Holidaymaker receives refund due to unusable pool loungers

Pool loungers reserved with towels for hours on end are likely to be an annoying experience for many vacationers. A traveler to Greece has now been awarded a refund by the Hanover District Court because he was unable to use most of the sun loungers by the pool during his vacation.

The family from Bischofswerda in Saxony was awarded 322.77 euros, a court spokesperson said on Thursday. The package holiday to Rhodes had cost them a total of 5260 euros.

According to the court, the hotel they had booked had six swimming pools and around 500 sun loungers. According to the posted rules of conduct, it was forbidden to reserve these for more than 30 minutes without using them. The management and staff of the hotel reportedly did nothing about the violations. The plaintiff from Saxony saw a travel defect and demanded a refund of 798 euros.

Peaceful race of the early birds at the pool?

In its ruling at the end of December, the court partially ruled in favor of the man. A package holiday can be defective if the tour operator either only provides a few pool loungers in a hotel complex or does not intervene if guests reserve pool loungers for a longer period of time without actually using them, the court ruled.

The plaintiff complained about this several times. According to the court, the tour operator saw more of a peaceful race for the coveted spots by the pool with the better end for the proverbial "early bird".

The court ruled on a travel price reduction of 15 percent of the daily travel price from the first time the plaintiff complained. The judgment is not final, an appeal is possible.