Booking alpine huts means reading forms in four languages, and the words do not translate one to one. A rifugio and a bivacco are both "huts" in English and are completely different propositions. This is the vocabulary that changes what you get.
What kind of building is it
Refuge (French), Rifugio (Italian), Hütte (German), Cabane (French Switzerland), Capanna (Italian Switzerland) - a staffed mountain hut. Meals, blankets, a warden, and a booking. This is the normal case and what most of this site is about.
Berggasthaus / Berghotel / Gasthof (German) - a mountain inn, usually road- or lift-accessible, more comfortable and more expensive than a hut. Often has private rooms and normal plumbing.
Gîte d'étape (French) - a walkers' hostel in a valley village. Dormitories, meals, no mountain-hut formality. The standard valley night on French routes.
Auberge (French) - an inn. Broader than a gîte and usually more like a small hotel.
Alm / Alpe / Alpage / Malga (German, Italian, French, Italian) - a working summer farm. Some serve food and a few offer beds, many do neither. Do not assume you can sleep at one.
Bivacco (Italian), Biwak (German), Refuge non gardé (French) - an unstaffed shelter. No warden, no food, no booking, often just a metal box with bunks on a col. Free to enter, first come first served, and you carry everything. These are emergency and expedition shelter, not accommodation you plan a trip around. A great many "huts" in raw mapping data are actually these, which is why we curate them out.
Winterraum / Refuge d'hiver / Locale invernale - the winter room. A part of a staffed hut kept open when the hut is closed and unstaffed. Wood stove, blankets, honesty box. Same warning as a bivacco: shelter, not a booking.
Unbewirtschaftet (German) - unstaffed. Bewirtschaftet - staffed. Worth memorising, because it is the difference between dinner and no dinner.
Where you sleep
Matratzenlager / Massenlager (German), Dortoir (French), Camerata / Camerone (Italian) - the communal dormitory. Bunks or a continuous mattress platform, allocated rather than chosen, anything from six people to forty. This is the standard hut bed.
Zimmer (German), Chambre (French), Camera (Italian) - a private room. Two to four beds, far fewer of them, more expensive, and the first thing to sell out.
Lager on its own generally means dormitory. Bettenlager implies proper beds rather than a mattress platform.
More on choosing between them in dormitory or private room.
Meals
Halbpension (German), Demi-pension (French), Mezza pensione (Italian) - half board: dinner, bed and breakfast. The default at nearly every staffed hut. Lunch and drinks are not included. See half board in alpine huts.
Vollpension / Pension complète - full board, including lunch. Rare in huts.
Übernachtung ohne Verpflegung / Nuitée seule / Pernottamento - bed only, no meals. Offered less often than people expect, and discouraged in high season.
Selbstversorger (German), Coin cuisine (French) - self-catering, where a hut permits it. Often a small kitchen area and sometimes a charge to use it.
Bergsteigeressen (German) - literally "mountaineer's meal", a cheaper simpler set dinner offered at some club huts.
People and payment
Hüttenwirt / Hüttenwart (German), Gardien / Gardienne (French), Gestore / Custode (Italian) - the warden who runs the hut. The most useful source of information about the ground beyond their own door that exists anywhere.
DAV, ÖAV, SAC/CAS, CAI, FFCAM - the German, Austrian, Swiss, Italian and French alpine clubs. Most huts belong to a section of one of these. Membership of one usually gets you reduced rates in the others' huts through reciprocal rights agreements, which is normally worth the fee if you are doing more than a few nights.
Reciprocal rights / Gegenrecht / Réciprocité - the agreement that makes the above work.
Terrain words you will meet
Klettersteig (German), Via ferrata (Italian), Sentiero attrezzato (Italian) - a route with fixed cables and ladders, needing a harness and lanyard. See via ferrata grades explained.
Gletscher / Glacier / Ghiacciaio - glacier. A rope-and-skills proposition, not a hard walk.
Col / Joch / Pass / Passo / Sattel - a pass or saddle. The high point of a stage, and generally where the day is decided.
Bergwandern - mountain hiking, the T2 band. Alpinwandern - alpine hiking, T4 and up, where route-finding and exposure begin in earnest. See the SAC hiking scale explained.
Steinschlag - rockfall. Lawinengefahr - avalanche danger. Gesperrt / Fermé / Chiuso - closed. If you learn only four warning words, learn these.
Booking words
Reservierung / Réservation / Prenotazione - reservation.
Anzahlung / Arrhes / Caparra - deposit.
Stornierung / Annulation / Cancellazione - cancellation. Do it if your plans change: wardens cook for the number booked, and a no-show is wasted food and a bed somebody else needed.
Belegt / Complet / Completo / Ausgebucht - full.
Saison / Öffnungszeiten - season, opening times. Most staffed huts run roughly late June to late September, with wide variation by altitude and by hut.
If you are working out which huts to string together, HutScanner shows the hut network across the Alps with the walking legs between them and live-checked availability. You book directly with each hut; we are a planning aid, not a booking service.