The competition for prime sunbed spots in popular beach destinations has been ramping up in recent years. One TikTok video shows how Tenerife tourists are now trying to game the system.
Tenerife tourists have gone to new, drastic measures to ensure the best spot for their sunbed in crowded areas. While somewhat savvy, the move has been deemed “pathetic” after a video of the tactic made the rounds on social media.
Sunbed wars are not a new phenomenon, in tourist hotbeds across Greece, Spain and Italy, tourists have had to get creative to secure a spot by the pool or on a beach. As tourist numbers rise along with safety concerns, leaving your towel and few non-essential belongings to reserve your spot is no longer a strong option.
But a recent video posted to TikTok shows guests at a hotel in Playa de las Américas, Tenerife, have adapted with a new strategy. In footage uploaded by the account @holidaybestbits, guests can be seen waiting by an empty pool area during the early hours of the morning.
READ MORE: Spanish police to slap sunbed hoggers with £200 fine and take tourists’ clothes
The guests appear to be standing still in designated spots in a bid to ‘reserve’ a space for one of the sunbeds being unloaded onto the area. The video even captures one guest helping unload a sunbed into where he was standing.
In the comment section of the video, people largely condemned the move. One person wrote: “Pathetic really. F*****g grown ups,’ while another said: “This is why I no longer take these types of holidays”.
A third declared: “Never ever have I been on holiday and had to do that. May this kind of holiday never find me.” One viewer said this is not a new tactic and has been going on for a while: “Ha ha – we went there in 2019 and that’s what the done thing was then too!!”
Hotels have tried to address the growing issue over the years, that has only been exacerbated by mass tourism to beach destinations. One innovative approach by the Olympic Lagoon resort in Ayi has been to assign guests a sunbed for the duration of their stay, though this may not be feasible for all hotels.
Hotel staff in major resorts have also begun to crackdown on ‘sunbed hogs’ by hiring bouncers. Police in the popular Costa Blanca resort of Calp have taken to removing sunbeds, towels, parasols and any other belongings placed on the sand before 9.30am.
Tourists and locals who breach the ban will have to pay to retrieve them from a municipal depot and face a penalty charge of €250 (£210).
A council spokesperson wrote on X: “This measure prohibits the indiscriminate occupation of the public domain, especially the beach, with items such as chairs, hammocks and parasols at the start of the day. These bad habits make it difficult to clean the beaches.”
Sunbed hogs don’t just take up space, but they ruin the experience of other beachgoers. One Australian couple found that greedy holidaymakers were spoiling their time away in Bali, but they got revenge in the end.