German holidaymakers have developed an ingenious new hack to secure the best spots on the beach.
For years sunseekers have been at loggerheads trying to secure the best beach spot by placing beach towels on deckchairs, a practice banned in many places such as Mallorca.
But now German holidaymakers are beating their British counterparts to the punch by reserving parasols on the beaches of Mallorca and sidestepping the deckchair ban.
A lifeguard said people arrive at dawn to hang their towels in the straw umbrellas in the first row, German newspaper BILD reported.
Vanessa Vogt, 19, a saleswoman from Berlin, told BILD: ‘The fact that holidaymakers reserve their beach spots here at Ballermann is definitely typically German.
‘I can understand it for older people because I think they are used to it and it’s a tradition.’
Jenny S, 27, an industrial clerk from Augsburg, Bavaria, said: ‘I find it a bit selfish that people are now leaving so early in the morning when there are no loungers set up yet and reserving beach spots using straw hats.
‘Most of the time, people put their towels on the loungers, go out to eat and only come back after five hours.’
Another called the sun bed wars a ‘totally bad habit’, adding: ‘Securing sun loungers with a towel in the early morning is absolutely inconsiderate and absolutely not acceptable.
‘If no one blocks sun loungers with towels in the morning, everyone can have one. After all, we all want the same thing: a relaxing holiday.’
A German resident told Mallorca Magazine: ‘You don’t just see that at Ballermann, you can now find it all over the Playa.’
Palma City Council provides a rental service for sun loungers and parasols on the beach through an external company between 10am and 7pm with a daily fee.
Sunlounger wars are not uncommon in Spain, but they tend to take place on pool-sides rather than beaches.
Just last month, a British tourist blasted two men for hogging five sunbeds between them at a Benidorm resort.
Paul Hitchcock, who regularly holidays in Benidorm, shared a picture of two sunseekers at his hotel who had stacked up multiple deckchairs – seemingly preventing other holidaymakers from bagging a spot.
‘Two people, five sunbeds, and they are not the only ones,’ he told fellow tourists, who slammed what they called the men’s ‘selfish’ sunbathing etiquette.