Pool/Beach shade, table, lounges Etiquette

[Andrea J.]

I have a real good friend who is in Aruba right now.
(She is staying in Malmok with friends for 3 weeks and does so every late October/November)

This friend owns a lovely unit of timeshare on Eagle Beach (I am purposely not mentioning the name of the resort, assume what you may)
She rents that unit out every year and her renters are currently there.

The whole thing turned into a cluster mess for the renters do to the ignorance, arrogance, bullying from a person and his crew, I will refer to as "table man TM"

These renters on their first full day, got to the pool at 6 am, put their stuff down at a table. They sat in some straight chairs and proceeded to have coffee and bagels. While there TM came to the pool and announced that they were at "his spot". The renters, said, we were here first and continued to eat and ignored TM. TM went into a full bullying attack mode, but did eventually snag the table with umbrella right next to them, where he and his crew proceeded to verbally attack them all day. He told them that he was an owner and had been at that spot for many years. The renters chose to ignore him and the whole time was very unpleasant and very upsetting for them. (They, the renters made 1 serious mistake...they did NOT get security involved as they were afraid of retribution)

The renters did contact my friend later that day, (the ts owner) told them of the very unpleasant and frightening experience of their first day at the pool.
My friend (and if you ever need an advocate, she is your go to gal) said oh NAY NAY this should not have happened.

My friend got security involved.......security went back to review video and saw the original confrontation.........security met with my friend the owner, the renters and searched out TM and his crew.

Security spoke to TM at length and he apparently was loud and defensive.

The timeshare management is also investigating and TM has not heard the end of this.

The written report that the owner, the renter and TM have received..........ended up saying that on behalf of the resort, they apologized for the bad behavior......"a guest is a guest is a guest". All guests are expected to abide by the same rules and owners/renters are guests.

So, while in Aruba.......have you ever come across something like this?



There is no excuse for people to be mean.

[Pegmeister]

How awful! I have heard of a few similar stories, primarily at timeshare properties. It’s unfortunate that the renters didn’t get security involved from the very beginning. I have to imagine their day must have been very unpleasant. Some people have such a sense of entitlement and obviously no sense of common courtesy.

[gaby]

You can't ask me cause I would never have let anyone bully me. Unfortunately, I wouldn't be able to ignore it and by the time I was through, they would have gone elsewhere. I had no problem reading the riot act to judges I worked with, they would have been child's play to me.

[Pegmeister]

You can't ask me cause I would never have let anyone bully me. Unfortunately, I wouldn't be able to ignore it and by the time I was through, they would have gone elsewhere. I had no problem reading the riot act to judges I worked with, they would have been child's play to me.

Gaby, I really like you!!

[Traceyd14]

We were at the Surf Club and a younger couple with a small child were at their palapa behind us for a while. Later a man and his wife walked up and said this is ours, we reserved it. Long story short, the young couple should have been at the next spot over. Instead of the man and his wife just moving to the open spot next to "their spot" they had the family pack up and move. The spots were literally the same, right next to each other. For the rest of the day we got to hear the man tell the story to anyone nearby and go on and on about how he got his spot back. The young couple did not stay long after. I'm sure it left a bad taste in their mouth.

[robin]

Last year when we spent NYE week at the timeshares at the Rui we had one person open up our "patio" gate and try to remove a lounge chair. Another time we left our palapa to get lunch and left our towels and came back to find that one of our chairs with the towel had been dragged away.

I would not let anybody verbally bully me. I spent 30 years in an "urban" school district and have seen and heard from rude, loud, obnoxious, bullying parents. I know that the only reason they spout that bull is because they are full of it. They are loud and obnoxious, but that's all they have-a big mouth and nothing to back it.

[crimms]

Wow, that kind of behavior puts a damper on your vacation. We feel the need to put trinkets out on table and hang bags on our papala to show it is ours. We also have a vacation vault locked on table and towels clipped to our chairs. I did notice one morning, someone switched my lounge newer and higher lounge chair with his crappy one after we were all set up and went to grab some coffee. I could tell by the drag marks who did it and where it was. When he left his papala, I did the old switcheroo and got my lounge back. I did not leave fresh lounge tracks. An old Indian trick I learned from watching westerns. The look on his face was priceless when he got back and noticed "his" chair had been re-switched. Boy do we miss Aruba!
Sean and Susan

[arubamark]

My Spot!! Oh please!! First come first served. I see the same people in their spots and a lot of them I see every year and just to be courteous I will look for another spot to set up camp - some people have their favorite spots I get it. Nut these people are early risers and get out there before I even brush my teeth in the morning - lol. By the time I finally get out to the pool or whatever its late morning so whatever is available I take. We aren't picky so we are mobile. But I guess my point is if someone approached me to tell me that I was in there spot first I would laugh and secondly they would have to physically remove me from the chair which would not be that smart of a move lol. It's all in the approach I guess if someone was really sincere and polite you know what - I would probably say no problem I get it but if someone came over with a tude and caused a scene - game on.

[schexc]

Thankfully we've never experienced that kind of behavior, but if you want to provide the resort and table number, I wouldn't be opposed to venturing over there and experience it first hand

So glad we move around with our own beach chairs...

[WaltVB]

I'm in your spot? What, are we in the school lunchroom? Some people are such fools. We have only had folks camp out in our reserved palapas a few times, and they move on when security shows up. I'm a pretty easy going guy but if someone got in my face, it wouldn't be pretty.