A Brit couple on a Spain holiday have slammed a hotel's alleged 'unfair' sunbed rules after they came back to their loungers to find they'd been issued a stern warning.

Jo and Martin were on a week-long holiday in the popular resort of Salou, staying at the £140-per-night H10 Salauris Palace. However, they claim that after having left their sunbeds unattended for 30 minutes, they came back to find a stern warning card left on their towels.

The livid couple took to TikTok to share a video as they approached the towel and showed the card, which read: "It is not allowed to reserve sunloungers by leaving towels or belongings. Towels on sunloungers unused for more than 30 minutes may be taken off by staff. Your belongings will be collected carefully and can be picked up at reception."

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However, in the video Jo claimed that other hotel guests had left their loungers unattended for much longer than they had. She described it as 'two-tier sunbed policing' and captioned the clip: "When you leave your sunbed for 30 minutes, yet others leave theirs for two plus hours and nothing gets done to them."

The clip went viral on TikTok with 235,000 views and dozens of comments, as reported by What's The Jam.

In the comments, people were surprised that there was a half hour limit. One person wrote: "Thirty minutes? Hardly time to go for lunch before you need to come back." Another added: "At least somewhere with rules with sunbeds though, but probably should be after one hour."

Jo also shared a video of the hotel’s sunbeds appearing to be fully reserved early in the morning, in another case of the sunbed wars that have become synonymous with the summer holidays. She advised others: "Unless you get down to the pool at 6 am, you won’t get a good location for your lounger."

A spokesperson for H10 Salauris Palace told the Mirror: "We understand that some guests have shared videos on TikTok expressing concerns about our policy regarding sunbed reservations. We'd like to clarify that our team applies the same procedure to all sunbeds that are left unattended with towels or personal items.

"To ensure fairness for all guests, we place a notice on any reserved sunbed and wait at least 30 minutes, sometimes even longer,before carefully removing the items. These are then neatly folded and stored safely at reception, where guests can collect them at any time.

"Our aim is simply to make sure that everyone has a fair chance to enjoy the pool area, especially during busy times. We thank all our guests for their understanding and cooperation."

It's not the only hotel to have these types of rules in place. 'Sunbed wars' have become a regular occurrence in peak holiday seasons, with plenty of videos of people frantically rushing to get their towels down on sunloungers by the pool. Tensions rise when people leave their towels on sunbeds but don't return for hours at a time, leaving others unable to enjoy the pool despite there being empty beds.

Just recently, holidaymakers were spotted using a sneaky tactic before the pool staff had even laid out the loungers, with other tourists slamming the "pathetic" behaviour. Meanwhile in Spain, there have been a number of measures introduced to stop the practice on beaches including hefty fines for rule-breakers.

Have you seen sunbed wars at your hotel? Email us at webtravel@reachplc.com.