German Court Awards Man Compensation After Sunbed Towel Reserving on Kos Package Holiday

A German man has won a court payout after suing his tour operator for failing to prevent the widespread practice of reserving sunbeds with towels during a 2024 family holiday in Kos, Greece. David Eggert, a 48-year-old father of two and pilot from Dusseldorf, paid €7,186 (£6,211) for a package holiday to the island for himself, his wife and their two children.

He spent 20 minutes a day trying to find a sun lounger despite getting up at 06:00 every morning.

Loungers were unavailable even at 6am and his children were forced to lie on the floor. The resort on Kos had a ban on towel reservations. Eggert said the hotel had about 400 loungers and all 400 loungers had towels on them.

The Bbc reported that judges ruled the tour operator had an obligation to ensure an organisational structure guaranteeing a reasonable ratio of sunbeds to guests, even though the company did not run the hotel and could not guarantee every customer a lounger at any given time. The ruling went public earlier this week. Eggert said it is a very, very important ruling.

"When the holiday season starts in June and July and people face the same problem, they will say: 'Look, somebody sued a tour operator over this. I'll do the same,'" he told the Daily Mail. "If thousands of holidaymakers start suing travel companies, the costs will run into the millions," Eggert added.

He described the decision as a warning to other tour operators and hotels that allow what is sometimes known as a dawn dash. Since the ruling became known, other holidaymakers have described similar difficulties to the BBC. Andrew Mills from Newcastle spent most days away from the pool on holiday in Zante last year because sunbeds were all reserved with towels by 6am.

A holidaymaker who recently returned from Antalya in Turkey said the dawn reserving of sun loungers with towels had taken the shine out of the holiday. Some resorts have introduced measures to tackle the issue. At two popular holiday camps on France's Mediterranean coast, staff sound a horn twice a day and if a guest is not at the lounger all items are removed to lost property.

A hotel in the Cypriot resort of Protaras is very strict in enforcing a policy of sunbed tenants reserving a lounger for the whole holiday and informing the hotel if they wished to change spot. Colin Davison, 73, from Newcastle-upon-Tyne, said a sun lounger allocation system at a resort in Paphos, Cyprus, had been brilliant.

According to the hotel's website, guests are allocated a sunbed upon check-in.

They can request their preferred spot for the duration of their holiday, which is decided with fairness and attentiveness, and can request to change their spot. Ashley Herman from Watford described a similar organised system at a hotel in Cyprus. "The parasols are numbered.

The hotel allocates them, one per two people, at the beginning of the holiday. Each sunbed goes either side of the parasol therefore a family of four gets two parasols and four sun beds," Herman told the BBC. Other travellers reported less formal approaches.

Holidaymakers were putting towels on beds in the middle of the night in Ibiza. Some resorts sound a horn twice a day to enforce sunbed rules.