Worst culprits for hogging the sunloungers revealed – and it's not who you think

Germans are not the sunlounger villains of European holidays after all, it seems. A YouGov poll of holidaymakers has overturned the longstanding stereotype, revealing that Italians and the French are more likely to stake their claim with a towel than their German counterparts.

The survey found 45% of Italian and French holidaymakers who stay at places with pools and sunloungers admitted they had reserved one with a towel. Among Germans the figure was 38%. Britons came bottom of the league of self-confessed hoggers at 33%. The German reputation for rising at dawn to plant towels is largely a British and German obsession. Fully 51% of Germans and 46% of Britons associated the practice with German tourists.

In Rome, Italians questioned by reporters largely denied the practice themselves while acknowledging it exists, reported The Guardian. Claudia Morani, a teacher, said she would never do it but had watched fellow Italians leave towels on hotel loungers overnight so they could reclaim the same spots the next morning.

The behaviour is also familiar on Italy’s free beaches, where some leave umbrellas pitched overnight to secure prime positions by the sea. Local authorities have cracked down, seizing equipment in dawn raids and imposing fines of up to €500.

French beachgoers in the south were less surprised by the findings. One resident of Menton said she saw the towel tactic “all the time” at her local beach club and was thoroughly fed up with it.

A Briton living in France, however, insisted Germans remained the worst offenders, citing an experience in Mallorca where one man had claimed five loungers at 5.30am.

The YouGov data undercuts a cultural trope that has fuelled decades of holiday resentment, particularly among British tourists who have long blamed early-rising Germans for empty loungers draped in towels.

The poll shows the practice is more evenly shared — and more often practised by Italian and French holidaymakers — than the stereotype suggests.

While most Europeans condemn the tactic, the numbers who have both suffered from it and occasionally fought back by removing towels indicate that poolside and beach wars are far from over.

Hotels and resorts continue to grapple with the issue, some introducing time limits, staff sweeps or booking systems in an effort to keep the peace. For now, the evidence suggests the real culprits are not always the ones who have taken the blame.