German holidaymaker wins refund over towel-reserved sunbeds at Greek hotel
A German family got €986.70 back after towel-staked loungers left their children on the floor at a Kos hotel.
The Hanover District Court has ruled that a family package holiday to Greece was defective after hotel guests reserved sun loungers with towels despite a ban the hotel did not enforce.
The unnamed German holidaymaker had booked the August 2024 trip to Kos for himself, his wife and their two children, paying a total of €7,186. He told the court that towels were placed on loungers as early as 6 a.m., forcing the family to spend up to 20 minutes each day hunting for available sunbeds. On some days, when none could be found, the children were left to lie on the floor.
He sought a refund of €986.70, calculated as a 15% reduction in the travel price for the ten affected days. The tour operator had already paid €350 before the case was decided, and the court ordered it to pay the remaining €636.70.
The court found that the holiday package had been defective because both the hotel and the tour operator failed to stop the towel reservation practice. While the judges said the operator was not required to guarantee sun loungers at all times, it did have a duty to ensure a reasonable ratio of sunbeds to guests and to enforce the hotel’s own no-reservation rule.
A court spokesperson said the ruling was a single-case decision, but one that was consistent with existing case law in Hanover and other courts on travel defects.
The dispute lands squarely in Europe’s long-running sunbed wars, where early-morning towel drops have become a summer ritual in many resorts and a flashpoint for holiday frustration. The story also taps a familiar German stereotype: the towel-on-the-lounger habit. One cited survey found that almost 66% of Germans opposed the practice, while 14% admitted removing towels from reserved loungers. Another found that 71% accepted it as a predominantly German custom.
What made this case unusual was not simply the bad manners around the pool, but the legal line it crossed. The court treated the missing loungers as part of the promised holiday experience, not a minor nuisance, and made clear that a package operator can be held responsible when a hotel’s own rules exist on paper but are left unenforced.
Know something we missed? Have a correction or additional information?
Submit a Tip
