via Wikimedia Commons

With summer travel time coming up, we thought it would be good to have a refresher on some of the finer points of travel etiquette.

When staying at a hotel, there are a few things to remember:

• Be quiet in the hallways, especially late at night.
• Be respectful in shared public spaces- it isn’t your living room. Clean up after yourself and keep conversation volume to an indoor level.
• Don’t let your children go wild- make sure they are supervised and aren’t harassing other guests.
• Don’t leave your room a disgusting mess for housekeeping to clean up.
• If there is a problem with your reservation or your room, be firm but don’t berate or yell at hotel staff.
• In the breakfast room, notify staff if you spill something, don’t hog tables if they are limited, don’t leave your dishes out if you are supposed to bus them
• Don’t steal from the hotel (duh) (toiletries are totally fine)
• If you are going to tip, do it every day as housekeeping staff rotates daily and leave a note so they know what it is (only 25-35% of Americans tip housekeeping staff at hotels and it is not strictly required)

All of the above goes for hostels, with a few more things:

• Be extra respectful of sleeping people in dorm style rooms.
• If it’s late an everyone is in bed and you come into the room, please turn off the light.
• If you use the hostel’s kitchen, make sure you clean up after yourself.
• Do not have sex in a shared room!
• If you have to leave early, pack up your stuff the night before to minimize noise in the early morning.
• With shared bathrooms, keep your showers short.
• Keep your phone/alarm close to you, so you can’t turn it off when it goes off. No snooze button.
• Don’t hog the computer

Tell me, do you leave a tip for housekeeping?