Pool space hogging

[MaryLovesPoohBear]

Ehh depends really. What if someone wakes up at 6am, puts a towel on some chairs or a cabana, because they want to go have a relaxed breakfast without worrying about finding space when they're done? Perfectly reasonable to me.

Then they should go to their "relaxed breakfast" and get a chair when they return.

Saving one in case they want it late is not at all reasonable.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

This is absolutely not acceptable, and behavior like this is why people feel the need to be so possessive of the chairs to begin with.

Meh, if you don't claim a chair in this manner, someone else will. Now, in our case, we don't make a "lot" of use of the chairs. So, we claim 1 chair for all 4 of us, and never in the prime sun spots.

 

[Pacolovestacos]

That's not acceptable in my book.

You're entitled to your opinion but your "book" doesn't matter here unless you own the hotel. If you feel like the chairs aren't being used, you're welcome to go to the hotel and lodge a complaint.

I always leave personal belongings on my chairs on top of the towels such as beach bags, clothes, etc. If you displace my belongings, there's going to be a problem. I've read about numerous fights starting this way.

 

[Pacolovestacos]

The smart people here know this poster's agenda. Don't feed it.

My agenda? You don't know anything about me.

 

[andyman8]

Aulani has a pretty good strategy to deal with this (one that I wish more hotels would adopt). Basically, if they see an lounge chair with only towels on it, they fold the towels on the chair and mark the chair with something (like tape or something) and then they come back in a half-an-hour to see if they towels have been moved. If they haven't the towels and are removed and the lounge chair is technically "free" to use by the next guest. I'm sorry, but don't tell me that just because you put some resort-branded towels on a lounge chair three hours ago, it's yours for the day.

I understand that once a everyone else is doing it, you kind of have to do it, but it's a huge pet peeve of mine, and one that will dissuade me from staying at a particular hotel again (after having to get up at 6am to get a chair at one of the pools at the Loews Don Cesar, I decided to not stay at that hotel again).

 

[ols386]

Ehh depends really. What if someone wakes up at 6am, puts a towel on some chairs or a cabana, because they want to go have a relaxed breakfast without worrying about finding space when they're done? Perfectly reasonable to me.

They can eat breakfast first and then go to pool and get their chair.

 

[Pacolovestacos]

They can eat breakfast first and then go to pool and get their chair.

What difference does the order make?

 

[photogineer]

Meh, if you don't claim a chair in this manner, someone else will. Now, in our case, we don't make a "lot" of use of the chairs. So, we claim 1 chair for all 4 of us, and never in the prime sun spots.

I see your point, but this is how escalations happen. It doesn't make it acceptable that someone else would commit the wrongdoing regardless of if you do it.

 

[sam_gordon]

What difference does the order make?

Then it comes to how early is too early. Sorry, I'm with the others on this one. Let me ask you this... is it okay if you get up in the morning, go "claim" some chairs, go get breakfast, go to the parks, come back, have dinner, then go to the pool?

IMO, if you're going to leave your chair for more than 30 minutes, you shouldn't claim one. You want to claim a chair before breakfast? OK, go get your breakfast and go out to the pool to eat it. What I think would be ideal (but expensive and not very good looking) is to basically have a parking meter for each chair that's activated by your room key. If you swipe it, a light goes from red to green. 30 minutes later the light goes red again. Each room key can only activate 2-3 chairs at a time.

 

[Pacolovestacos]

I see your point, but this is how escalations happen. It doesn't make it acceptable that someone else would commit the wrongdoing regardless of if you do it.

The escalation would only occur when someone decides to

Then it comes to how early is too early. Sorry, I'm with the others on this one. Let me ask you this... is it okay if you get up in the morning, go "claim" some chairs, go get breakfast, go to the parks, come back, have dinner, then go to the pool?

IMO, if you're going to leave your chair for more than 30 minutes, you shouldn't claim one. You want to claim a chair before breakfast? OK, go get your breakfast and go out to the pool to eat it. What I think would be ideal (but expensive and not very good looking) is to basically have a parking meter for each chair that's activated by your room key. If you swipe it, a light goes from red to green. 30 minutes later the light goes red again. Each room key can only activate 2-3 chairs at a time.

In regards to your first example, no clearly not okay.

I think 30 minutes is not a good limit. I'd lean more towards an hour. What if you're at a beach hotel and you go swim in the ocean water for 60 minutes. You've technically left your chairs for more than your 30 minute time limit so you're telling me you would grab someone's towels and throw them out? And if you say no, how would you know that the people that left their towels on the chairs are in the water?

