German Court Awards Tourist 1100 Dollars Over Reserved Sunbeds

A high-stakes battle over poolside real estate has ended in a courtroom victory for one frustrated traveler. A German tourist, who spent over 8,500 dollars on an 11-day family vacation to the Greek island of Kos in 2024, has been awarded a payout of nearly 1,160 dollars after a judge ruled his vacation was "defective."

The man claimed that despite his family waking up at the crack of dawn, they were almost never able to secure a sun lounger. While the hotel had 384 rooms and multiple pools, guests routinely ignored wooden signs that prohibited reserving chairs with towels.

The Fight for Poolside Space

The traveler reported that sun loungers were unavailable as early as 6 a.m. daily. During their entire 11-day stay, the family only managed to secure chairs once. Even on that successful occasion, there were only enough loungers for the parents, forcing their two children to lie on towels on the ground.

The father initially reported the issue to the tour operator during the trip but was told that enforcing house rules was the hotel's responsibility. When he attempted to contact hotel staff directly, he said his concerns were ignored.

A Legal Defect in the Vacation

The Hanover District Court sided with the father, ruling against the tour operator. Under German law, an organized trip is considered "defective" if it fails to provide the agreed-upon characteristics or if the family's needs are repeatedly unmet.

The court highlighted several key factors in the ruling

• Reasonable Proportion While hotels are not required to provide a lounger for every single guest, they must provide them in a "reasonable proportion" to the number of visitors.

• Child Rights to Comfort The court noted that the man's children, aged 9 and 12, had a "need and a right" to a chair rather than being forced to lie on the ground.

• Operator Responsibility The judge ruled that the tour operator is responsible for ensuring the hotel enforces its own house rules, such as the ban on towel reservations.

The Rising Cost of Towel Wars

The family had already received a partial refund of roughly 350 euros shortly after the vacation ended. This new ruling grants them an additional 986.70 euros, bringing the total compensation to nearly 15 percent of the trip's original cost.

The phenomenon, often called "sunbed wars," has become a major issue for European tourism. Some hotspots in Spain and Cyprus have gone as far as banning the reservation of sunbeds entirely or imposing fines of up to 250 euros for unattended towels. The Hanover court's decision suggests that holidaymakers should not be expected to "take matters into their own hands" by removing other people's belongings, placing the burden of enforcement squarely on the travel providers.

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