Hostel Etiquette 101: Don’t Be That Person!
Hostel life: It’s an adventure, a social experiment, and sometimes a test of your patience.
Even in the coolest hostels, with the comfiest bunks and the friendliest staff, there’s one thing that can ruin your stay: your fellow travelers.
Having traveled and lived in different hostels over the years, I’ve come to notice some patterns in what makes a stay enjoyable or not. And it actually doesn’t have that much to do with the property and facilities themselves, but the people there—your fellow travelers.
From food theft to late-night phone calls, I’ve witnessed it all. So, to help you avoid becoming “that person” in the hostel, here are the top 7 things that can really annoy your hostel mates (your potential new friends, no less!).
Now, if you’re anything like me, you might think these are all obvious “no-no’s,” but you’d be amazed at the things I’ve witnessed in hostels. Common sense just seems to fly out the window when you don’t own the place. If you’re completely new to hostels, here’s a breakdown of what to expect.
Let me know if there are any surprises! What’s your number one pet peeve? My top ones are 1, 2 and 4, depending on the day.
1. Don’t Be a Food Thief: Hostel Kitchen Etiquette
Eating someone else’s food isn’t just not nice, it’s also called stealing, my friend. Someone might be counting on that yogurt for their quick breakfast (totally not talking from experience here… didn’t happen to me only once, but twice in a place I stayed for 2 nights) so leave it well alone.
Hostels will usually have something that you can mark your food with (you know, the stuff you buy for yourself) and often have shelves or boxes for food you can take for free. This is something left by others, and you can eat that without guilt.
If you want to make the most of hostel kitchens and cook hassle-free, check out this guide.
Top tip: If you want to avoid people stealing your food, one good practice is to place all your things in the fridge (or the shelf) in a bag. That way there’s an extra step the thief will have to go through to get to your stuff and it might just deter them from reaching for your stuff.
2. The Snooze Button of Doom: Respecting Sleep in Hostels
I get it, sometimes it’s just so hard to get up and get going. But do me and everyone else in your dorm a favour: do not snooze your alarm.
I do not need to get up at the same time as you, and I will for sure hate you for waking me up not once, but multiple times. Select a time that you need to get up at, not an hour or two before, like you might do at home.
And please, for goodness’ sake, if you do get up and take a shower, don’t forget to turn off that snooze/alarm!
If you’re struggling to get decent rest in a hostel, I wrote down some of my tips.
3. Late-Night Phone (or worse yet, Video!) Calls
Now this should be common sense, out of respect for the people you’re sharing your space with: do not answer a video call in your dorm at 2 am.
The amount of times I have heard people do this, it clearly has escaped someone’s attention. Dormitories are for sleeping, and that’s what people are there to do (and if you have other, more intimate, plans for the night, maybe a private hotel room would be a better idea. Just saying.).
I don’t care if it’s your mom or your kids, you step outside to take that call. Even then you use your inside voice and your headphones, if it’s late. Dormitories usually have rules about quiet time, please respect this.
Staying mindful of your surroundings and other people is key to feeling safe in a hostel!
4. Aim for the Bowl: Hostel Bathroom Etiquette 101 🚽
This should go without saying, but the hostel is not your home and your mom is not cleaning up after you. Please be an adult and keep the shared areas, including the toilets nice and clean for everyone.
This means aiming for and hitting the toilet bowl instead of the seat or the floor.
The pee stains might not bother you (honestly, I’m starting to think some people don’t even see them) but as a woman who is using the toilet after you, it’s just so disgusting. Not to mention the smell of a day-old pee. 🤢
It’s one thing when the other hostel guests don’t have a good aim, but it’s whole lot worse when the hostel doesn’t care. Reading hostel reviews the right way can save you from nasty surprises. I ALWAYS check the reviews to see what people think of the cleaning standards, although those can vary, as I explain in my guide comparing Hostelworld and Booking.com.
4a. Another small thing when it comes to using the toilet (a bonus, if you will!):
I know you love to scroll on your phone when you’re in the toilet at home, but PLEASE remember that there might be 5 other people waiting to use the same toilet, so leave your TikTok doom scroll for another time.
5. The Lingering Aroma of Disaster: Cooking Fish in the Shared Kitchen
Now this might be controversial and you might want to get your omega-3s on the road too. But the lack of good air circulation in the old buildings that the hostels usually are in makes the stench linger for hours.
🐟 Fried fish especially will leave a lasting impression – I feel like sometimes you can still taste it in the air after the person cooking has left.
This doesn’t just include fish, but other strong, spicy foods too.
6. Shower Drain Etiquette: Don’t Leave a Hairy Mess
Keep the shower drain happy! Whether you’re washing your hair, shaving anything in the shower or over the sink, please make sure to remove any stray hairs. It’s just common courtesy in a shared space. I get it, not everyone does it and it’s just so disgusting to have to clean up after someone else, but I’m just saying, if everyone did it…
Top tip: If you’re a long haired person like me, brush your hair before you get in the shower. That way you’re not going to clog the drain with your hair at least. And by the way, this works wonders at home too!
7. Lights Out! Respecting Sleep Schedules in Hostels
This is another thing not to do in the dormitories: turning on the big light at night (and even sometimes leaving it on when you leave the room). I’m repeating points 2 and 3, that people have booked the hostel for a place to sleep and you should do everything reasonable to respect that.
These days you’re most likely carrying a handy-dandy flashlight in your pocket, so use that please. Some even suggest headlamps, but I haven’t gone that far yet.
Packing smart can make hostel life much smoother for you (and your roommates) in any case.
You probably have a bedside light you can turn on once you reach your bed, so it’s only a few steps anyway. Do you really want to wake everyone else up?
I’ve stayed in one place where this wasn’t a problem: a former military prison Karosta. You might wonder why? Read here to find out.
Too Long; Didn’t Read?
tl;dr: If you can’t be respectful of others, stay at home.
How to Make Friends (Not Enemies) in a Hostel
While it’s nice if you feel right at home in a hostel (and from what I know, that’s what most good hostel owners want anyway: for you to feel comfortable!), it is still a shared space. Hostels aren’t just for young backpackers—people of all ages and backgrounds stay in them.
For everything you need to know about thriving in hostels, check out this guide.
So, to make sure everyone feels at home (but not too much), here’s a quick cheat sheet for being a considerate hostel mate:
- Respect the quiet times
- Clean up after yourself in the shared spaces and/or don’t make a mess in the first place.
- Keep noise to a minimum.
- Be friendly, you are here to make new friends! 😎