End of the sunbed wars? Thomas Cook lays on pre-booking

Thomas Cook is offering holidaymakers the chance to book their sunbed ahead of the queue in a move that could spell the end of the fabled British-German battle of the sun lounger.

The tour operator will trial the initiative at its own-brand Lanzarote, Gran Canaria and Fuerteventura hotels from the end of February, rolling it out to 30 hotels by the summer.

Up to 20% of sunbeds will be bookable, for a fee of €25 (£22), “leaving the rest free for early risers”, says The Daily Telegraph.

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“British holidaymakers may be unsurprised to learn that the service has been available to German customers for several years,” quips the newspaper.

Thomas Cook says the option offers “peace of mind”, relieving tourists of the “pressure” to get up early and race to the pool stake their place with a towel.

“Sunbed wars have become an almost legendary part of the European summer holiday experience, with stereotypes abounding about which nation’s holidaymakers are the worst culprits,” says CNBC.

In an article headlined Wish You Were Herr, The Sun today quotes former UKIP leader Nigel Farage as saying: “It’s nice to be ahead of the Germans for once. Another Brexit bonus!”

But while battles for sunbeds between British and German tourists have long been part of travel lore, “some senior industry figures regard claims of Germans rising early to put towels on sunbeds as phoney”, says The Independent’s Simon Calder.

In 2000, the pioneering tour operator Rene Chandler, of The Travel Club of Upminster, said: “This [claim] is something that started after the War.”

Some commentators say it is actually British holidaymakers who arise early to grab the best lounger.

A “well-placed source” at a Gran Canaria hotel said the worst offenders at their hotel “were definitely the British, followed by the Irish, and then some local Canarians who were on holiday and appear to have picked up some bad habits”, according to The Sun.

Tales of sunbed wars have circulated for years, with one particularly nasty incident involving an elderly man tipping a teen off a lounger in Portugal that he and his wife had claimed. In Gran Canaria, the race to secure sun loungers is so competitive that it has been captured on video, the Daily Mail reports.

Meanwhile, Thomas Cook have faced criticism over its prebooking initiative, with some on Twitter questioning what effect it will have on poorer families.

There were also worries about what it would do for Anglo-German relations in the age of Brexit.