Would you pay extra to nab a lounger in a prime spot by your hotel's pool?
Package holiday guests can now choose their hotel-pool lounger from a map before they even leave home, writes Elizabeth Sleith
Many a hotel guest knows the trauma of pool-lounger combat: that mad dash in the morning to nab a comfy, poolside spot before your fellow travellers descend and take them all.
The Brits and Germans, particularly, are known for getting into punch-ups at the pool over towels left too long on empty chairs.
Now, the Anglo-German company Thomas Cook is looking to keep the package-holiday peace with a booking system, but peace comes at a hefty price.
For €25 (about R370), customers will be able to book a specific lounger for their entire package holiday.
Before they even leave home, they will receive an e-mail, showing a map of the pool area and giving them the option of booking a spot.
The map will feature a compass to help them figure out what time of the day areas will be in the sun or shade.
The new service will be tested at three hotels in the Canary islands from the end of the February, and, if successful, will be extended to 30 more hotels this summer.
Between 10% and 20% of each hotel's sunbeds will be bookable. The rest remain open for punch-ups as usual...
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