A German tourist won a $1,200 settlement after failing to secure poolside lounge chairs at a packed Greek resort, reigniting debate over “towel wars” in Europe.
A German court has ordered a tour operator to pay a cash settlement to a tourist who was unable to find a vacant sun lounge chair at a resort in Greece. The Hanover court last month awarded a $1,200 to the plaintiff who sued the German tour operator TUI Deutschland after he was unable to get access to sun loungers on a family vacation in 2024.
The family had booked an 11-night vacation package at the Grecotel Kos Imperial on the Greek island of Kos, paying about $8,500. August is a peak vacation month for European families, and they had difficulty securing lounge chairs because all of them had already been marked as reserved by other guests at the heavily booked resort. In German, there’s a word for this—handtuchkriege (towel wars)—that describes the practice of using towels to reserve sun loungers.
The man said he rose early each morning to check for available sun loungers (in German known as morgendlicher liegestuhl sprint—literally “morning deckchair sprint”) and over the course of his vacation found only a single pair for his family of four. His children ultimately put their towels on the ground nearby.
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Lawyers for the family argued that the resort had posted signage indicating the reservation of sun loungers was prohibited, and that resort staff did nothing to enforce the policy. The man complained multiple times, both to the tour operator, and on their instructions directly with the hotel, but says his complaints did not have any effect. The family’s case was bolstered by witness testimony and security camera footage showing no loungers were available.
The tour operator provided a partial refund to the family post-travel, but by the court’s calculation they weren’t adequately compensated, and ordered an additional settlement.
German law dictates that package holiday prices must be rebated if a portion of the advertised amenities or services are not fulfilled by the tour operator or by an agent of the tour operator—which the judge ruled the hotel would have been considered in the case. The court found that although the vacationers need to accept the possibility, they would not get access to a sun lounger, the tour operator had a responsibility to work out a solution with the resort after being alerted to a defect in the package they had purchased.
The judge also ruled that it was the responsibility of the tour operator and the resort to enforce their own posted policies rather than expecting that consumers would handle any disputes directly. Many resorts that post notices that sun loungers cannot be reserved also typically inform guests that their belongings will be removed unless the chairs are occupied within a set period—typically 20-30 minutes.
It’s not the first time a German court has awarded damages to travelers on a package holiday. In December 2023, another complaint from a German vacationer on the Greek island of Rhodes was also awarded a partial refund. In that case, the tour operator had argued that the tourists could have been more diligent in seeking and securing a sun lounger, because other guests had been successful. The court also disagreed in the earlier case, awarding damages to the travelers.
A spokesperson for the court told The New York Times that the tour operator had a responsibility to correct any defects in vacation packages when alerted by guests of the problem, ostensibly by insisting that the resorts enforce their own posted policies.
Germany and other countries in the European Union have significant legal protections for consumers purchasing vacation packages. The law mandates protection against tour operator insolvency for prepayments, allows free cancellation if a tour operator significantly alters the package components after purchase, and requires rebates if a tour operator doesn’t provide all the contracted services. To qualify as a package, a tour operator must sell more than one component (e.g., airfare, car rental, accommodations, tours) together for a single price.