"Saving" lounge chairs at a beach or pool

[Big_Hitter]

You alone have over 10% of the post in this thread

that was the point

 

[W2R]

Wow, this really sounds like fun! I think I will continue to go to Lake Washington where although the water is kind of cold, at least the people lie down on their own beach towels and I have never heard an argument in all the years I have gone there.

Mass travel seems more and more like an expensive heavily marketed torture.

Ha

I totally agree and have no idea why people do it.

I'm amazed that anyone could possibly want this kind of experience enough to actually pay for it.

 

[redduck]

... But, our society is FULL of narcissistic ass clowns so these things happen day in and day out. Don't believe me? Just look how many cars aren't parked within the lines at your local store. It takes very little effort to park a car correctly, but it's becoming a lost art.

But, in my defense, I think they are making the parking spaces narrower.

 

[redduck]

...It was obvious that they were not happy with us and they kept pointing at us, and at one point the female of the couple walked by and said "Karma is a [b-word]."...

I think a proper response here might be, "So, Karma, do you always refer to yourself in the third person?"

 

[Free bird]

Those lines in the parking lot are just a suggestion. Parking lots are lawless.

 

[daylatedollarshort]

I never knew saving lounge chairs was a thing. I just thought people were just leaving used towels around (with no personal possessions) because they were messy, like our kids used to do at home.

In Hawaii we usually just buy the cheap woven roll up mats at a drug store each visit and use them on the beach.

 

[Free bird]

Your living a sheltered & non confrontational existence. Get in here & mud wrestle with people who really know how to get their money's worth from their vacation dollar.

 

[lemming]

How far do you have to carry the chair when you take in down to the beach. Are You responsible for shlepping it back up to the cart caddy at the end of the day. How do you release a chair.
I will never get to a resort like that but I think I would buy a portable chair of my own

 

[Amethyst]

I had thought, "Nice to meetcha, Karma."

Saving seats is arrogant, entitled behavior. If you aren't sitting in it, let the next person have it. Bathroom excursions excepted.

I think a proper response here might be, "So, Karma, do you always refer to yourself in the third person?"

 

[brucethebroker]

Check the hotel's policy. Then follow the policy. If the hotel frowns on "saving" chairs, take one and tell the offended people to complain to mgmt.

These situations, (like watching people cut into a line in front of you), require a certain amount of willingness to confront people. Some of us will and some of us won't. The "wills" usually come across as jerks (but get satisfaction!). The "won'ts" usually stew about it, (and may have heart attacks). I have done both, and now days, usually just walk away and enjoy the sunset instead. Guess I am mellowing out as I age.....

 

[Amethyst]

If the hotel has any policy at all on smaller matters.

I haven't gotten either more or less mellow with age. Age has simply made me a more effective confronter. Given the behavior patterns I learned at home, I used to have very poor success; people either walked all over me, or else called me the b-word*.

Therefore, I watched other people - especially women, since gender strongly affects how people react to you - who seemed to be able to assert themselves without getting their heads handed to them, and copied their style.

*Which, of course, stands for Babe In Total Control of Herself!

Check the hotel's policy. Then follow the policy. If the hotel frowns on "saving" chairs, take one and tell the offended people to complain to mgmt.

These situations, (like watching people cut into a line in front of you), require a certain amount of willingness to confront people. Some of us will and some of us won't. The "wills" usually come across as jerks (but get satisfaction!). The "won'ts" usually stew about it, (and may have heart attacks). I have done both, and now days, usually just walk away and enjoy the sunset instead. Guess I am mellowing out as I age.....

 

[jollystomper]

For me it depends. I do not expect life to be fair. "When in Rome, do as the Romans do"... if saving seats in normal, I would just get up and save what I needed myself. If I wanted to be sure no one would move my stuff, I'd probably leave something that look like bodily fluids on them . But I would do this based on my plans - if I intended to stay the majority of the day on the beach, fine. But if were just for a short time later in the day, I'd just have sometime else to use and would not worry about a chair. Besides, the shorter time I am there, the more likely I am going to be active than sitting in a chair... in the end it all balances out.

I haven't read the entire thread but it does raise the question of "reserving" in other situations. For example:

- Folks who go out early to set up their chairs/canopies at "prime" spots on the beach, even if they will not be back for hours. fair?
- People standing in front of a parking space in a crowded parking lot to reserve it for someone who is 10-30 minutes away. Fair?
- On Southwest, someone in the "A" boarding group getting on and saving a window/aisle/emergency root seat for a family member/friend in the "C" group. Fair?
At "open seating" events such as graduations, people getting their early to reserve large blocks of seats for their group. Fair?

I guess one can choose to get all wrapped up in this... I just try to go with the flow. Much less stress.

 

[misshathaway]

It seems that the number of available beach lounge chairs is less than the total number of guests, so they are in high demand, especially during the first half of the day until people start to leave the beach in the afternoon. So some people get up early in the morning as soon as the chairs are unlocked and "save" chairs by moving a couple of chairs to a designated area of the beach and putting a towel or some of their stuff on and around the chairs to make it appear as if they are using the chairs, and then they go back to the hotel and do whatever...take a nap, have breakfast, go shopping...and then come back sometime later, possible midday to use the chairs.

So self-centered. It happens at the gym too. People setting up all of their stuff on the counter in front of one of the few blowdryers and then going in to take a shower. Just happened to me today. I used the dryer anyway. I have micro-short hair so it takes 2 minutes. Special Snowflake comes out of the shower and glares. By the time she had towel-dried her hair I was done.

One jerk started doing this with the only shower that has good water pressure. She would put a towel on the shower door, turn the water on, then take a swim for 30 minutes.

