One sunbed for every 1-1.5 beds, 4 to 6 sqm per sunbed including walkways, 120-150 cm of clear walking space along the pool edge, shade available for at least 40-50% of seating. Anyone who starts from these four numbers has already decided 70% of the budget, because quantity governs the choice of model. The rest of the decision comes down to a series of comparisons between alternatives that cost roughly the same but have very different working lives. Here they are set side by side, with a clear recommendation on each.
Contents
Pool sunbeds: folding lounger, adjustable, or fixed frame
The three families get treated as a matter of taste, and they aren’t: what changes is the lifespan, and it changes by a factor of four.
The folding lounger with a frame costs little, roughly 60 to 180 euros, and folds down to almost nothing. It fails where you’d expect: the hinge loosens, the pins develop play, the fabric tears along the seams. In genuine hotel use, with three hundred cycles a season, it lasts two or three seasons. It makes sense as backup stock for peak days, never as the main provision.
The adjustable-backrest sunbed with wheels is the industry standard: aluminium or stainless steel frame, taut fabric or slatted deck, a four- or five-position ratchet, two rear wheels to move it with one hand. It costs roughly 150 to 600 euros and, if the material is right and it’s brought indoors for winter, it lasts six to ten seasons.
The fixed-frame sunbed in moulded HDPE has no screws to tighten and no hinges to grease. It costs 200 to 700 euros and lasts ten to fifteen years. Its only drawback is that the backrest doesn’t adjust, which makes it unsuitable as the sole provision but ideal for the positions most exposed to wind and sun, where everything else wears out first.
The verdict is mixed, and not out of caution. The main provision should be mid-range adjustable sunbeds, fixed models go in windy spots, and two or four double daybeds at 700 to 3,000 euros cover the top tier, often at a supplement. Buying everything at the same low tier produces a replacement cycle every three years.
One detail matters more than the type. In end-of-season checks, the aluminium frame is almost always intact: what gets thrown away is the taut fabric that’s given way at the seams, cracked slats and oxidised hardware that jams the backrest. These are the spare parts to ask for at the time of ordering, because after three years the model is out of production.
Materials resistant to chlorine, salt air, UV and frost
Chlorine, salt air, UV rays and frost are distinct attacks, and a material can withstand one and fail against the next.
| Material | Chlorine | Salt air | UV | Frost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Powder-coated aluminium | good | good with correct pre-treatment | excellent | excellent |
| Stainless steel AISI 316 | excellent | excellent | excellent | excellent |
| Stainless steel AISI 304 | good | insufficient in marine environments | excellent | excellent |
| Galvanised or painted steel | poor | poor | medium | medium |
| HDPE and polypropylene with UV additive | excellent | excellent | good | excellent |
| Woven resin on aluminium frame | good | good | medium | good |
| Teak, accoya, iroko, robinia | excellent | excellent | greys over time | excellent |
| Autoclave-treated pine | medium | poor | poor | poor |
In a city hotel pool, without salt-laden air, powder-coated aluminium wins: it’s light, it stacks, and it can be touched up with a brush. By the sea, the comparison changes. There, hardware needs to be AISI 316, because 304 pits within two seasons, and aluminium coating should be requested with a declared pre-treatment cycle. It’s the only real difference between two sunbeds that look identical but cost 40% more than each other: without surface preparation, oxide bubbles form under the paint by the second summer.
On wood, the verdict is clear-cut. Teak, accoya, iroko and robinia hold up; autoclave-treated pine cracks and splinters underfoot. The greying of stable woods is purely cosmetic and is fixed with an oil treatment at the end of the season.
On frost, the mistake is to look at the material’s data sheet instead of the design of the deck. Cold acts on standing water in the joints: a slatted deck that drains poorly cracks after the first freeze-thaw cycle. Between two models, choose the one in which water has nowhere to sit still.
Shade around the pool: parasols, recessed sleeves and pergolas
Shade is the most requested service and the most under-provided. Below 40% of seats with access to shade, complaints start; in properties in the south and in pools without trees, that ratio rises to 60-70%.
The real comparison is between three systems. The central parasol with a weighted base covers one or two sunbeds, costs little, and needs 40-60 kg of ballast for a 250 cm diameter, 80-100 kg beyond that. The 20 kg bases sold as universal hold nothing in place. The side-arm parasol covers two to four sunbeds with no central pole, but due to leverage it’s more sensitive to wind and needs 100-200 kg or a bolted plate. The fixed pole on a sleeve embedded in the paving has no ballast, can’t tip over, and in winter leaves only a flush cap at floor level.
If you’re redoing the paving, the sleeve wins and the comparison ends there. It costs more at installation but eliminates the most serious risk around a pool, namely a parasol taking off in a gust in an area with children. If the paving stays as it is, choose ballast sized to the actual diameter and write an evening closing procedure assigned to one person per shift, because the damage always happens at night.
Tensioned sailcloth shades cost less but need to come down in strong wind and out of season. Aluminium pergolas with adjustable louvres, roughly 300 to 900 euros per square metre, keep the area usable even in the rain and allow bar service, at the cost of a planning check to be done beforehand. Outdoor hotel furniture placed under a pergola can be lighter, because the wind reaching it is already shielded.
