Ashleigh Gunn booked ten nights in Salou for a relaxing family break.
What she got was a daily stampede in which grown adults barged past her children to claim plastic loungers.
“I have never seen anything like it before,” the 35-year-old from Glasgow tells CreatorZine.
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“They were crazy.”
The support assistant filmed the chaos at the Hotel Best Oasis Park on 5 July, capturing guests sprinting through the doors the moment they opened.
Some went further than running.
“People would run and push you out of the way to get a spot,” she says.
“They even started picking up and throwing their sunbed where they wanted them.”
The queue starts at 8.30. The pool opens at 10.
Ashleigh travelled to Spain with her husband and daughters Emma and Millie, expecting the sort of holiday where the biggest daily decision is lunch.
Instead, the family found themselves dragged into a routine dictated entirely by other people’s lounger anxiety, up and out of the room early every single morning.
The maths tells its own story. The pool opens at 10am.
The queue forms 90 minutes before that.
“People would start queuing at 8.30 by putting their bags down to save their space,” she says.
“The staff just opened the door and let the mania happen.”
That last part stings the most. No system, no supervision, no attempt to stop adults treating a family pool like a Boxing Day sale.
Staff watched it unfold each morning and let the strongest elbows win.
“It was meant to be family-friendly, and the way some grown-ups acted was crazy,” Ashleigh says.
‘We would not return’
Emma and Millie, to their credit, refused to let the lounger olympics spoil things.
“Fortunately, the children had a great time,” Ashleigh says.
“But the hotel wasn’t the best and we would not return.”
One family’s verdict, delivered without a refund request or a viral campaign.
Just a quiet decision to spend next year’s money somewhere else.
Why It Matters
Sunbed wars footage has become one of summer’s most reliable content genres, and clips like Ashleigh’s are exactly what news desks and UGC licensing agencies scramble for between June and September.
A 30-second phone video of holiday chaos can travel further than any professionally produced travel content, which is why ordinary holidaymakers keep finding themselves accidental creators with footage worth chasing.
Every summer the clips get earlier, the queues get longer and the elbows get sharper.
The school holidays have barely started.
The loungers will be waiting at 8.30 tomorrow.
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