 

[John Galt III]

This thread has exposed me to a new term. *unvacation*. As in *That is sooo unvacation, bro*. I think I like it. I bet we'll be seeing it in TV ads soon.

 

[Dreamer]

I agree with the OP that it is totally rude of people to leave chairs and be gone for long periods of time. I would never remove personal belongings from a chair. Luckily, for me, I do not like sitting or laying in the sun, for more than 20-30 minutes.

I am enjoying reading this thread, and seeing other people's thoughts. It is amazing to see how some people takes things so personally. It makes me more aware that I might not be viewing a situation the same way that another person in public might be viewing it. I guess I should try to see things from another person's perspective, more than I already do. I try to be respectful and polite, but I am sure that I probably fail at that at times. I think that we should give other people, some slack, at times. Maybe they are normally very nice people, but something just happened to them, and they too are just failing to be their normal self, at the moment. If that is not the case, and they are jerks, then I pity them for the life that they are leading. I am so thankful, that I do not have to be around them for the rest of my life.

I agree with others who says, it is just a lawn chair, and to let it go. Life is too short.

 

[CaliKid]

Brings up a semi-related subject. I have heard that Southwest Airlines does NOT have an official policy on savings seats when boarding and thus they DO allow people to do that. So if you are in the "A" boarding group you can save seats for people in the "C" boarding group and everybody in between just has to pass those nice seats by. A few people on this thread would probably be throwing blows on the plane... on their way to a vacation fighting about beach chairs. Lol.

 

[redduck]

[/QUOTE=aaronc879;1761282
...If I came back and my chair was taken and I knew who took it, I would take it back by any amount of force that was necessary. If you end up in the hospital and I end up in jail, so be it. Don't touch other peoples things.[/QUOTE]
____


I'm not sure beating up a 74 year old lady who hails from Trenton, New Jersey is such a good idea (especially since you are almost 6'6"). You remember that house you want to move into? Well, that place will become hers. And, as for ending up in jail, that's a place where lots of other people will touch your things (or, so I hear). Even worse, some inmate will take away your Green Bay Packer jersey and not give it back(and, you really don't want to be goin' to management to complain).

 

[NW-Bound]

... as for ending up in jail, that's a place where lots of other people will touch your things (or, so I hear)...

"Don't touch my junk". I remember that being said by an airline passenger to a TSA agent at an airport checkpoint, as quoted by the media.

I would not call mine "junk". I have more respect for my private parts.

 

[ivinsfan]

Brings up a semi-related subject. I have heard that Southwest Airlines does NOT have an official policy on savings seats when boarding and thus they DO allow people to do that. So if you are in the "A" boarding group you can save seats for people in the "C" boarding group and everybody in between just has to pass those nice seats by. A few people on this thread would probably be throwing blows on the plane... on their way to a vacation fighting about beach chairs. Lol.

There again this isn't quite correct, if you want to sit in the empty seats you can. The seat savers are assuming that insisting to sit there will make you so uncomfortable during the flight that you will just move on and let them bully you. You really seem to be coming down on the side of aggressive behavior yourself. Its correct that SW flight attendants normally won't intervene against seat holding hogs, but that doesn't make it right. They allow it because they count on those of us who were raised properly to move on and not make a fuss.

If your motto is we should all get along, then you might address the behavior of the beach chair hogging and seat hogging entitled ones, who actually are the root cause of these problems.

 

[6miths]

I haven't read the entire thread but it does raise the question of "reserving" in other situations. For example:

- Folks who go out early to set up their chairs/canopies at "prime" spots on the beach, even if they will not be back for hours. fair?
- People standing in front of a parking space in a crowded parking lot to reserve it for someone who is 10-30 minutes away. Fair?
- On Southwest, someone in the "A" boarding group getting on and saving a window/aisle/emergency root seat for a family member/friend in the "C" group. Fair?
At "open seating" events such as graduations, people getting their early to reserve large blocks of seats for their group. Fair?

I guess one can choose to get all wrapped up in this... I just try to go with the flow. Much less stress.

Yes go with the flow. Generally good advice.

Another example... when I go to get my hot dog and soda at Costco and there is a good size line. All the tables are pretty full. The couple at the very back of the line splits up. One grabs the next free table and the second stands in line for the next ten minutes. All very inefficient.

On flying, I have always been lucky to be one of those people who actually likes being at the back of the plane. Washrooms, galley, attendants close by, empty seats, safer, ...

 

[Big_Hitter]

If someone tries to "save" a seat on southwest that I want to sit in I just sit in it.

That's specifically not allowed.

First row: "who's sitting there" "my husband" "has he boarded" "no" "that's too bad; do you want the window or aisle seat?"

 

[JustCurious]

If someone tries to "save" a seat on southwest that I want to sit in I just sit in it.

That's specifically not allowed.

First row: "who's sitting there" "my husband" "has he boarded" "no" "that's too bad; do you want the window or aisle seat?"

What if she had placed her purse on the seat next to her to "save" it for her husband and she refuses to move the purse even after you asked her to, what would you do then?

 

[Big_Hitter]

What if she had placed her purse on the seat next to her to "save" it for her husband and she refuses to move the purse even after you asked her to, what would you do then?

call a flight attendant - SWA has a very strict "first come, first served" seating policy

 

[audreyh1]

call a flight attendant - SWA has a very strict "first come, first served" seating policy

No they don't. They allow people to save seats and expect passengers to resolve conflicts between themselves. The attendant will not interfere. This is well documented.

Even though they sell early boarding privileges, they allow passengers to game the system. Not good.

 

[Big_Hitter]

No they don't. They allow people to save seats and expect passengers to resolve conflicts between themselves. The attendant will not interfere. This is well documented.

Even though they sell early boarding privileges, they allow passengers to game the system. Not good.

I've seen them intervene