One last note that concerns the furniture, not the parasols: in windy locations, plastic sunbeds under 12-15 kg end up in the pool, damaging the filter. There, you need heavy models or fixed structures, and no windbreaks or A-frame signs at poolside.
Stackable sunbeds and winter storage: the warehouse calculation
This item never comes up when buying and it decides half of the furniture’s working life, because a sunbed left outside from November to March ages more than in the whole working season.
Sixty stackable sunbeds fit into 12-18 sqm of covered storage; the same sixty non-stackable ones need 60 to 80. If the available storage is a 15 sqm room, the choice is already made before you open a single catalogue, and it’s made by asking the supplier how many units stack per column and to what height.
Correct winter storage is basic and still gets done wrong: washing with a neutral detergent, touching up chips by brush, stacking on pallets to keep the base off the floor’s damp. Anything left outside should be covered with a breathable sheet; impermeable PVC generates condensation and makes things worse than leaving everything uncovered.
Side tables, bar counter and poolside fittings
Poolside service fails for lack of surfaces to set things on, not for lack of staff. A side table 40-50 cm across, 35-45 cm high, for every two sunbeds is the functional minimum: without it, glasses end up on the ground.
Different measurements apply to the bar area: tables 70×70 cm for two people and 80×80 for four, height 72-75 cm, HPL outdoor or porcelain stoneware top on an aluminium frame. Glass is ruled out at poolside from the start. Hotel chairs for outdoor use should stack at least eight to ten deep and have enough weight of their own not to shift in a breeze.
The outdoor bar counter needs a stainless steel or aluminium structure, HPL or stoneware cladding, an internal working height of 88-92 cm and a front height of 108-115 cm, and should be designed to be washed down with water. Everything else builds around this: a trolley with large wheels, since small ones jam in paving joints; bins with lids, one for every 15-20 sunbeds; a stainless steel 316 shower, one for every 30-40 sunbeds along the route back to the pool; a towel dispenser with a separate compartment for clean and used towels.
There’s a detail on the feet that gets paid for dearly: the end caps must be rubber or nylon, because bare metal scratches stoneware and slips when wet. And no loose runner mats at poolside, which are the area’s number one trip hazard.
Maintaining pool furniture, season by season
Rinsing all the furniture with fresh water, once a week in a marine environment, doubles the life of the coating. Salt air acts cumulatively, so the comparison isn’t between “clean” and “dirty” but between salt that gets washed off and salt that stays.
At the start of the season, tighten screws and pins, check ratchets and foot ends, go over the fabric seams. Each month, repeat the tightening and check the ballast. At the end of the season, wash everything, oil the wood and touch up any chips, because every chip in the paint is where corrosion starts. Every two or three years, consider replacing the taut fabrics, which costs a fraction of replacing the sunbeds themselves.
A spare-parts kit ordered together with the supply, with stainless screws, pins, foot ends and paint in the right colour, costs roughly 200 to 800 euros and stops a sunbed sitting idle all summer for the sake of a two-euro pin.
How much it costs to furnish the pool area, and where to concentrate spending
With sixty contract sunbeds, twenty to twenty-five parasols with their bases, side tables, an outdoor bar counter and a towel dispenser, the order of magnitude is roughly 20,000 to 70,000 euros, with louvred pergolas as a separate line item. Within that figure, the split matters more than the total: you can save on the number of daybeds and on the look of the side tables, while stainless hardware, ballast and aluminium pre-treatment stay off the table for discussion, because they concern safety and durability and are invisible in a catalogue photo. If you want to compare two quotes on the same scope, ask for a quote for the pool area with load capacities, hardware materials and stackability figures declared item by item.
Frequently asked questions about furnishing a hotel pool area
How many sunbeds should I put out so guests aren’t racing for a towel at seven in the morning?
The ratio that holds is one sunbed for every 1-1.5 beds when the pool is a central facility, so 55-80 sunbeds for a property with 80 beds. Dropping to 40 means guests reserving a spot at dawn with a towel, and the volume of negative reviews that follows costs more than the twenty missing sunbeds.
How heavy should a pool parasol base be?
For a central parasol with a 250 cm diameter, you need roughly 40-60 kg, above 250 cm that rises to 80-100 kg, and a side-arm model needs 100-200 kg or a plate bolted to the ground. The best solution in a hotel remains a sleeve embedded in the paving, which eliminates ballast, the risk of tipping, and winter storage bulk.
Is a stackable sunbed better than a fixed-frame one?
Storage space decides it. Sixty stackable sunbeds take up 12-18 sqm of covered space, the same sixty non-stackable ones take 60 to 80. Fixed HDPE models last ten to fifteen years against six to ten, but the backrest doesn’t adjust and they can’t be stacked, so the right provision is almost always a mix of stackable adjustable models and fixed ones in the most exposed spots.
What happens if I leave the sunbeds out all winter?
Winter degradation exceeds that of the working season. Standing water in the joints freezes and opens up the slats, unrinsed hardware oxidises, taut fabrics give way. A full cycle of washing, paint touch-up and storage on pallets in a ventilated room takes a few hours of work and pushes replacement years down the line.
Can I use garden furniture instead of contract furniture?
It withstands family use over twenty weekends, not three hundred uses a season with sun cream, chlorine and daily moving around. The difference lies in the tubing sections, the quality of the hardware, and the availability of spare parts in the following years, which simply doesn’t exist for a mass-market product.
