Image used for representation only.
Frankfurt, Germany: A German holidaymaker has won almost 1,000 euros in compensation after lodging a legal complaint about other tourists reserving all the sun loungers at his hotel with towels, a court said Thursday.
He went on a package holiday costing over 7,000 euros with his family to the Greek island of Kos in August 2024, organised by Germany tour company TUI.
But "every day during the holiday all the loungers at the hotel's pool area were reserved with towels from six o'clock in the morning", according to a local court in the northern city of Hanover, which heard his case.
The man, who was not named, and his family did not take the same approach and thus "found it impossible to obtain a lounger by the pool for relaxing and sunbathing," it said.
He complained to a representative of the tour company and hotel staff that reserving the loungers in such a fashion broke the resort rules, but claimed no effective action was taken.
According to the court documents, the tour operator disputed whether the loungers were reserved every day in violation of the rules at the resort, which had nearly 400 rooms and six pools.
In a ruling handed down last month, the court sided with the holidaymaker and awarded him 986 euros and 70 cents ($1,160) compensation, around 15 percent of the cost of his holiday.
"Especially on such a trip, where spending time at or near the pool clearly plays a major role... travellers may also expect that a sufficient number of loungers will be guaranteed," the court ruled.
TUI, the world's biggest holiday company, had already paid the man 350 euros but he argued the payout should be higher.
A spokesman for Hanover-headquartered TUI said it had nothing more to add.
