Guide to Hotel Design Pt 7: Silence is Golden * Hotel Designs

The article makes a design argument for why hotel rooms must be genuinely quiet, not just “comfortable” on paper. It criticizes situations where guests are woken at early hours or where noise from operations—like bottle recycling collection, air-conditioning fans, and kitchen extract fans—carries into bedrooms. It cites an English group, Premier Inn, that offers a sleep guarantee and refunds room costs when outside noise disrupts guests. The piece contrasts that with hotels that disturb sleep from inside the room environment. It also discusses design methods, including triple glazing with the right acoustic performance, pointing to airport-area hotels where aircraft noise is reportedly minimized even while planes are visible.