Staff wave at the group, ordering them to step away from the doors before they open, at which point people sprint outside to claim their spots while others speed walk.
“Morning run to grab a sunbed,” read the text over the video, which Kirsty captioned as “crazy people”.
The video has gained more than 1.2 million views since it was posted on August 7 and dozens commented their disbelief. “Is this real,” one person asked. “Words fail me,” another wrote.
Another clip, shared by the Indy100 also shows holidaymakers literally running across a pool area in Salou, Spain, armed with multiple towels they toss over sunbeds to “claim” them.
The phenomenon has trended on TikTok with people typically filming the moment a European resort pool is opened to guests and adding hype music to mimic the atmosphere of a sports match or fight.
One TikTok, which has more than 3.3 million views, reveals people queuing at 6.30 in the morning at Sunset Beach Club in Malaga, Spain. Other clips describe the event as a “stampede” or “carnage”.
As comical as it looks, the “sunbed wars” have been known to turn violent. In 2023, a British couple were filmed having a tug-of-war with a French couple over a sunbed and guards were summoned to a hotel in the Canary Islands after two British men tipped a Spanish woman out of her beach chair.
This year, police have become involved in certain regions, to ensure no one reserves a bed for more than three hours.
The act of “saving” sunbeds with towels or other items so people can enjoy other activities has also attracted outrage as fellow travellers are forced to sit on the ground.
As a result, some European resorts have reportedly forced guests to “rotate” sunbeds after a certain amount of time or remove belongings if a person has been gone long enough.
Some resorts now allocate guests specific sunbeds to avoid battles altogether.
