In a victory for bleary-eyed vacationers everywhere who have stumbled to a hotel pool at 7 AM only to find every single chair already claimed by a strategically placed towel, one German tourist has stuck it to the system — and walked away $1,200 richer for his trouble.
The unnamed German holidaymaker was visiting a Greek resort when he found himself utterly unable to secure a poolside lounge chair. Not because he was lazy. Not because he slept in. But because the ancient and infuriating practice of “towel reservation” — wherein fellow guests rise at the crack of dawn to drape their terrycloth battle flags across chairs they won’t actually occupy for another three hours — had rendered the poolside completely inaccessible.
Rather than accepting his fate and sadly sipping a lukewarm cocktail upright like a peasant, our intrepid sun-seeker did what any reasonable person would do: he lawyered up. And it worked. The resort eventually settled with him for $1,200, which, let’s be honest, is probably enough to buy a very nice personal folding chair he can bring to future vacations.
The case has reignited fierce debate across Europe over the so-called “towel wars” — a conflict as old as package holidays themselves, pitting early-rising territorial towel-planters against those who believe pool chairs should go to actual human beings who are physically present. Several European resorts have tried implementing anti-towel-reservation policies over the years, with roughly the same success rate as a strongly worded note left on a windshield.
Whether this landmark settlement will finally turn the tide in the Great Poolside Arms Race remains to be seen. In the meantime, somewhere in Germany, one man is toasting his legal triumph from a perfectly comfortable chair — presumably nowhere near a pool.
*Source: Fodors.com via Reddit r/nottheonion*
Original story via Reddit Not The Onion
