German Tourist Wins €986.70 in Sunbed Wars Case
A German tourist won €986.70 after a Hanover court ruled that his family’s Greece package holiday was defective because of sunbed wars over towel-reserved loungers. He had spent 20 minutes a day searching for a sunbed, even after waking at 06:00.
The district court in Hanover sided with the holidaymaker after he sued his tour operator over the resort’s reservation system in 2024. The court said the family of four was entitled to a larger refund than the €350 the operator had already paid.
Hanover Court Ruling
The man had paid €7,186 for a trip to Kos with his wife and two children. He said he could not find loungers because other guests reserved them with towels, and that the operator failed to enforce the resort’s ban on towel reserving.
He also said the company did not confront guests who were taking part in the practice. When his family rose at 06:00, he said, loungers were still unavailable and his children were forced to lie on the floor.
Refund On The Package Holiday
Judges said the travel company did not run the hotel and could not guarantee that every customer would have access to a sunbed at any given time. They also said it had an obligation to make sure there was an organisational structure that would guarantee a reasonable ratio of sunbeds to guests.
The ruling gives a concrete measure of how far a package-holiday complaint can go when resort facilities are effectively unusable. For travelers facing the same problem, the case shows that a refund claim can rest on access to core amenities, not just on the holiday destination itself.
Sunbed Wars Elsewhere
The towel dispute fits a wider pattern that holidaymakers often call sunbed wars or dawn dash. Videos circulating on social media last year showed holiday-goers in Tenerife sleeping on sun loungers to secure poolside spots, and tourists in parts of Spain have been threatened with a €250 fine for reserving a lounger and then disappearing for hours.
For package-holiday customers, the practical takeaway is to document the problem, keep the price paid and any refund already issued, and raise the issue with the tour operator if resort facilities are unavailable for long stretches of the day.
