Half of Brits admit to peeing in the pool - but we're not the worst culprits

Young man standing in pool, looking through window, rear view, elevated view

Almost half of British tourists have admitted urinating in their holiday pool, a new travel survey has revealed.

While 45 per cent of Brits are partial to peeing in the water, we're not the worst offenders as 64 per cent of Americans said they relieve themselves in the sea or pool, closely followed by 58 per cent of Canadians.

A poll from holiday deals website Travelzoo found that British and Germans tourists are as bad as each other when it comes to hogging sunbeds on holiday. A third of respondents from both nations admitted to making the early morning towel run to reserve a sunbed on the beach or by the pool.

Louise Hodges, spokeswoman for Travelzoo, told AOL Travel: "The dirty secret is out - tourists from across the globe are not averse to having a covert wee in their hotel swimming pool! We were surprised to see that people from North America are far more inclined to partake in this unappealing behaviour - just under two thirds of Americans admit to not leaving the water when nature calls. Whilst British tourists are less likely to do this we still came off pretty badly with more than 45 per cent of us confessing to this holiday sin."

Travelzoo's independent Global Travel Secrets Survey asked over 9,500 adults across the UK, US, China, Canada and Germany to own up to their worst holiday habits.

Americans are the most likely to head home with the complimentary toiletries or other hotel room items – 69 per cent owned up to it compared to 45 per cent of UK holidaymakers and one in five Germans.

On the other hand, Germans were most likely to have a wandering eye on holiday with 10 per cent admitting to cheating on their partner on foreign shores, contrasting with five per cent of Brits and just two per cent of Canadians.

Fitting in time to plan a summer getaway can be tricky, with many of us sneaking a few minutes to research our holiday options during working hours. While 40 per cent of Brits admitted to doing so, it seems that Americans (67 per cent), Canadians (64 per cent) and a staggering 70 per cent of the Chinese were the worst culprits for checking out sunshine escapes on the boss's time.

Here in the UK it seems we also have no qualms when it comes to pulling a 'sickie' to drag out that holiday feeling – 15 per cent of us owned up to it, along with a quarter of Americans.