Thomas Cook are considering offering holidaymakers the chance to book poolside loungers before they leave home at even more hotels.
The Battle For The Sunloungers Heats Up
Thomas Cook have said it may consider offering pre-bookable sunbeds at more hotels after a survey suggested 1 in 10 people are in favour of such a scheme. The Thomas Cook survey of 1,025 UK holidaymakers revealed 5% of holidaymakers who responded said they ‘definitely would’ pay to reserve a sunbed, while a further 5% said they ‘probably would’. This summer Thomas Cook became the UK’s first package holiday company to offer guests the option of paying to book a specific lounger. The scheme costs £25 per sunbed for an entire stay and is currently available at 50 of its hotels. Sunbeds are displayed on a map featuring a compass to help people work out whether certain areas will be in the sun or shade at different times of the day. A Thomas Cook spokesman said: ‘With 22 million customers, this research shows that more than two million of our holidaymakers want to book a sunbed. At the hotels we offer it, around 1 in 10 sunbeds are available to book so it’s clear we’re on the right track. Perhaps we need to ramp up the roll-out to more hotels.’
For customers staying at a hotel where they can book a sunbed, they receive an email 6 days before departure from Thomas Cook asking if they would like to choose their spot from a pool plan based on their personal preferences. While some families may wish to secure their ideal spot by the kids’ pool, others may prefer to be in a more secluded, restful spot.
Sunlounger Wars
When the scheme started, Tanit Koch, the editor of Germany’s biggest newspaper, Bild, jokily tweeted ‘Zis means war’ accompanied by a gun and sunshade emoji – as it emerged Germans can also use the same booking system as Brits to get the best spots. The newspaper also ran a story on the sunbed booking service with the headline ‘England plans a new offensive – new miracle weapon in the towel war’. Throughout the summer travel firms receive numerous complaints from customers unable to use hotel sunbeds because many are reserved by people leaving towels, books and other belongings on them and a number of videos have been posted online showing desperate holidaymakers waiting for hotel pools to open in the early hours of the morning so they can bag a sunbed.
Or, to avoid all this nonsense, why not just book one of Alicante Holiday Villas gorgeous villas with private pools and have your own sunloungers all to yourself!
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