Is it Rude to Reserve Lounge Chairs?

Added: 2026-05-12

[00:00:02]Welcome back. Welcome back. We are deep into the social media debate firing up people right now with summer around the corner. This next debate is right on time. If you have ever stayed at a resort, you've likely seen this early morning scramble for the best lounge chairs.

[00:00:19]But what happens when someone claims a chair and disappears for hours? When our next guest, Quinn Doran, was on vacation in Mexico with her boyfriend Colin, she became so fed up with the lounge chair reservation struggle, she took matters into her own hands. Take a look.

[00:00:36]This might be controversial, but um I sit at chairs that already have towels on them.

[00:00:41]Cuz I don't see them as reserved because nobody's sitting there.

[00:00:45]You can't just put some dingy towel from the resort on the best spot in the house and leave for 5 hours while you dilly-dally. Mm-mm.

[00:00:55]And if you think that's rude, you think I'm being a a That's fine, but I will remind you that actually the policy is you can't reserve chairs.

[00:01:03]So if you're mad at me for stealing your chair, that's not your chair.

[00:01:08]>> [applause] >> That video has been viewed over 1.6 million times. It made headlines sparking a debate over the correct etiquette for reserving lounge chairs on vacation. Quinn, the woman in that video, is here with us right now along with >> [applause] >> And also along with her is Cynthia Smooth, whose strategies for reserving long lounge chairs was so extreme that she was featured in the Wall Street Journal article on this topic. And fittingly, Cynthia is currently on vacation poolside in Scottsdale, Arizona. Hi, Cynthia. Hello from beautiful Scottsdale. I love the view and listen, I'm going to launch into this hot debate because I want you to go back on vacation. You're at the Fairmont Scottsdale Princess in Arizona, one of my favorite hotels. Have you already staked out your loungers?

[00:02:00]Well, listen, I would love to be there in New York with you, but I had a great chair poolside. I didn't want to lose it.

[00:02:05]>> [laughter] >> I love it. Okay, so is it true that you and your girlfriends take shifts making sure you that you secure your chairs?

[00:02:14]Yes, I I was in the Bahamas with some girlfriends and we just decided to take turns. So over the course of the four or five days we were there, every day one of us took a shift. We would get up at 6:00 or 7:00 and go go grab our chairs and make sure that we had them for a our morning.

[00:02:31]Okay, Quinn, you're here. You got so fed up over the lounge chair situation. You actually started a war. I did.

[00:02:38]>> What happened?

[00:02:38]>> feel like I won it. Um So yeah, my boyfriend and I we the first day we were at vacation, there were no open chairs. We were looking around and it's not that bodies were in the chairs, just towels were in the chairs. And that it didn't sit right with me. The next day we had a margarita at breakfast and I said, "This is it. I am taking a stand." And so I, you know, at the beach, there were all these chairs, all these towels and >> [laughter] >> I threw it on the floor. You threw the towel? I threw the towel on the ground and I said, "We are sitting here."

[00:03:08]>> And you sat in the chair. Did the person come back? It was a couple and they did come back.

[00:03:13]>> did they say? Well, they came back about a couple hours later.

[00:03:16]>> Oh.

[00:03:17]And they said, "Well, we were just at breakfast."

[00:03:19]So you said no. Did you give them back the chair?

[00:03:22]>> not.

[00:03:23]>> Okay, Cynthia. I like this. I like that Quinn took a stand.

[00:03:27]Cynthia, I don't know if you I mean you leave your towel and then you come back like 6 hours later?

[00:03:35]Listen, I say don't hate the player, hate the game. I didn't make the rules, but you know, if there's a game, I'm in it to win it. And so first of all, I would leave My strategy is you got to leave more than just a towel. A hotel towel's not going to cut it. But you also don't want to leave something that if somebody throws it on the beach and it gets wet or in the pool like it's going to you know, or if it gets stolen. Well, so leave a book, leave a tote bag, leave a bottle of sunscreen. I mean, leave something that shows it is your personal property, not just a hotel towel. Okay, but Cynthia, what is a reasonable length of time? You and your girlfriends go to lunch, you go walking around. How long are we supposed to let you have that chair and you're not using it?

