pool chair savers - so it begins (vent ahead)

I'll validate you. It would irritate the crap out of me.

However, years ago when we were in Hawaii, the staff put a bunch of towels on the 5 lounge chairs next to where DS and I were reading. About 15 minutes, the said recipients of the chairs arrived. It was Magic Johnson and his family. DS was about 10 and was star struck. Later, he was in the pool playing catch with a football and Magic pretended to tackle him. I swear he didn't wash that arm for a week. A family we had met by the pool knew Magic and introduced DS and me to him. When DH came back from golfing, he couldn't believe the story we told him.



Is this a public or private pool? Can it somehow be addressed?

there will always be the people who think if they got there early, they earned the right to the chair, whether they use it or not. They want the option to use it. It's exasperating, but I just don't think those kind of people can be reasoned with. They are the "I got mine" folks and they really don't give a shit about the people who come later.

I’ll back you for being angry. I just don’t understand selfish people like this. And typically, it is these same selfish people that go nuts if they see something that another person is already using and they want it. They will ask for “a favor” and if the other person doesn’t immediately give up the item, they get belligerent and cause a scene.

I think the only way these selfish people are going to limit the number of chairs they claim is if they have to pay to rent them. If the chairs are kept by the snack booth and rented out by the hour, I guarantee there will be plenty of chairs to go around. They will rent one chair for all their junk, if they bother to even rent one. And the concession stand brings in more money.

All that would need to be purchased is a tag system for the existing chairs, a sign out sheet, and a long metal chain and lock to keep the chairs secured until rented out. They already have staff at the concession stand that could be used to dispense the chairs. I would make a presentation to whoever is in charge of the public pool. Usually bringing up a problem and supplying a viable solution is taken more seriously than just a complaint. And the fact that it would make a little bit of money for the town (or whoever) makes it that much better. They can earmark that money for replacing the chairs when they wear out.

My only other suggestion is to bring your own chair and a wheeled cart to hold your family’s towels up off the deck floor. I have a chair that I bought at the local county fair that I love. The chair collapses into a lightweight thing that you carry via backpack straps. It also has a few pouches to hold keys, a phone, and snacks. And the best part, it has a sun shade that you just slide up over the top of the chair that also has a couple more pouches in it accessible from sitting in the chair. I used it at the beach when I used to go there. And then it was part of my car camping gear. I would even pull it out to sit in when watering my newly planted landscape in the front yard. I can’t stand in one spot for too long without greatly increased pain. Oh, and I also took it to the dog park when I had to spend hours there during the open house when trying to sell. I love that chair, mainly because of the backpack straps, the sun shade top, and how light it is.

This is not the same brand, but it looks very much like my chair:

www.renetto.com/products/canopy-chair?variant=42759217840353¤cy=USD&utm_medium=product_sync&utm_source=google&utm_content=sag_organic&utm_campaign=sag_organic&utm_campaign=gs-2019-02-26&utm_source=google&utm_medium=smart_campaign&gclid=Cj0KCQjw7PCjBhDwARIsANo7Cgl_eiPWtCefyxKXqz-FyKDOeqSpWouKMfLu92VVcTZY8SALmrIgjFoaAlkSEALw_wcB

I grew up at a private community pool. I just tossed my stuff on the grass all the time. My mom would claim a table with ONE chair (for her) and the kids were expected to just put their towels out on the grass or stacked on the table my mom had. We NEVER sat in the chairs.

Chair hogs are the worst on a cruise ship! 😠

Sometimes we will skip a port-of-call in order to enjoy a pool day.

Does your pool have the 15 min break? This practice of saving chairs annoys the shit out of me too, BUT our pool has a 15 minute swim break every hour and only 18 yr and older are allowed to stay in the pool. The kids often lay in a chair at our pools during the breaks, but now we have a playground outside of the pool so if there are no chairs they shouldn;t be hogging it and playing at the playgound (IMO)

I’ll also validate you on this. It’s selfish and rude to hog all the chairs all day when you likely won’t ever get out of the pool to use them, especially on a cruise or in a place where you’re limited to using the chairs that are provided and can’t bring your own. I think it would be better for these places to provide easily accessible lockers for people to store their stuff and don’t let anybody reserve a chair they’re not actively sitting in.

We have a park in our area with a man made kid friendly swimming beach that is very popular in the summer. There are a very limited number of shaded cabanas at this beach. (ETA: otherwise there are NO natural shaded areas.) People will come in very early when the park opens and claim a cabana, dump all their stuff there and then never get out of the water. And then stay there ALL.FREAKING.DAY. I’m sorry, it’s just entitled and rude IMO. It would be less irritating if the people would get out of the water and hang out in the shade of the cabana but they don’t. I could see letting people reserve it for a limited time (maybe one or two hours at most) but not all day. Meanwhile, there are people like me who for whatever reason can’t or shouldn’t be out in the sun for prolonged periods who end up either limiting our time at the park or roasting and dying out in the sun the whole time we’re there.

To me, I think the policy in all of these situations should be use it or lose it.

This reminded me of a time when we were on a private beach and a guy and his family had chairs (4) and a palapa next to us. They were in the ocean and the family kept coming back and using the chairs and palapa as well as the attached table and had their drinks on it. They also had beach bags and anyone in the vicinity clearly knew it was taken. Another lady came up took their stuff (all of it) and placed it back about 6 rows towards the hotel. I thought she must have known them or something that gave her a reason for the four new people to move their stuff. They did not. The family was back in just a few minutes and there was yelling and security was called. It was crazy. The new people had moved their bags and drinks and told security that they had no idea why these people were saying they'd been there originally. Crazy behavior. Of course security asked all of the people around them and we all were honest and the new people got kicked off the beach. I've seen people move abandoned towels, but I've never seen people just move in and move stuff out like that.

OP, almost any beach we've been to is like that almost everywhere. Thankfully some places have a lot more chairs than others and you can still find places. I will say that Vegas pools are the worst (IMO). They even have signs saying that you can't reserve spots but people just go ahead and do it.

Ugh, that would annoy me too! Are you allowed to take your own chairs? It's been a while since I've been to one, but our public pools don't have lounge chairs. everyone takes their own folding / camp chairs to sit on, or picnic blankets.

I think that couple was on our Alaska cruise! Everyone on the land portion started calling them the clueless couple. They even moved the handicap placards from the bus seats behind the driver in Denali and sat there. The driver made them move .

I remember our old neighborhood pool when I was a kid. There were lots of chairs and recliners. The kids would take one chair per party to put their stuff on, while the older people got the lounge chairs. But that was a long time ago..

We belonged to a private pool when the kids were growing up.
All of us would get a chair, put our stuff on it, and use it for the hourly breaks all day long. Sometimes one or more of us would sit in it later. As they got older, sometimes I'd sit in mine and read.
This is how most people used then.

I don't see a problem with using them that way. I would think that is how most people at a pool use them unless you are at the beach or somewhere without breaks.

A resort we frequent in Hawaii has pool staff who keep track of those "claimed but not used" chairs. They come around a fold a towel in a certain way at the top of the chair. If they come by an hour later and the towel is still there, still folded, they gather up the belongings and take the to one of the pool huts, where they can be claimed by the owners, freeing up chairs for others.