My point is, nobody knows someone's reasons for being absent from their chairs. They could be eating, in the bathroom with chronic diarrhea, or unfortunately maybe in their room taking an afternoon siesta. Nobody knows. But as I said earlier, if someone is unhappy that chairs are unoccupied, I think they should alert the hotel employees and let them handle it. I don't think people should take it upon themselves to displace people's belongings. Imagine you're moving someone's bag from a chair and a cell phone is under the bag but you don't see it. As you move the bag, the cell phone falls to the ground and the screen cracks. How exactly are you going to explain that?

 

[Pipkin]

If it was very busy, and availability of chairs was a problem:
I would have replied, "Excuse me, but I don't see anyone, or anything, sitting IN the chair, and DH and I would have just simply taken it.
I can be very direct when warranted.

Since there were some chairs in an acceptable (even if not quite as great) nearby area, I would have simply set-up there, and been happy for time being.

I wouldn't let this be enough to ruin my day/attitude enough to go back and address it, at all.
Why do that to one's self when one is supposed to be relaxing on vacation!
I don't like to also serve as the chair-police.

Chairs and loungers, as well as space for them in the shade, were limited. My day wasn't ruined but I did enjoy pointing out to the chair hog what a selfish jerk she was, politely of course.

 

[sam_gordon]

The escalation would only occur when someone decides to


In regards to your first example, no clearly not okay.

I think 30 minutes is not a good limit. I'd lean more towards an hour. What if you're at a beach hotel and you go swim in the ocean water for 60 minutes. You've technically left your chairs for more than your 30 minute time limit so you're telling me you would grab someone's towels and throw them out? And if you say no, how would you know that the people that left their towels on the chairs are in the water?

My point is, nobody knows someone's reasons for being absent from their chairs. They could be eating, in the bathroom with chronic diarrhea, or unfortunately maybe in their room taking an afternoon siesta. Nobody knows. But as I said earlier, if someone is unhappy that chairs are unoccupied, I think they should alert the hotel employees and let them handle it. I don't think people should take it upon themselves to displace people's belongings. Imagine you're moving someone's bag from a chair and a cell phone is under the bag but you don't see it. As you move the bag, the cell phone falls to the ground and the screen cracks. How exactly are you going to explain that?

I agree the length of time you're gone from your chair matters. One could make the argument if you're gone for 60 minutes (even if you're swimming), you didn't really need the chair for that time. I agree with you the better course of action when claimed but unused chairs are found is to let employees handle it. I missed you saying that earlier.

 

[Poohlove]

The escalation would only occur when someone decides to


In regards to your first example, no clearly not okay.

I think 30 minutes is not a good limit. I'd lean more towards an hour. What if you're at a beach hotel and you go swim in the ocean water for 60 minutes. You've technically left your chairs for more than your 30 minute time limit so you're telling me you would grab someone's towels and throw them out? And if you say no, how would you know that the people that left their towels on the chairs are in the water?

My point is, nobody knows someone's reasons for being absent from their chairs. They could be eating, in the bathroom with chronic diarrhea, or unfortunately maybe in their room taking an afternoon siesta. Nobody knows. But as I said earlier, if someone is unhappy that chairs are unoccupied, I think they should alert the hotel employees and let them handle it. I don't think people should take it upon themselves to displace people's belongings. Imagine you're moving someone's bag from a chair and a cell phone is under the bag but you don't see it. As you move the bag, the cell phone falls to the ground and the screen cracks. How exactly are you going to explain that?

If someone is in the bathroom that long/frequently perhaps they should get into a public pool on a different day

If you are leaving the pool to go nap in your room take your stuff with you, if you aren't courteous enough to let someone use that chair while you aren't even present do it so that when you wake up and don't want to go back to the pool you don't have to go back and get your stuff (especially with lines on your face from the sheets). I would be more concerned with my phone being stolen than I would be with it being broken. When I am not with my stuff my phone is in my bag where it is out of sight so that it can not be broken, stolen, dropped into the pool, etc. Some might say that a cracked phone screen as a result of "reserving" several chairs for when you are done with breakfast, your nap, and your dip in the pool might be karma??? (Does anybody love Earl )

 

[Pacolovestacos]

@ poohlove, I didn't say napping was a valid excuse. I simply said, WE (anyone at the pool or beach) doesn't know why someone is away from their chairs. I personally would never throw someone's stuff off but that's just how I was raised.

I think the main point here is that we all know how the system works and we know what's required to get chairs. Get there early and throw stuff on them. There is no point in complaining about it when we all know how the game is played. This discussion reminds me of the old argument about FP- where the sleepy heads were upset that all the popular FP tickets were already gone by the time they arrived.

