British couple say they were forced to reserve poolside sunbeds at 1am after discovering other hotel guests sneaking down to the pool at night to lay out their towels

A young British couple say they had no choice but to sneak down to their hotel pool at 1am to reserve a sunbed during their holiday in Portugal.

Aimee Millar, 20, from Belfast, says she left her room in the middle of the night after discovering other guests doing the same.

She told Luxury travel daily: ‘If the hotel we stayed at didn’t have one of those sunbeds we would have had to pay 7.50 euros (£6) per person.

“As crazy as it was, we didn’t mind doing it at 1am because we got to stay up later anyway.”

Aimee and her partner Darragh, also 20, were on holiday in Albufeira, Portugal, in July when they realised they needed a new strategy to compete in the ‘sunbed wars’.

Pictured: Aimee Millar and her partner Darragh, both 20, from Belfast in Northern Ireland

Aimee says she left her room in the middle of the night when she discovered other guests doing the same.

Aimee and her partner Darragh, both 20, were on holiday in Albufeira, Portugal, in July when they realised they needed a new strategy to compete in the ‘sunbed wars’.

Video clip from Aimee’s video where she wakes up at 1am on vacation to get a spot by the pool

The first few mornings they claimed their sunbeds before breakfast, around 6am.

But they kept missing the best spots.

In a video shared to TikTok, Aimee captured the couple heading to the pool early at 1am to grab a sunbed.

Armed with their towels, Aimee said, “I know it’s crazy, but it’s the normal thing to do here.”

She indicated that she does find the etiquette unfair.

She said, ‘I think it’s okay to put the sunbeds out in the morning, but around 9 or 10 o’clock.’

‘Everyone wants to be close to the pool and not have to pay or lie on the grass.

‘I think it’s weird and a bit too far to put towels down when you leave the pool or late at night.

“I don’t think it would be fair to an older couple or families with young children who might go to bed earlier. They can’t do it so easily themselves.”

In a video shared on TikTok, Aimee captured the couple heading to the pool early in the morning to snag a sunbed at 1am.

Pictured: Video clip from Aimee’s video where she wakes up at 1am on holiday to get a spot by the pool

Aimee Millar, 20, from Belfast, said she left her room in the middle of the night when she discovered other guests doing the same

Viewers reacted with shock to the responses.

Josephine said, ‘I really couldn’t do it, it’s ridiculous.’

Eleanor added: ‘Hotels need to start allocating sunbeds because this has gotten out of hand.’

“I would calmly go downstairs in the morning and throw the towels away, if I remember correctly,” wrote a third user.

‘Just back from Turkey, the hotel wouldn’t let anyone reserve a sunbed. This is madness,’ said Lynsey.

Aimee and Darragh’s experience is just the latest development in the ‘sunbed wars’ that have been taking place at holiday destinations this summer.

Earlier this week, footage emerged showing dozens of British tourists racing to grab the best sunbeds by a hotel pool in Spain.

Holidaymakers at the four-star Villa Romana Hotel in Tarragona, Catalonia, were almost given the signal ‘ready, set, go’ as staff opened the glass doors and they streamed out.

The Brits push past each other at the pool, trying to get the best spots.

Another video shows how holidaymakers are taking their beach vacation to the next level this summer by using their secured sun loungers before hotel staff have even opened the pool.

The video, filmed by a stunned guest at a Tenerife hotel, shows a man dressed in a T-shirt, shorts and flip-flops moving deck chairs to free five people trapped underneath.

Dozens of British tourists waited eagerly at the door before rushing to a hotel in Spain to grab the best poolside loungers

A separate video shows the Brits running past each other and pushing on the edge of the pool as they try to get the best spots

A man appears to be removing secured sunbeds in an attempt to get the best spot by the pool

In the video, filmed by a stunned guest, a man dressed in a T-shirt, shorts and flip-flops can be seen rearranging the deck chairs to free five people trapped underneath.

TikTok user The Railway Queen shared a video showing a manager at her hotel in Turkey piling towels on his shoulder in an attempt to free up space by the pool

The Laur Hotels on the country’s Aegean coast have ordered staff to confiscate tourists’ belongings if they attempt to pack up sun loungers early in the morning – or even the night before.

A woman and another man were also spotted moving a lounger by the pool, with the woman then returning to retrieve a towel she had left on the secured loungers.

A five-star hotel in Turkey also declared war on holidaymakers seeking refuge on sunbeds earlier this week.

The Laur Hotels on the country’s Aegean coast have instructed their staff to confiscate tourists’ belongings if they attempt to pack up their sun lounger early in the morning – or even the night before.

Two videos on social media show a stern-faced hotel owner collecting towels on two separate occasions.

The towel on the lounger is nowadays an almost universal reservation symbol in tourist attractions.

The first video – posted by a British tourist – is accompanied by music from Madonna’s Holiday and the second clip features the lyrics ‘guess who’s back? Back again’ from Eminem’s Without Me.

In both videos, the hotel worker grabs at least half a dozen towels as he patrols the resort’s pool to make room for sunbathers looking to enjoy the weather.