I stayed at the Animal Kingdom Lodge last August. The whole week I was there, just about every lounge chair by the pool had a hotel towel on it.
I thought maybe the CM's put them out for everyone first thing in the morning (to save guests the trip to pick up a towel). I never let it bother me. I used the chairs before I got in the pool, and no one even looked my way.
However once I got in the pool, I could never remember which chair had been mine. They all looked the same, and they all had one or two white towels on them. And they were all empty.
I was scared to use a towel (after I had been in the pool) or to return one to the receptacle, because I could never remember which chair was mine.
I figured the only thing worse than sitting in someone's chair is throwing away their towel, so sometimes I left one there out of fear of making a mistake. I wonder if this happens to others too. Maybe that's why so many chairs have hotel towels on them.
People don't want to make the mistake of putting the wrong towel in the bin to be washed. Eventually, I got in the habit of just getting a towel after I got out of the pool. That way I didn't have to worry about it. And I didn't feel guilty leaving a towel because I couldn't figure out which one had been mine.
