No more fretting over sunloungers as reservation app launches

Much like booking seats on a flight, App users can select their preferred poolside spot – weeks before they jet off. Image: The Local.

Of all the age-old package holiday problems – delayed flights, first day sunburn, sweaty cheese at the buffet each morning – the one that perhaps sends a chill down most Brits’ spine is the fear of being unable to secure a suitably sunny sunbed around the pool.

Over the decades, lazy stereotypes have emerged, painting Germans as the antagonists: waking early, laying out their towels atop all of the best-placed sunloungers, and then heading off for a long and leisurely breakfast, safe in the knowledge that those ever-so-polite Brits would never dream of moving the towels, even after the advent of poolside warnings instructing sun worshippers not to reserve loungers…

The problem may no longer seem as acute, but there are still disgruntled holidaymakers of all nationalities finding that they cannot find a suitable spot in the sun. And where there is a problem, there is usually an App for that.

Enter Daniel Jain, a 23-year-old Londoner who is behind the soon-to-be-launched BookMySunbed app. Users simply download the app to their smartphone and can then digitally scope out a spot by the pool weeks in advance of their holiday.

Sound too good to be true? Well, the app is to be rolled out in Marbella this summer, meaning Costa del Sol pool and beachgoers can try it out for size themselves.

According to The Local, all hotels in Marbella have agreed to run the app at their pools, and if the trial proves successful then it will be introduced elsewhere in Spain and then, if popular, globally.

“I think it ruins people’s holidays when they have the constant fear of having to wake up super early just to ensure their family has some sunbeds by the pool,” Jain told The Local.

“Just like booking a cinema or airplane seat, the app allows travellers to pick out their preferred sunbed in the exact location of their choice, all with a few taps on their smartphone.”

The app will initially be available in English, Spanish, Greek, Italian, Portuguese, Russian and French – which means that, rather interestingly, there is no German-language version just yet.