Basic Hostel Manners

Basic Hostel Manners

When staying at a hostel and sharing room with a bunch of other travelers you don’t know, you can’t just act like you would in your own home. You may feel ‘at home’ – but you’re not…

Plus, half the purpose of sleeping in dorms is to meet some new cool people, and you don’t want to be remembered as the dude who made people tear their hair out of frustration by your obsessive noise with your plastic bags in the middle of the night, do you?

Some hostels have written rules which you have to agree with (some even make you sign a contract!), but aside from that there are some unwritten but just as important hostel manner rules which every guest should stick to and be aware of.

DON’T…

… keep your lights on in the middle of the night. Everyone can’t sleep with the lights on and shouldn’t need to bring eye-masks.

… walk in and out of the room loudly all through the night.

… dig for stuff in your paper and plastic bags or in any way rustle with them. Somehow this sound travels through walls, I wouldn’t be surprised if even a deaf person could hear it.

… snore. Snoring people always deny that they snore, just face it and do something about it – otherwise you’re going to make some enemies where you’re staying.

Sure we should all carry ear plugs around, but they don’t help much when the bed is shaking from the snoring…

… have sex. I shouldn’t even have to mention this, but people still don’t seem to understand why people don’t want to hear them having a two people party under the sheets – Get a private!

… occupy the only shower for 40 minute shower first thing in the morning if it’s shared with other people. If you need a long shower, wait until everyone is out.

DO…

… keep your music on a low level. Everyone doesn’t agree to your music taste, especially not in the middle of the night.

… Clean up after yourself. Would YOU like to eat from a dirty plate or use a bathroom full of dried sticky hairy bits of wax in the shower?

… Pack up the night before. You can’t fully avoid it, but waking everybody up at five o clock and packing for an hour is uncalled for – prepare the night before if you have to leave early.

… Be quiet. If you’re a party princess, there are party hostels you can stay at. But if it’s not (which you will soon notice), show respect and keep it quiet at night time.

I don’t really mean to be a downer by sharing these, but once you have been on the road for a while, you will really start to appreciate a nice relaxing and quiet night in the hostel.

Lastly  like I said before, if you really want to be out late, and party then you can also find the appropriate hostel for that kind of thing. By going through the reviews you find on hostelbookers or hostelworld which hostels worldwide are party friendly or not.

Hope this helps you out, and keeps you making friends not enemies while on the road!