An Alpenverein online booking system for overnight bookings in ÖAV, AVS, DAV and SAC huts has been successfully tested by the Glungezer and Dümler Hütten (www.alpenverein.at/glungezerhuette; www.alpenverein.at/duemlerhuette), and will be adopted by more of the Alpenverein huts during 2016. If the specific hut page on the OeAV hut web pages has a 'Reservierung' tab in the green column on the left hand side of the page the hut has joined the system. If you click on 'Reservierung' the booking form should appear and, even though the text may only be in German, making a booking is fairly straight forward. You can see straight away how many overnight places are still available for the dates of interest to you. For 2016 only SAC members can sign in as members, AAC(UK) members should follow the steps as if they were non-members. When you have entered your contact details including your email address on the penultimate page and clicked 'weiter', you will have made a provisional booking. Almost immediately you should receive a 'no reply email' with a reservation number, and a link that you must click on within 2 hours in order to confirm your booking. Then you will get another email with the details of your reservation, including the cancellation terms for that hut, and another link which you can click on in order to change or cancel your booking. If you do cancel you should get another email! At some stage in the summer a secure page will be added to the booking system enabling the huts to ask for your credit card details, so that in the event that you do not turn up, and have not cancelled your reservation at least 5 days before arrival the Hüttenwirt can claim a EUR10 deposit per person, per night. If the hut is full for the date in question, it should be possible to go on a waiting list then, if places become available, the Hüttenwirt will contact you.
Members are strongly advised to book overnight places in advance, even if it is only a few days ahead. Once you have a booking, you are strongly advised to save the confirmation email and take it with you, to present to the Hüttenwirt when you arrive. For huts that haven't yet joined the system the advice we gave in the 2015 Summer newsletter still applies: if you haven't been asked for credit card details or paid a deposit, it is good practice to ring the hut a few days before your arrival date to confirm you are still intending to come. Should phoning on tour prove problematic, if you offer to pay for the call, Hüttenwirten (or in the valley the tourist office) will often ring the next hut and confirm (or make) a booking for you. Conversely if you realise you can't get to a hut you have booked, or your party has got smaller, you must do your best to cancel.
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