How to Reduce Noise in Guest Bedrooms

Quiet Is Part of the Service

Guests will forgive a lot in a guest house: a slightly dated bathroom, a narrow staircase, a breakfast that runs a few minutes late. What they rarely forgive is being woken at half past eleven by a door slamming down the corridor, or at six in the morning by the boiler firing up beneath their bed. Noise is one of the most common complaints in online reviews, and the frustrating thing is that most of it comes from a handful of small, fixable sources.

The good news is that reducing noise rarely means major building work. A few well-chosen rugs, some door seals and a rethink about which guests sleep where can transform the experience of a restless night into eight undisturbed hours. Here is how to go about it, room by room and detail by detail.

Start with Room Placement

Before you spend a penny on acoustic seals, look at how you allocate rooms. Where a guest sleeps matters more than almost anything else, and it costs nothing to get right.

• Keep the quietest rooms away from staircases, the front door, the dining room, the kitchen and any boiler or plant room.
• If you have a choice, put light sleepers, older guests and anyone arriving late into rooms at the back of the house, furthest from other occupied rooms.
• Avoid letting rooms directly above a kitchen or utility room, where extractor fans, dishwashers and washing machines carry through the floorboards.
• Think about who shares a wall. A family with a toddler and a solo business traveller should not be neighbours.
• Where the whole house is let to one group, you have far more freedom; where rooms are let individually, be deliberate about which ones you sell first.

Let Soft Furnishings Do the Heavy Lifting

Hard surfaces reflect sound, soft ones absorb it. In a typical Victorian or Edwardian guest house, with bare boards, high ceilings and long corridors, sound travels like a message down a speaking tube. Layering textiles is the simplest intervention you can make.

• Put thick wool rugs with a decent underlay in every bedroom, especially beside the bed and on the main walking route to the door and en-suite.
• Run a carpet runner along landings and corridors, and carpet the stairs with a good quality underlay beneath. Bare stairs amplify every footstep.
• Hang heavy, lined curtains that overlap the window frame, and consider a Roman blind as well for extra absorption.
• Choose upholstered headboards, fabric lampshades, cushions and a soft armchair or ottoman over hard, reflective furniture.
• Fit felt pads to the feet of chairs, beds and bedside tables so nothing scrapes across the floor.

Doors and Windows: The Biggest Culprits

If you fix only one thing, fix the doors. A poorly fitting door lets conversation, television noise and footsteps pass straight through, and a stiff latch encourages guests to slam.

• Fit acoustic or brush seals around the frame and a drop seal or brush strip along the bottom of the door.
• Adjust latches so the door closes with a light push. A wiped latch plate or a new roller catch can eliminate slamming entirely.
• Oil hinges and plane any door that rubs on the frame or the carpet.
• Deal with rattling sash windows using brush or foam draught seals, and replace worn sash cords so the window sits true. A wedge or two in a drawer helps guests who want to open a window on a warm night.
• Check door furniture: loose handles, keys rattling in locks and squeaking hinges are all small noises that feel enormous at two in the morning.

Beds, Walls and Shared Services

Sound travels through structure as well as air, so consider what is attached to the walls you share with a neighbouring room.

• Do not place headboards, wardrobes or wall-mounted televisions against a wall shared with another bedroom. A freestanding wardrobe with felt feet is a better neighbour.
• Lag exposed pipework with foam insulation, and isolate shower pumps and boiler units on rubber mounts to stop vibration travelling through joists.
• Where an en-suite shower, toilet or extractor fan backs onto a bedroom wall, consider adding a layer of acoustic plasterboard or resilient bars to the bedroom side.
• Check radiators for ticking thermostats and gurgling pipes, and bleed them before the season starts.

Small Touches That Make a Big Difference

Once the building is doing its bit, a few thoughtful extras and a bit of gentle expectation-setting will finish the job.

• State quiet hours clearly, perhaps between 10pm and 7am, on a small card in each room and at the top of the stairs.
• Offer earplugs, a fan or a white noise machine in rooms near a road or shared wall.
• Lift kettles and trays off hard surfaces with a felt mat, and choose soft-close bins and quiet alarm clocks rather than ticking ones.
• Ask guests at check-in to let you know if anything disturbs them. Most will mention it quietly rather than write it in a review, and you can act the same day.

None of this is glamorous, and no guest will ever compliment you on a door seal. But they will sleep well, and a quiet night is one of the kindest things a guest house can give.