When I was a little kid vacationing at the fishing cabin, it was novel and fun to sleep in bunk beds, sharing a room with other family members. If this were a full time home I'd do something to add privacy (curtains?), but for relatively short stays I'd leave it open.

Thanks for the comments. We do not intend to do built in bunk beds to allow for flexibility. It is a vacation home.

In our beach house, we have bunks in one bedroom. Ours are not built in and are open on all sides. IMO they are only good for young children. Although we have a cleaning once a week that does linens, there are times we have to change the sheets ourselves, which is a dreaded chore. I would rethink this plan.

What about a trundle with storage it will also feel less claustophic.

Depending on who is sharing the alcove/room, adding drapes or barn doors might be appreciated.

Your kids as they get older will not want to sleep in bunk beds. And once they start bringing home SO, they certainly will not want to sleep in a room with 2-4 other people.

You will need a window in each sleeping area - so open seems to be the option for you.

To put doors on those would be horrible and claustrophic for sure . I sleep in a top bunk when we travel in Eirope on the train and honestly do not ever want to do that in any other place . BTW a PITA to make and IMO ask your guests how they honestly feel about bunk beds .I agree once the kids start bring home SO no way will they sleep apart or in bunks with another couple.In my experience couples with kids would still like to sleep together and kids honestly don't care if they sleep on the floor . We had a huge loft in the cabin and my dad built so sort of room dividers and all of us kids slwept up there like a dorm and we did that until we got married . When were dating our SOs just had to suck it up I would never change all my guest spaces to bunks

I remodel a lot of vacation homes that were not intended to allow for flexibility.

No way would I enclose them. If anything, curtains.

Thanks for all the advice. We are going to keep the alcoves open so they can be used for a sofa, day bed, desk, reading nook or bunk beds.

If the bunks are not built-in with walls on three sides I don't understand the point of building in bunks.

We have a small house (1200 sf) and chose to create a 2-bunk nook for our children in one of our 3 bedrooms. I'm happy with three choices: 1) The beds are EXTRA LONG twin mattresses. When we've had guests or illness and need to mix up sleeping arrangements, my 6' tall husband is comfortable on the lower XL twin bed (it's the same length as our king). 2) Each bunk has extra features: an duplex electrical outlet, a wall sconce on a switch, and a basket that hangs off the side for the kids' water bottles 3) As they've gotten older and started to fall asleep at different times (ages 10 & 13) individual bunk curtains have eased the fussing about "she won't turn her light off".

edited: About the sconces.. it would be a pain in the boot to turn the upper sconce off if it's left on. I'm glad we had the electrician make a main off/on switch at the bedroom entrance. When it's switched on, the girls have control of their sconces, but we can shut it all down by just reaching in the doorway and turning the main switch to off.

I did one more step than suggested above. I switched all my bedside lamps from the door, but I also switched them next to the bed so they can still be switched back on from the doorway again. If they are turned off by the switch on the fixture, then you can't switch them from the door again and have to walk through the room to switch on the light anyway. (Actually I switched all my lamps everywhere from the doorway, but the only place you really need more off and on control is at the bedside, you don't really need and extra switch next to the sofa.