As travel begins to open back up, more people are going to be looking for cost-effective places to stay. Enter hostels! While they’re incredibly popular and generally very safe, I still meet at least one hostel rookie each time I travel. And each time we end up having some conversation about crazy hostel roommates, room changes, and mishaps. So to help you avoid being that person and prepare you for potential situations, here are some hostel travel tips.

Don’t smell.

This may sound silly, but lots of people spending their nights in hostels tend to smell. Between cultural differences, people who haven’t had a chance to do actual laundry and the general mustiness that tends to happen, it’s easy for a room to start smelling. So do what you can to make sure you don’t make it worse. That means please don’t bring overly smelly foods into the room. Please keep your body as clean as possible. If you have dirty clothes, please keep them in some kind of container. It’s ok to let things air out for a bit, but a few hours or overnight should be enough.

Keep your stuff tidy.

Some hostels are more spacious than others, but generally that’s not the case. Usually you’re going to be in some kind of bunk bed situation. The person on the bottom bunk has easy access to their stuff, and oftentimes these people tend to leave their things splayed about. This leaves the top-bunk-sleeper at an inconvenience. I’ve stepped on someone else’s stuff when descending from my top bunk before, simply because it was hanging on the ladder, which was the only way to get down. Plus, the more people in a room, the easier it is for the room to become a clustered mess. Try and keep it to a minimum.

Be Respectful

Be as quiet as possible when others are sleeping, but on the other hand, don’t be that person who goes to bed super early and complains about noise at 10 pm. If you know you have to leave early in the morning, try and have your bags packed and ready for a quick and silent departure.

Keep your phone on silent.

Or vibrate, whatever. I honestly would never have thought to add this to my hostel travel tips until I was sharing a room with someone who had his phone on loud. The whole night. He would get a message, ping! While playing some game, those noises were activated too! Oh. My favorite part was that he had the sound on as he typed. You know, where you hear each letter click as you’re typing? Oh yes. I wasn’t aware people still did that. Anyway. Should be self explanatory but even though you’re in a group room, you should try and be as respectful as possible.

Bathroom Etiquette

Don’t be messy in the shower. I don’t understand how people do this, but please do not get out of the shower dripping wet. Or if you do, dry the floor afterwards. This isn’t a water park. For when you have an en-suite bathroom: these are the best, because your bathroom is shared between only your room. Some people take it upon themselves to act as though they’re home and take forever getting ready. Don’t do that. It’s still a shared bathroom and while you’re standing under the warm water luxuriously, I’m trying not to pee my pants first thing in the morning.

Be friendly

Generally people are very nice, and if they’re staying in a group room in a hostel, they’re usually open to meeting new people. When you get to the room, introduce yourself to whoever else is already there. Act natural. If that means you join or start a conversation, great. If everyone is keeping to themselves, be friendly but not obnoxious. Also, please try and be aware that even though you all went to grab dinner together, that doesn’t mean you suddenly have to do everything together. Some people might, but others may want their space. Read the room.

Super Important Hostel Travel Tips:

1. Bring flip flops. I forgot my first trip and had to go everywhere barefoot. Not fun, especially in shared bathrooms. Plus, no one likes dirty feet in bed and on couches. Ew.
2. Always bring a lock for locking up valuables. Some hostels provide them, other times it may not feel necessary. I don’t care how trusting people seem, if my MacBook is coming, I’m bringing my lock.
3. Research the towel policy in advance. Some hostels include them, some rent them. I used to rent towels but ended up buying a quick-dry camping towel that has been a complete dream! It was inexpensive and it packs really small.
4. Keep after hours behavior to a minimum. I get that you might come home late, but if you do, don’t turn on all the lights and start banging around. And please, don’t blow dry your hair at 4 am! Some of us appreciate our sleep.
5. Bring something to keep your stuff smelling nice. When I’m traveling in the states, I usually put a few dryer sheets in my suitcase to keep the contents smelling fresh. In Spain, I use one of those closet inserts in my suitcase. It has the same effect!
6. If you’re a light sleeper or snoring bothers you, bring earplugs! Unfortunately people can’t generally control their snoring but you can control whether or not you hear it!

Well. that’s my list! Any hostel travel tips and tricks I missed?

---

Pin for later:

• 

•