sound sleep

APPLYING MATERIAL INNOVATION TO SOLVING A LUXURY HOTEL’S NIGHTTIME NOISE PROBLEM

Intercontinental Hotel Group was looking for some unorthodox solutions to a mission-critical aspect of hospitality: enabling guests to have uninterrupted sleep. Disruptive noises proved impossible to controL—could there be a material solution? 

SCOPE OF WORK

Go deep on sound to build a data-driven portrait of hotel noises, proposing an engineered/materials solution that solves the greatest number of noise issues with the least impact and cost.

PROJECT ACTIVITIES

• Stakeholder interviews

• Digital ethnographies

• Expert interviews

• Guest “sound journey” mapping

• Sound audit baseline

• Concept ideation

• Material evaluation & testing

• Solution prototyping

• Material performance analysis

• Iterative refinement

KEY INSIGHT

Noise is an unavoidable fact of life in hotels. The majority of noise sources are beyond the control of the hotel, so reducing the impact of the noise is the most effective focus.  

OUTCOME

Enabling Intercontinental Hotels to claim “measurably quieter rooms” starts with quantifying in-room noise before and after solution implementation. 

Material and structural interventions provided the most significant noise-abatement results.

• HALLWAYS with acoustically smooth surfaces tend to amplify sound. Introducing RPG Skyline diffusers can limit this effect significantly.

• DOORWAYS delivered better sound blocking through the addition of lightweight fire-rated composites

• HVAC cycling can be made less disruptive by the introduction of basalt fiber wrappers and insulating solenoids at key vibration points.