Hostels are where I spend my nights usually on the room. If I’m moving cities every couple of days it’s my default option if I have no friends in that city. You’ll hear many horror hostel stories but 99% of the time you’ll have a blast and meet awesome people.
If you want to make quality friendships in hostels, following these hostel etiquette tips I’ve compiled from staying in hostels around the world will make you likeable right away.
- Introduce Yourself Right Away To Your Dormies. Otherwise It Gets Awkward
- Keep Your Stuff Tidy, You Are Sharing With Others
- Use The Toilet Properly. As In Pretend You Are At Mums House
- Don’t Use ‘I Was Drunk’ As An Excuse For Bad Hostel Etiquette
- Not Everyone Likes Your Music Tastes. Headphones…
- If There’s A Kitchen. Clean Up After Yourself
- A Social Hostel Doesn’t Revolve Around You
- Put Your Phone Away
- Hide Your Plastic Bags At Night
You will spend a fair bit of time in the same room as your fellow dorm mates. A couple of times I haven’t gone out of my way to introduce myself right away and it gets awkward. When you first see someone for the day, you’ll ask them how they are and have a bit of chit chat
You may have a messy room at home, and yes you are indeed paying money to stay in a dorm but respect others. Notone wants to see your undies first thing in the morning or have to jump over your things to leave the room. It’s not that hard to keep your things to a small area. And let’s be honest, those who stay in hostels are often wearing dirty smelly clothes regularly, try and keep the smell levels of the room room down just a little bit!
Toilets are disgusting when travelling. It doesn’t matter if it’s at airports, restaurants, dorm rooms or public toilets. For some reason when people leave home they lose basic toilet etiquette. Guys don’t forget to aim…most toilets will be co-ed, girls don’t want to sit on your dehydrated leak.
We all do silly things when we are drunk. Some more than others. I’ve been lucky to not have any really horrible hostel experiences but being puked on, pee’ed on, hearing sex noises from the bed below, racial slurs, clumsiness are reasonably common occurances in hostel. If you happen to have done one of these or any other activity when drunk hopefully you: remember it, feel really bad, and APOLOGISE TO YOUR DORM FRIENDS. Don’t use the classic ‘I was drunk excuse either, it can’t be justified’. The same goes if they bring it up because you don’t remember….simply don’t use that ‘I was drunk’, apologise and don’t say ‘it won’t happen again’….most people know you aren’t telling the truth. Just be a nice person!
My favourite hostel of late in Langkawi!
Music is a universal thing so listening to music isn’t unusual. However not everyone has the same tastes. When I was in Langkawi most people would spend much of the morning in the lobby, because Wi-Fi. It was peaceful, there would be small chit chat but eventually an English guy started blasting house music from his phone. Awkward at 10am in the morning. Eventually the receptionist asked him to turn it down a bit. Englishman wasn’t happy. Later that day a couple of my new friends said “Wow, that English guy was weird and annoying playing his music this morning”. Glad I wasn’t definitely the only one thinking he was being a bit stupid and rude.
Not all hostels have a kitchen but when there is nothing is more revolting than seeing dishes galore from people before you isn’t fun. Especially when you need to use some of the things. If the kitchen is messy, don’t use that as an excuse not to do your dishes! That’s where it all starts to go downhill. As the theme goes: just be a nice person.
This can be applied to every situation in life, but in hostels there is definitely an ego factor of who is the better traveller. Hint: everyone thinks it’s them. When you are getting to know someone, you need to find out about the other person as well. Don’t try and swat
Phoneless conversations at a hostel
It can be hard to put it down when travelling, catching up with friends, posting photos, watching your favourite shows. It’s time consuming. If you head to the common room, try leaving your phone and laptop behind and talk to people for a bit. Nothing bad can happen and by leaving your phone in the room, you will avoid the inevitable temptation (guilty) and remain an interesting person.
I always have a couple of plastic bags handy when I fly. They are good to put my dirty shoes in, smelly washing, food that I would rather not have all through my bag, same deal with toiletries. By crikey they are noisy though. Don’t be that person who happens to leave their plastic bags on top of your bag so when you enter it in the middle of the night they make that nasty sound waking everyone up. Time and place is huge in hostels!
There you go! Following solid hostel etiquette is not hard. As I often say, just be a nice person! Hostels are a blast, just don’t be ‘that guy’ people talk negatively about behind your back.
