There are few things cruise passengers complain about more consistently than chair hogs. No, it’s not the so called “smart” elevators, or Carnival only offering bacon every other day at the buffet, and it’s not even the insane prices for WiFi.
It’s the people who head to the pool deck at sunrise, throw a towel on six loungers, and then disappear until lunchtime while everybody else circles the deck looking for somewhere to sit.
And now a recent court case in Germany has me wondering what would happen if cruise passengers could get compensation for chair hogs?
According to multiple reports, including CNN and The Guardian, a German tourist was awarded nearly €1,000 after spending a family vacation in Greece unable to consistently get pool loungers because guests kept reserving them with towels despite hotel rules against it. The family reportedly paid over €7,000 for the vacation, and the court ruled the experience was negatively impacted enough to justify compensation.
That immediately made me think of cruise ships, because if there’s one thing cruise passengers and resort guests have in common, it’s chair hogs.
Cruise Lines Already Have Rules Against Chair Hogs
Most cruise lines technically prohibit reserving loungers for extended periods of time.
You’ll usually see signs posted around the pool deck, in the cruise line’s app, and in the daily planner warning that unattended belongings may be removed after 30 minutes or so. Some ships even put stickers on chairs with timestamps before crew clears them.
But let’s be honest here, on a lot of cruises, the rules exist mostly for show. Passengers know it. Crew knows it. Cruise lines definitely know it because the issue usually isn’t the policy itself. It’s enforcement.
Why Cruise Lines Rarely Truly Enforce It
Here’s the reality nobody onboard is going to say out loud – crew members often do not want to get into confrontations with guests over pool chairs. And honestly, it’s easy to understand why.
Imagine being a pool attendant making very little pay while working a long contract away from home. Now imagine having to remove towels from chairs belonging to passengers who already feel entitled to them. There’s a very good chance that conversation is not going to end well. And on cruise ships, guest complaints carry weight. Sometimes a lot of weight.
A single angry passenger complaint to Guest Services can potentially lead to:
- meetings with supervisors
- warnings in employee records
- poor performance reviews
- lower guest satisfaction scores
- or reduced chances for promotions and future contracts
So crew members are often put in an impossible position – enforce the rule and risk a confrontation plus a complaint from an angry passenger, or ignore it and avoid the problem entirely. Unfortunately, many choose the safer option for their own careers, which is pretending not to notice that the same towel has been sitting untouched by the pool since breakfast.
And honestly, can you really blame them?
Guest Satisfaction Scores Run the Cruise Industry
One thing many passengers do not realize is just how heavily cruise lines rely on guest satisfaction scores.
Departments and managers are constantly evaluated based on passenger feedback. Crew members know negative comments can create headaches for them, even when they were simply trying to enforce the rules. That creates an environment where avoiding complaints often becomes more important than strictly enforcing policies. Which is why cruise lines continue posting the “No Chair Saving” signs while allowing entire sections of the pool deck to remain empty but “reserved” for hours at a time. Everybody onboard knows what’s happening but nobody wants to be the person who starts the argument.
The Real Problem Is Also Simple Math
Of course, chair hogging isn’t the only issue.
Today’s cruise ships carry massive numbers of passengers, especially newer mega ships sailing the Caribbean. On sea days, thousands of people all want the same thing at the same time: a good lounger near the pool. But there simply are not enough prime chairs for everybody.
That’s also why suite areas and ship-within-a-ship concepts have become so popular. Places like MSC Yacht Club, The Haven on Norwegian, and Royal Caribbean’s suite decks give passengers a way to avoid the pool deck chaos entirely.
People will literally pay thousands more just to avoid competing for chairs and crowds, like I wrote about the other day.
Ship-Within-A-Ship: How to Avoid Crowds on Mega Cruise Ships
Could Cruise Passengers Ever Win Compensation?
Realistically, probably not in the United States anytime soon. Cruise contracts are written heavily in favor of the cruise lines, and proving damages over pool chairs would be difficult. But the German case is still interesting because the court essentially ruled that if a vacation provider advertises a resort-style experience, they also have some responsibility to reasonably manage access to those amenities.
And honestly, cruise lines could solve a lot of this simply by consistently enforcing the policies they already have. Because there’s nothing more frustrating on a sea day than staring at rows of empty loungers covered in towels while passengers wander around the deck carrying towels themselves hoping somebody eventually comes back from wherever they disappeared to three hours ago.