The Austrian Alpine Club's mountain huts are heading for another increase in overnight stays after the record year of 2025. However, the results of the 2026 hut season also show that drought, cancellations, and no-shows remain challenges.
Summer in mountain huts 2026: Increase after the record year
Go to the Austrian Alpine Club The association comprises 223 mountain huts with approximately 10.000 beds, attracting around one million visitors annually. In 2025, the huts recorded a record 384.000 overnight stays. This year, the number is expected to rise again. "We are currently anticipating an increase of around five percent in overnight stays," said Alpine Club President Wolfgang Schnabl in the association's press release. However, final figures are not yet available for all huts.
Records from the Radstadt Tauern to the Venediger
The figures are even more striking at some mountain huts. Anna Menikheim-Schuhmann and Andreas Schuhmann of the Stickler Hut in the Radstadt Tauern mountains report "the best overnight stay result since records began in 1982." Florian Schmetzer, hut warden of the Badener Hut in the Venediger Group, also reports a record number of overnight stays – made possible "by a very sunny summer." According to wardens Kasia Pawlus-Biel and Andrzej Biel, the Wangenitzsee Hut in the Schober Group was mostly fully booked.
New York meets the Dead Mountains
A trend continues: the clientele at mountain huts is becoming younger and more international. According to the Alpine Club, in addition to guests from Austria and Germany, there is an increasing number of mountaineers from the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, the Czech Republic, and Great Britain. The proportion of non-European guests, for example from the USA, is also rising.
Susanne Kern, manager of the Pühringer Hut in the Totes Gebirge mountains, describes it in the official press release of the Austrian Alpine Club (ÖAV) as follows: "It's quite special when a person from New York sits down next to locals and someone from Chile joins them. The whole world is sitting at one table, and in such a remote place as the Pühringer Hut."
Fully booked and yet empty warehouses
In June, the Alpine Club had warned of cancellation rates of 30 to 40 percent. The situation eased over the course of the summer. According to the association, this was due to increased information campaigns and public relations efforts, as well as stable weather conditions. However, the problem is not yet solved: some guests continue to book several huts simultaneously and decide at short notice depending on the weather, while others let reserved places lapse without canceling.
At the Wangenitzsee Hut, the cancellation rate was around 20 percent. Kasia Pawlus-Biel and Andrzej Biel explain: “This year we even had 13 no-shows in a single day, with approximately 50 beds. Or a group would reserve for eight people and then only show up with five. Something like that happens almost every other day.” The Alpine Club therefore continues to appeal to people to book responsibly and to be mindful of the limited capacity of the huts.
Bucket instead of toilet flushing
The second major issue of the season was water. The persistent drought particularly affected high-altitude huts and huts in karst regions. According to Susanne Kern, at the Pühringer Hut, "the toilets had to be repeatedly turned off, and water had to be fetched using buckets." At the Wangenitzsee Hut, things became critical at the end of June and in July. "Our old glacial spring is yielding less and less water, especially on hot days," the hut owners explained.
With limited shower facilities and the help of guests, the affected huts remained open. For Florian Schmetzer of the Badener Hütte, however, the summer is a warning sign: "A summer like this has shown us the challenges that the coming years will bring with regard to climate change, drier summers, and increasing drought."
Bed bugs: six suspected cases
Bedbugs aren't just a mountain hut problem – they occur in accommodations of every category, from luxury hotels to mountain refuges. Together with the Alpine Clubs in Germany and South Tyrol, the Austrian Alpine Club launched an information campaign this summer. The goal: to prevent guests from carrying the insects from hut to hut. Six suspected infestations were reported to 223 huts during the summer of 2026.
"A huge job"
Despite water shortages and empty beds, the innkeepers' overall assessment is positive. The Biel innkeepers describe a season "with many wonderful encounters, a fantastic team, and many special moments." Gottfried Härtel of the Admonter Haus in the Gesäuse region praises his staff: "My employees have done a fantastic job again. And that doesn't even begin to describe it. They've done a tremendous job."
The season isn't quite over yet: some huts are open until the beginning of November; the opening times are listed in the Alpine Club hut finderWhether the increase will actually reach five percent in the end will only be revealed by the final figures – the water issue is likely to occupy the huts for considerably longer.
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