It’s 6 o’clock in the morning onD the Greek island of Kos. The sun is barely up, the hotel pool is quiet and yet, somehow, every single sun lounger is already “taken.” Not by people, but by towels. An unofficial and quiet “towel war” is taking place.
For one unnamed German tourist, this scene played out day after day during his 2024 family vacation, and he’d had enough. Rather than accepting it as an unfortunate quirk of resort life, he did something most of us only daydream about: he sued.
The man had shelled out €7,186 for a package holiday to Kos for himself, his wife, and their two children. But despite waking up at 6 a.m. and spending up to 20 minutes each morning searching the pool area, he couldn’t secure loungers. His kids, he told the court, were left lying on the floor. The resort had a policy banning towel reservations, but his tour operator never enforced it, never confronted the rule-breakers, and never stepped in.
So he took them to court.
@melissa_bratt Getting real tired of this damn towels being on the prime sunbeds without any damn people on them! #svenskarpåsemester #summeringreece #greekilands #greeceinjuly #hotelsamos ♬ The Subway – Chappell Roan
Judges at a district court in Hanover sided with him, ruling that the holiday had been “defective.” The tour operator had already offered a €350 partial refund, but the court wasn’t impressed, bumping that that figure up to €986.70. The reasoning was straightforward: while a travel company can’t guarantee every guest a lounger at every moment, it is obligated to ensure that a reasonable organizational structure exists so that sunbeds are actually accessible to paying guests.
@alina.wbr HELP #greece #crete ♬ Originalton – Haslauer
It’s a ruling that resonates far beyond one family’s frustrating vacation. The so-called “sunbed wars”, or “dawn dash,” as it’s often called, are a well-known plague of resort tourism. Last year, videos from Tenerife showed tourists sleeping on loungers overnight just to hold their spot. The battle for poolside real estate has become a full-blown cultural flashpoint.
View this post on Instagram
Some corners of the industry are pushing back. Tour operator Thomas Cook now lets guests pre-book a poolside spot for an extra fee. Spain has gone further, threatening fines of up to €250 for anyone who reserves a lounger and then disappears for hours.
But for now, it’s a German dad and his family, who just wanted somewhere to sit by the pool, who may have quietly changed the conversation. Sometimes, the most powerful protest is a well-filed lawsuit.
