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Are you due compensation for hotel noise? As with many things, it depends. With hotels in busy, noisy locations that haven't soundproofed their rooms and suites, it's highly unlikely you'll get anything more than (perhaps) empathy, maybe a pair of disposable ear plugs, since it's a systemic issue that the hotel can't change, at least not without significant structural remediation.
What about for a major corporate event or wedding with noise or music that means a far different experience and perhaps less sleep than the stay you thought you'd get? It's worth asking at the time of booking if anything like that is expected during your stay (and not reserving the hotel if it is), but sometimes groups book after you've already reserved. See our tips below.
Similarly, while the right thing to do with construction is to close the hotel or only do it during the slowest hotel times, and inform all guests of it on the Web site and via reservation agents, many hotels don't do this. Not long ago I stayed at an ostensible 5-star hotel. Soon after unpacking everything, when I was about to get on a work call, some drilling noise started, loud enough that it sounded like it was coming from the room above me. I immediately called Reception to report it, ask what was going on, and ask that it be stopped. The front desk agent didn't know what it was either, but promised to look into it and get back to me. 10 minutes later no one had gotten back to me, and the drilling, albeit intermittent, continued. At that point I called and asked to speak to the Manager on Duty. More on how that went after our tips:
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Tips for Guests on Voicing Hotel Noise Complaints
- Always make the complaint as soon as the noise becomes an issue, while at the hotel. Your chances are very low of getting the compensation you'd prefer after you've already checked out.
- Be proactive about requesting the compensation or remedy that you feel is fair, given the noise level and inconvenience. Keep in mind that, depending on the hotel, it may be easier to obtain a nicer (and quieter) room or suite as a remedy rather than compensation or a refund of a night's stay. Hotels that are chains and have loyalty points (such as Hilton, Marriott, Hyatt, InterContinental, etc.) may try to give you a small amount of points instead of any refund, so be prepared by knowing how you value such points, so you can quickly figure out whether the hotel's offer is worth it to you or whether you'll want to counter-propose a different remedy.
- Be polite but firm in articulating why the noise is an issue, and how you would like to address it. Keep in mind that with construction, it's unrealistic, in most cases, to ask for all of it to stop, because the hotel has already engaged the construction team. It's more realistic to request a room move to a room or suite that's as far as possible from the noise, but depending on construction, some of the noise may still be audible.
- If the first staff person you speak with only pushes back and/or isn't helpful, escalate to the Manager on Duty. If the Manager on Duty isn't helpful, request the General Manager's email
- Have TravelSort, or the luxury travel advisor you reserved with, contact the General Manager if you haven't been able to resolve the problem to your satisfaction. We can't speak for other advisors, but we absolutely want to know if our clients are having issues that the hotel isn't promptly resolving for them: we are our clients' advocate, it's our job to help ensure that they have a fantastic stay, and if that's not occurring, we want to do our utmost to help recover the stay.
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So how did my conversation with the Manager on Duty go? I'd expected him to be somewhat apologetic about the situation, but he wasn't at all, defending the hotel's need to do construction (even though it was high season). Initially, he wanted to move me to a different room in the same category, farther away from the noise. To me, that was the absolute minimum, and I didn't feel it was sufficient to address the fact that I should never have been placed in such a noisy room to begin with. The hotel had caused this inconvenience: I had to reschedule my call and pack up everything. So I requested a move to a suite that wouldn't be impacted by the construction noise. Given the stinginess displayed by the manager, I doubted I'd get any kind of meaningful compensation, whereas being upgraded to an unsold suite wouldn't cost the hotel much beyond additional housekeeping. He immediately refused. I then asked to confirm that X was still the General Manager, since I planned to email him. He confirmed that X was the General Manager, I ended the call, and began drafting my email. Within a minute, before I'd managed to send the email, my phone rang again. It was the Duty Manager, still not apologetic, but tersely informing me that I could move to a suite not impacted by the construction noise, my original ask.
The Upshot: Unfortunately, if you stay in enough hotels, you're eventually likely to stay in one where there are noise issues. If you had to stay in a hotel that's in an inherently noisy location (think busy city hotel near a hospital, with a lot of sirens) and inadequate sound proofing, there's not a lot to be done, other than to bring your own earplugs and choose a better hotel next time.
If it's a neighboring guest issue, especially at night, definitely call the Front Desk and ask that the noisy guest be asked to keep quiet; it may take repeated requests until Security is called. But if the noise is of the hotel's own making, for example construction, you have a strong case for a remedy and/or compensation, although you may have to be firm and persistent in escalating the issue to get it.
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