Could you sue your cruise line for ‘chair hogging’? This German court says yes

• A Germany tourist has been awarded $1600 from a local court after arguing that the Greek resort where he vacationed didn’t properly enforce ‘chair hogging’ rules.
• He argued that he didn’t get full value for his vacation as he could rarely get a seat by the pool.
• This ruling could create an interest precedent for cruise lines, who generally have chair hogging policies, but commonly come under fire for not properly enforcing them.

The BBC has reported that a German tourist has been awarded around $1600 in an extraordinary lawsuit over ‘chair hogging’. The man was awarded damages due to not being able to use pool lounges due to ‘chair hogging’, and now people are wondering how the cruise industry will react. 

The tourist argued that his family was unable to use deck chairs by the pool during his 2024 resort holiday in Greece because other guests would arrive early and leave their towels on the deck chairs all day. This is a common complaint on cruise ships, where passengers are also known to leave a towel on a deck chair, even if they don’t use it for hours. 

The main argument in this case, which might resonate with cruise lines, is that the resort has a policy against ‘chair hogging’, but the German tourist argued that the policy wasn’t enforced. The court agreed and said the tourist deserved a refund of about 14 per cent of his total trip cost.

This could create a ripple effect for the cruise industry, as many cruise lines have policies against chair hogging. But cruisers often dispute how strictly these rules are enforced.

For example, Royal Caribbean has a 30-minute rule, and if deck attendants notice that loungers haven’t been used in 30 minutes, they are meant to clear the chairs and allow new people to come in and use them.

Carnival Cruise Line has an almost identical policy, expect for 40 minutes instead of 30 minutes, Princess has the same policy of 30-minutes, as does Celebrity and so on.

Therefore, most cruise lines do have these policies, and the ruling of this German court suggests that passengers could sue if they feel that cruise lines are not enforcing these policies. 

It can be a difficult policy to enforce given that crew members already have a lot to look out for, especially by the pool, and it creates an awkward situation for crew members having to remove the items of a cruiser who hasn’t returned to their chair. 

While it wasn’t a huge sum of money, this new ruling could have cruise lines on high alert to make sure their policies are strictly enforced. Particularly as Germany, where the ruling was made, is a huge cruise market with more than two million German cruise passengers taking an ocean cruise every year. 

Recently, Norwegian Cruise Line has been making headlines due to praise from customers for how tightly they enforce their chair hogging rules. Passengers onboard NCL ships have reported that from 10am, NCL crew members start marking unoccupied chairs with stickers, and then returning an hour later and removing the guests’ items if the chair was still unoccupied. 

What to do if there’s chair hogging on your cruise?

• The first thing to do is to learn your cruise line’s particular policy around chair hogging, this gives you a leg up in monitoring the situation to see if rules are being broken.
• Do not remove guests items yourself, if you feel you’ve noticed that someone is chair hogging, it’s better to speak with a cruise member and see what action they take.
• If you feel it’s a recurrent issue and isn’t being dealt with onboard, you can go to guest services and raise the issue. 
• Don’t chair hog yourself! If you communicate with the crew and guest services they should be able to resolve the issue, this is much better than joining the chair hogging yourself.