 

[loves to dive]

I rarely go to the pool for longer than a hour or two so I don't have a dog in this race but I thought I read on the YC/BC boards that the lifeguards were sort of cracking down on this and not letting people reserve a chair then leave the pool area. When I go, I'm not really picky about where my chair is, preferably out of the sun but doesn't really matter and I always carry a bag with my kindle, phone and a bottle of water and have on a coverup and flip flops. When I leave my chair to get in the pool or hot tub, my shoes are under it and my bag on top and I'm rarely away for more than 15 min. If I go to the beach, I usually just rent a chair and an umbrella and it doesn't matter if I leave it or not, it's mine for the day.

 

[mom2rtk]

I think 30 minutes is not a good limit. I'd lean more towards an hour. What if you're at a beach hotel and you go swim in the ocean water for 60 minutes. You've technically left your chairs for more than your 30 minute time limit so you're telling me you would grab someone's towels and throw them out? And if you say no, how would you know that the people that left their towels on the chairs are in the water?

My point is, nobody knows someone's reasons for being absent from their chairs. They could be eating, in the bathroom with chronic diarrhea, or unfortunately maybe in their room taking an afternoon siesta. Nobody knows. But as I said earlier, if someone is unhappy that chairs are unoccupied, I think they should alert the hotel employees and let them handle it. I don't think people should take it upon themselves to displace people's belongings. Imagine you're moving someone's bag from a chair and a cell phone is under the bag but you don't see it. As you move the bag, the cell phone falls to the ground and the screen cracks. How exactly are you going to explain that?

That's cute. You think you should be able to save a pool lounge while you're in your room napping.

 

[Pacolovestacos]

I rarely go to the pool for longer than a hour or two so I don't have a dog in this race but I thought I read on the YC/BC boards that the lifeguards were sort of cracking down on this and not letting people reserve a chair then leave the pool area. When I go, I'm not really picky about where my chair is, preferably out of the sun but doesn't really matter and I always carry a bag with my kindle, phone and a bottle of water and have on a coverup and flip flops. When I leave my chair to get in the pool or hot tub, my shoes are under it and my bag on top and I'm rarely away for more than 15 min. If I go to the beach, I usually just rent a chair and an umbrella and it doesn't matter if I leave it or not, it's mine for the day.

How would you react if you came back from the hot tub to find your shoes and bag displaced from your chair?

 

[Disneybuckeye]

We were at BVW in November and spent a lot of time at the pool. We saw multiple people/families who would throw towels back on chairs or lounges then obviously leave for the day. Yes, we were there for hours and the towels would still be on the chairs when we cut thru the pool area to walk to DHS in the early evening. Many of them were in prime spots for sun. New people would come and not sit in those chairs. How tough is it to drop your used towels in the bin on your way out?

I don't agree with using pool towels to save seats. When we are there we have belongings such as a book, pool bag, shoes, cover up, etc. that shows we are in the area and using the facilities. I would never move someone's belongings because IMHO if they are in the area or water they are ok to have a chair. Leaving to go eat in a restaurant that is not at the pool, going back to the room for a nap, or going to a park for a few hours is too long to save a chair. I would be really surprised if someone is away from the area for one of those activities that they would leave personal belongings on purpose.

If the chair has nothing on it, or just a towel, then I would sit there if there was no other decent place to sit. Also, many places put towels on chairs as a courtesy to their guests for them to use when they come to the pool area.

This reminds me of the whole get a table then get food or get food then a table situation. We all saw how Disney started to manage that conundrum during busy times and I applaud them for it.

 

[Pacolovestacos]

That's cute. You think you should be able to save a pool lounge while you're in your room napping.

Try again

 

[Pacolovestacos]

We were at BVW in November and spent a lot of time at the pool. We saw multiple people/families who would throw towels back on chairs or lounges then obviously leave for the day. Yes, we were there for hours and the towels would still be on the chairs when we cut thru the pool area to walk to DHS late in the evening. Many of them were in prime spots for sun. New people would come and not sit in those chairs. How tough is it to drop your used towels in the bin on your way out?

I don't agree with using pool towels to save seats. When we are there we have belongings such as a book, pool bag, shoes, cover up, etc. that shows we are in the area and using the facilities. I would never move someone's belongings because IMHO if they are in the area or water they are ok to have a chair. Leaving to go eat in a restaurant that is not at the pool, going back to the room for a nap, or going to a park for a few hours is too long to save a chair.

If the chair has nothing on it, or just a towel, then I would sit there if there was not other decent place to sit. Also, many places put towels on chairs as a courtesy to their guests for them to use when they come to the pool area.

This reminds me of the whole get a table then get food or get food then a table situation. We all saw how Disney started to manage that conundrum during busy times and I applaud them for it.

I agree with you that just a towel is fair game. If you've seen a chair for more than an hour that has just a towel on it, go for it. Where I draw the line is throwing someone's belongings off a chair. Nobody has the right to do that.