Etiquette

Shelter etiquette: how to behave so there is room for the next person

An unguarded shelter has no reception and no warden on most nights. It works only because of how the people who stay in it behave. The rules that apply everywhere.

2 min readUpdated 26 October 2026Read in Slovak

Drawing: two sleeping bags on the boards of a shelter, the space between them marked free for the next person.

A shelter is a roof, four walls and trust. Nobody checks you in, nobody gives you a bunk and nobody cleans up after you. Whether it is still usable next week depends on everyone who sleeps there — you included.

When you arrive

  • Say hello and ask. If someone is already inside, ask whether there is room and where you can put your things.
  • A place belongs to whoever needs it. Shelters take no bookings. If you arrive early, don't hold bunks for friends who will turn up three hours later.
  • In bad weather, make room. When it is pouring or snowing outside, nobody gets sent away. One day you will need the same.

During the night

  • Quiet after dark. People in shelters go to bed early and get up early. Music from a speaker does not belong here.
  • Use the red light on your head torch if it has one. You won't blind anyone looking for your bottle at night.
  • Cook outside if you can, or at least by an open door and away from the wood. Wooden bunks and floors burn fast.
  • Use the stove only as the sign on site says. If there is no wood laid in, don't cut the trees around the shelter. Replace the wood you burn if you can.

When you leave

  • Take out everything you brought. Wrappers, apple cores and the "tiny" bit of paper too. Rubbish left on a ridge has to be carried down by someone — best by you.
  • Leave the shelter cleaner than you found it. Sweeping takes two minutes. If there is a broom, use it.
  • Close the door and the windows. Against wind, snow and animals.
  • Say what you found. If something is missing or broken — a leaking roof, a missing stove, a dry spring — add a report on the place's page in Bivaq. The next people plan their night by it.

On the Low Tatras ridge

The shelters on the main ridge of the Low Tatras are used all year and are full in summer. Everything above applies twice over here.

Where you can sleep on the ridge is in Where to sleep on the Low Tatras ridge.