What to do if your beach towel goes missing at an Egyptian resort hotel?

You do not need to leave your beach towel in the room during housekeeping to get it exchanged — towels can be swapped directly at the beach or poolside. Picking up towel cards at check-in lets you head straight to the beach without waiting at reception.

If you use your own (non-hotel) towel to reserve a sunbed and then leave for lunch, beach staff may still remove it — the rule about unattended items applies regardless of whether the towel is hotel-issued or your own.

If a sunbed has unattended items on it, you can call over a beach staff member, hand them the items, and take the sunbed — guests report this works without any confrontation.

If you receive dirty or worn-out beach towels, complain to the guest relations team — staff have noted that almost no one reports this issue, which is why it persists. A complaint can get your towels replaced and prompts the hotel to address the problem.

Some guests take hotel beach towels back to their rooms to dry them, even though towels can be exchanged for fresh ones at both the beach and poolside. This may partly explain why towels sometimes seem to go missing.

There are reports of beach staff deliberately removing towels from sunbeds while guests are at lunch, then demanding payment to return them. If this happens to you, go directly to the beach manager and insist on a meeting with senior staff — this can resolve the situation without paying.

Leaving a towel to reserve a sunbed while you're away for hours violates the rules at many Egyptian resorts. Staff are entitled to remove unattended towels after a set time — this is official hotel policy, not misconduct.

Hotel rules generally require that a beach towel stays with you. When leaving the beach, you should return it or take it to your room. If you go back to the pool or sea later, bring the same towel or get a fresh one — leaving it to hold a spot is not allowed.

Other guests frequently pick up the wrong towel by mistake when hundreds of identical ones are spread across the beach. To avoid mix-ups, tie a pareo or another distinctive item to your towel so it stands out.

If a towel is lost due to your own negligence, the hotel will officially charge you for it. This is standard practice across Egyptian resorts and is not a scam.

Enforcing the 2-hour sunbed rule on a large resort beach is nearly impossible in practice. The safest approach is simply not to leave your towel unattended for long periods and to always take it with you.