[00:04:20]I know. So I feel like there's sort of two pool shifts. There's the morning shift, which is usually more families, people with small kids who want to get out to the pool early. And around lunchtime, the kids start to get tired.

[00:04:31]So usually between like 1:00 and 2:30, there's a big turnover. So so pick one of the other. If you're going to go do maybe an outing or you know, go shopping in town or something, be either be gone in the morning and then be prepared to do your your hunt in the afternoon or vice versa. I I am not a fan of leaving something on a chair for 6 hours.

[00:04:50]>> Okay. Okay, so you don't think you have it all day. You're saying just have a shift. You're either going to have it in the morning or have it in the afternoon.

[00:04:58]That's my compromise on this issue.

[00:05:00]>> [clears throat and laughter] >> Nick, oh my gosh. Nick, what do you have to say about it?

[00:05:04]>> People on vacation are feral. This is wild. [laughter] This is so rude. It's use it or lose it. You get 30 minutes to get a bite, do a swim, come back. After 30 minutes, that chair is free game.

[00:05:15]Okay.

[00:05:17]>> [applause] >> That's it. We're not saving chairs.

[00:05:19]Would you go so far as to removing someone's thing?

[00:05:22]>> it's the job of the resort or the cruise ship to do it. Absolutely. Yeah, they have rules and they should enforce them.

[00:05:28]>> Okay, so you would go get somebody to say move that towel.

[00:05:29]>> Absolutely. I believe this person has been gone for 30 minutes cuz I timed it on my phone. Please remove their stuff.

[00:05:34]Okay. Leah, you just got back from vacation. Did you get up early and stake claim on a lounge chair?

[00:05:42]No. I think from that picture we can tell I did not get up early.

[00:05:47]I'm not on vacation to get up early and I I love what Quinn's doing. I think you're fighting the good fight. I'm not going to get involved. Uh I'm going to go somewhere else and sit down.

[00:05:57]So you're just going to walk away and not fight? I feel like people should reserve chairs. It seems unfair, but I'm not going to fight somebody in over a chair. Like you can't bring your dogs to jail and I just >> [laughter] >> Leah escalated it to a whole WWE match over a chair. I mean, I've seen people get into real I mean, I've Oh, yeah.

[00:06:20]I've seen people get into physical altercations. I am in the middle. I do reserve things. I think you're right, Cynthia. I'm very strategic. I leave like my son's goggles. I leave his cuz I want you to feel sorry that you're kicking a little kid out. I thought I go hard. I put all of Moses' things there so that someone like Quinn with a heart would say, "I'm not going to kick that little boy out of his chair." I don't vacation where children are mostly.

[00:06:42]>> [laughter] >> So that's not an issue.

[00:06:46]I'm with her.

[00:06:48]>> [laughter] >> Wait. Wait. Wait. Now Now we got a whole another social media Cynthia, [laughter] you don't vacation where there are kids either?

[00:06:56]Listen, I did that. I'm in a I am in an empty nester phase of my life. I love people with children, but I did my time and now I don't want to be around small children.

[00:07:06]>> [applause] >> Okay. So here's my other tip. Here's my other tip is just like how you can make a reservation at the hotel, what seems to work really well is in the morning I will go down and I'll actually speak with the pool attendant and I'll say, "Listen, I'm going to run to breakfast.

[00:07:23]I need a couple of hours." And I just start peeling off twenties. Like a twenty a twenty for each chair. And I'm like, "If you could keep your or like, could you put a reserve sign on these for me?" And 99% of the time the hotel says, "We're happy to watch your chairs for you." I think hotels should do a better job. I think that it's their responsibility to really kind of keep people from getting into it, but that's my two cents. Audience, what do you think? Yes or no signs up, please. Is it okay to claim a lounge chair before you're ready to use it? No.

[00:07:54]Definitely [cheering] not.

[00:07:56]No question. So it looks like Quinn, you have won this battle and every battle that you will face from here on out. We did go to the TamFam on Instagram. 40% of you said it is okay. 60% said it is not okay.

[00:08:13]>> [applause] >> Cynthia, enjoy your vacation. Quinn, call us if you need backup at the TamFam. Quinn is actually a comedian and you can find more of her content along with Cynthia's at their handles on the screen. We'll be right back.