserving them with towels. The court ruled in his favor and guaranteed him compensation of almost 1000 euros.
One German tourist won compensation after a court ruled that his family’s vacation in Greece had been negatively affected by the growing phenomenon known as “sunbed war“, in which guests reserve loungers with towels by the pool before dawn.
The case, decided by a district court in Hannover, could have wider implications for the hotels and tour operators across Europeparticularly in popular tourist destinations where competition for sunbeds has become increasingly fierce.
The tourist, whose name was not released, traveled with his family to the Greek island of Kos in 2024, paying 7186 euros for a holiday package. According to court documents, the family struggled daily to find available lounge chairs around the hotel pool because other guests reserved them first thing every morning, laying towels on them for hours on end.
The man claimed he woke up at 6am every day in an attempt to secure sunbeds for his family, but still spent around 20 minutes searching for available seats. The tourist also reported to the court that his children were often forced to sit or lie down on the floor due to the scarcity of free sun loungers.
After returning home, the touristbrought a case against the tour operatorclaiming that the hotel’s reservation practices made the pool facilities virtually unusable. Although the company initially reimbursed 350 euros, the Hannover court ruled that the compensation was insufficient.
The judges ended up grant the family 986.70 eurosdescribing the holiday package as “defective”. The court ruling stated that although the tour operator did not manage the hotel directly, it still had a responsibility to ensure that guests had reasonable access to advertised amenities, including an adequate number of sun loungers.
The tourist also argued that the resort officially prohibited the practice of reserving sun loungers with towels, but did not enforce the rule. The court recognized that the operator should have ensured that the hotel maintained fair access for guests, citing .
The decision comes amid growing frustration in European tourist destinations with the “sun lounger wars”, a phenomenon that has become increasingly viral on social media. During the summer of 2025, videos from resorts in Tenerife showed tourists running through hotel pools at dawn to guarantee sun loungers with towels. In some cases, tourists will have slept on sun loungers overnight to secure the best seats.
Authorities and hotels in some regions of Spain have already started to crack down on this practice, with some destinations threaten to impose fines of up to 250 euros to anyone who reserves sun loungers without using them.
