Getting a good night’s sleep is high on the agenda of most people staying in hotels. Whether on business or staying for leisure making sure that we get a good night’s rest for the next day ahead is essential. However, it appears that our expectations fall short as a recent survey highlighted noise as the biggest cause for complaint in American hotels.
According to the annual North American Hotel Guest Satisfaction Survey conducted by J.D. Power and Associates, of the 47,364 travellers questioned external noises such as nearby construction and traffic, and internal disturbances such as parties and noisy neighbours easily heard through paper thin walls topped the list of complaints. Even dissatisfaction about room cleanliness, a perennial feature of the annual survey, palled into insignificance when measured against the noise nuisance.
The American hotel industry is taking the issue very seriously, especially as people who experience excessive noise seldom return to stay again at that hotel. So, in order to cut noise hotels are introducing initiatives such as white-noise machines in guest rooms, limiters on TVs - so that the volume cannot be turned up to booming levels. Other ways of cutting noise being considered by hotels are: making sure that windows are thick enough to cut out external traffic and plane noise, not mounting TVs on wall brackets, as that increases noise to the adjoining room, ensuring that doors extend all the way to the floor – if you can fit a hotel bill under it you can also hear all the corridor noise and avoiding using wall mounted air conditioning units.
But the most effective way to cut noise is undoubtedly to soundproof hotel rooms; this is the way forward if hotels are to encourage repeat visits. However, it is expensive to install soundproofing in any hotel. In Minneapolis, where one of the country’s leading noise experts bases his acoustical consultancy, David Braslau argues that the extra cost is worth it in the long run. He said: “Economics plays a big part. Generally, hotels are getting probably getting quieter because people complain and there is a growing awareness in the industry of the problems that noise causes to their customers.”
However, hotels in Minneapolis and around the world will never completely eliminate noise because most of it is made by people, such as rowdy guests returning to their rooms at 2 a.m., kids banging on doors for laughs, or the guy next door who insists on having the TV on loudly throughout the night.
So, however much hotels can introduce new initiatives to eliminate noise, guests have their part to play in remembering to be considerate to their fellow guests.
Adam Singleton is an online, freelance journalist and keen gardener. He lives in Scotland with his two dogs.
Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/hotels-articles/quiet-please-im-trying-to-sleep-255039.html
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