Hotel Acoustics – Sound Asleep

A hotel should have tranquil surroundings for its guests to relax and rest. Too much noise can disrupt the ambience that you have carefully created in your hotel. Even though close proximity to major transport links & local amenities is important for the success of your hospitality business, they have their own acoustic challenges. For example, most hotels prefer town centre locations with close proximity to airports, railway stations, and major road networks. But such locations can destroy the ambience of your hotel unless you take special care of the internal conditions of the entity and keep the acoustic rating at the appropriate level. This article provides information on the importance of keeping noise out when designing a hotel.

Keeping Noise Out – The Importance Of Facade Design

Not only the level of noise but the content of the noise can also make life difficult for your guests. Most of the time, the acoustic energy associated with noise transportation is at low frequencies, which you hear as a low “rumble.” In fact, it’s this low-frequency noise that has the biggest effect in disrupting the peace in your hotel surroundings. The window in your hotel building is best at reducing sound at high frequencies and is an acoustic weak point. It’s worst at excluding low frequencies.

Traffic noise tends to be fairly consistent during the daytime. In fact, high noise levels, in short, sharp bursts, such as vehicle horns or passing aircraft, can seriously disrupt the sleeping patterns of your guests. Here are some measures to consider in the overall layout and design of your hotel to minimise such disturbances:

• Attenuate the source of the noise – Introduce screens between the hotel and the source of the noise.
• Plan the hotel layout so that the guest rooms are faced away from the main noise source.

When you have exhausted these methods, consider the design of the external facade. You can consider high-performing glazing solutions in specific situations such as:

• Laminated acoustic glass
• Deep airspace double glazing
• Acoustic linings to the top, sides, and bottom of the glazing

Some of these methods can be costly. But there are advanced 3D acoustic modelling techniques and software systems available today in order to map the variation in noise level up and around a building. This can be done even before the building is on site. In fact, you can obtain accurate data on the noise levels that will affect each floor of the building since noise levels can vary as the building rises.

All Under One Roof

Most hotels combine a wide variety of facilities under one roof. This is important to maximise commercial diversity and appeal and ensure optimum usage levels of the facility. For example, modern hotels have gyms, restaurants, pools, bars, and function rooms – all of which can disturb the occupants of adjacent bedrooms. These facilities can also affect speech intelligibility in nearby conference or function rooms. Hence, acoustic challenges tend to continue inside modern hotel buildings.

While the dominant noise source is music, the low-frequency bass of dance music is the most difficult to control. That’s because the internal walls & floors of a hotel perform worst at low frequencies. That is why it’s important to consider hotel acoustics when designing the layout of the hotel building. The aforementioned article provides information on the importance of keeping noise out when designing a hotel.