Tourists at a hotel in Tenerife have been filmed blatantly searching for the best poolside sunbeds, despite the resort having a whopping five pools.
A guest’s viral TikTok shows a crowd of vacationers turn up at one of the pools of Paradise Park, the resort in the Canary Islands, just as it opens.
Then they drop their towels on the hottest sun loungers in the hot spot — some even look guiltily around.
TikTok user Sarah, whose clip has been viewed more than five million times in just one day, simply captioned it: “The Sunbed Race.”
She added a crying-laughing emoji.
Paradise Park spokesman Rafael Ruiz-Benitez de Lugo told MailOnline: ‘We were amused to see it considering that our hotel has 5 swimming pools and areas with space and sunbeds for everyone.
‘Although we do see quite a bit of talent for obstacle races in our guests.’
Sarah’s clip, which quickly went viral on TikTok, shows a crowd of shameless tourists doing their best to reserve the best sunbeds in Tenerife’s hot spot
Comments were disabled on Sarah’s video, so it’s impossible to say exactly what her followers might think of the tourists’ desperate attempt.
But a clip by the pool she posted four days ago showed a lot of towels leave.
Sarah wrote: ‘So annoying when people do this!!’
One user commented, “I’m leaving next week and I’ll be removing all the towels if no one uses them.”
Another added: ‘Inform reception they will remove them for you. We had the same in May. People stopped using it after that.’
Countless guests at the four-star resort already seem disappointed because they can’t lay claim to the most desirable poolside spot. Other guests seem sheepish when they dump their towels
The latest battle came weeks after tanning bed blockers had their towels taken by hotel staff at another Tenerife resort.
Vacationer Amanda Proctor filmed the moment workers picked up dozens of towels that guests had laid out on empty sun loungers to reserve the best seats next to the pool at the five-star Gran Costa Adeje hotel in southern Tenerife.
Proctor said staff at the hotel, which has four pools, took the bags and towels from the guests and left a note on the sun loungers telling them where to pick up their belongings.
The holidaymaker said there was a sign at the hotel not allowing guests to reserve sunbeds before 10am.
Holidaymaker Amanda Proctor filmed the moment workers picked up dozens of towels that had been laid out on empty sunbeds next to the swimming pool of the Gran Hotel Costa Adeje in southern Tenerife.
Footage shows three hotel workers picking up the hotel’s yellow towels from the sun loungers, and a man is seen carrying more than 10 towels over his shoulder
Proctor posted the video to TikTok in late June, captioning “hotel staff and security take towels stored on beds.”
Footage shows three hotel workers picking up the hotel’s yellow towels from the sun loungers, with a man seen carrying more than 10 towels over his shoulder.
A hotel guest was found to run to the employees and ask them to leave his towel on the sun lounger while it was being removed.
The video has been viewed by more than 3.8 million people, with many of the viewers agreeing that it was wrong for hotel guests to reserve the sun loungers.
One user commented, “It’s those who reserve poolside who don’t show up until 4pm.”
Proctor replied, “Exactly. I lay there thinking… keep going! They took their bags, towels and everything with them and left a note on the recliner where to pick it up.’
A hotel guest (left) was found to run up to the employees to ask them to leave his towel on the sun lounger while it was being removed
The staff was seen taking the towels from the sun loungers at the five-star Gran Costa Adeje hotel (pictured)
She said it was “absolutely hilarious” to see people come back and get their towels from the sun loungers, adding that some didn’t return until mid-afternoon.
Another user wrote: ‘More hotels should start with this. It has to be first come, first served.’
One person who claimed to have worked at the hotel before wrote: ‘They take away towels that have been sitting there for over an hour without anyone actually laying there. I loved it.’
Others responded to the video, saying they have visited hotels where they have used various tactics to prevent tourists from reserving sun loungers for hours by laying down their towels.
One user wrote: ‘I go to a hotel that will reserve your beds for your entire stay against your room. No rush to get down, they are yours for your entire stay. Best idea ever.’
A spokesperson for the hotel told MailOnline: ‘At GF Gran Costa Adeje, we defend the right of all our guests to enjoy our pools and we ask everyone to respect our policies.
‘All guests have their place in our solarium. In this situation, our colleague, like the whole GF Gran Costa Adeje team, is a capeless hero. We are very happy with the reactions to the video and from our customers.’
Sun-obsessed vacationers have been known to wake up early in the morning and take a frenzied flight to reserve sun loungers.
Also last month, Julie Larsson captured footage of tourists rushing to lounge chairs at a hotel in Majorca at 6am.
Larsson joked that the video was all about “sunbed wars at 6am.”
The video shows territorial sunbathers reserving their loungers for the day by placing bags, towels and other belongings. Many people also rushed to get the best seats by the pool.
Julie Larsson called her humorous Tiktok video ‘sunset wars at 6am’ as she filmed holidaymakers in Majorca rushing to grab sun loungers
In 2017, images surfaced of people racing for sun loungers at Hotel Servatur Waikiki in Gran Canaria’s popular Playa del Ingles resort just as the pool opened at 8am.
According to hotel insiders, people start queuing at 7:30 a.m. every day to get a first-class spot in the front row of lounge chairs.
And despite the stereotype that Germans are the first to put down their towels, sources say the British and Irish are the worst offenders.
In many cases, they lay down their towels and have breakfast before returning at their leisure. The hotel has a total of almost 500 rooms, of which more than 150 sunbeds are visible in the images.
The problem of sunbeds collapse got so bad that hotel staff were instructed to remove towels from the sun loungers that had been left empty for two or three hours.
Tour operator Thomas Cook has tried to solve the problem at partner hotels by letting holidaymakers book the hotel loungers via an app.