A German tourist has been awarded more than £800 in compensation after claiming he and his family were unable to use hotel sun loungers during a package holiday on a Greek island, as other guests repeatedly reserved them with towels. The man, who has not been named, took legal action after staying at a resort on the island of Kos with his wife and two children in 2024.
He told the court that during their €7,000 (£6,000) holiday, despite waking up at 6am every day, his family struggled to find any available beds around the hotel pool. According to the ruling, the tourist spent around 20 minutes each morning searching for loungers, only to find most had already been claimed by towels left unattended by other guests. He also said his children were sometimes forced to lie on the ground because no sunbeds were free.
The tour operator initially refunded around €350 (£303), but a court in Hanover ruled that the compensation was not adequate and increased the payout to almost €987 (£854).
The court said that while the travel company did not directly manage the hotel, it still had a responsibility to ensure a reasonable number of sunbeds were available to guests. Judges described the holiday as “defective” because the family could not properly use the pool area included in their booking.
These so-called “sunbed wars” or “dawn dashes” have become a notorious issue across European hotspots and further afield. Last year, a shocking incident at a Tenerife hotel sparked renewed concerns. In footage captured by the German newspaper Bild, around 100 foreign guests were spotted trampling a staff member who was opening the pool access door at 6.30am.
A 2023 Tripadvisor review described the sunbed situation as a “complete nightmare” at the same resort.
Elsewhere, a British tourist, excited to enjoy her well-deserved holiday at a luxury five-star hotel in Egypt, had to resort to extreme measures in an attempt to get a sunbed in February 2025. Setting an alarm at 6.30am, Mrs May, who runs the Tiktok account @themrsmay, rushed down to the pool area to grab herself a front-row seat.
“If you can’t beat them, join them,” she said.
However, to her shock, she arrived to find that almost every sunbed was reserved with beach towels and no one was using them.
“It’s 6.30 in the morning and already, look, most of these sunloungers have been taken and there is literally not one person here,” she said, adding: “I actually think I’m too late already […] Every single sunbed on that front row has been taken. We’re going to have to go on the back row.”
