What is the acoustic rating required for a 5-star hotel?



What sound insulation rating is needed for a 5-star hotel?

: There is no global central authority that officially sets a fixed STC (Sound Transmission Class) value for each hotel star rating. However, in the hotel industry and acoustic design, an Industry Benchmark is widely agreed upon across multiple sources that 4-5 star hotels should have guest room partition walls with an STC of at least 50 and luxury 5-star hotels typically target an STC of 55 or higher (some premium chains use up to 58-60) so that normal conversations from neighboring rooms are virtually inaudible. Meanwhile, standard brick or lightweight concrete walls at normal thicknesses typically achieve only STC 36-44. Prefabricated acoustic wall systems like Trandar Hitech Wall (TSIS) are thus designed to achieve an STC value as high as 58 with a thickness of only 10.5 cm, thinner yet providing better sound insulation than double-layer lightweight brick walls.

What is STC? A quick review

• STC (Sound Transmission Class) is a unit of measurement for a wall's ability to resist sound transmission. The higher the number, the better the sound insulation. For example, an STC 50 wall makes normal conversations from neighboring rooms unintelligible, while STC 55 and above makes conversations virtually imperceptible. This value is the result of the entire wall system, not just a single material property.

What STC rating do hotel star classes require?

Hotel star ratings do not have a mandatory international standard directly enforcing STC values, but hotel brands and acoustic engineers typically use consistent guidelines as best practices, as follows:

• The higher the star rating, the higher the privacy standards guests expect. For a 5-star hotel, even the slightest sound from an adjacent room can ruin the guest experience and immediately lead to negative reviews.
• It is crucial to emphasize that wall STC alone is not enough for hotels, as guest privacy depends on the entire system—walls, doors (which should be acoustic doors), ceilings that block sound paths above the ceiling, and vulnerable points like electrical outlets or utility chases.

Why Conventional Masonry Walls Often Fall Short of 5-Star Standards

Traditional masonry walls with a thickness of about 10 cm offer quite limited STC values. For instance, lightweight concrete blocks provide around STC 36, and clay bricks around STC 42, which are still far below the STC 50-55 requirement sought by 4-5 star hotels. Pushing STC values higher using conventional construction methods often requires a significant increase in wall thickness, such as building double-layer walls, which needlessly consumes valuable room space.

• Trandar Hitech Wall: Thinner walls, superior sound insulation

This is where prefabricated acoustic wall systems like Trandar Hitech Wall under the TSIS (Trandar Sound Insulation System) provide the precise solution.

The TSIS58 system, comprising Trandar Zoundboard panels, Heplar Pro framing, and dBphon insulation, achieves an STC rating of up to 58 with a wall thickness of only 10.5 centimeters (TSIS58 d105). This is thinner than the double-brick walls required to achieve comparable sound insulation levels, and delivers even better acoustic performance than double-layer lightweight concrete block walls. For areas requiring both high sound insulation and fire resistance, the TSIS58 d160 model is available at a thickness of 16 cm, offering up to 4 hours of fire rating at the same performance level.

The advantage of having a thinner wall that provides superior sound insulation is particularly significant for the hotel business because

• Increased usable room area without wasting space on unnecessary wall thickness, directly enhancing room value per square meter.

• Significantly faster installation than brick walls, allowing hotel projects to open sooner and reducing labor costs and construction time.

• Lighter weight, reducing the load on the building structure—highly advantageous for high-rise hotel projects.

Trandar in Real Hotel Projects

Trandar Acoustics has extensive experience collaborating with numerous premium hotel and hospitality projects in Thailand. Clear examples include:

• InterContinental Chiang Mai Mae Ping – The Mae Ping Room, a 5-star hotel under Asset World Corporation (AWC). The project brief called for addressing echo and reverberation issues in a curved multipurpose room. The design team chose Trandar Seamless Acoustics Ultrafine model to solve the acoustic issues without compromising the room's signature curved design.

• Fairmont Bangkok Sukhumvit, another 5-star hotel in the heart of Bangkok, which selected Trandar Seamless solutions for seamless sound-absorbing ceiling installation to elevate acoustic quality in the hotel's public areas to world-class chain standards.

Every single one of these projects reflects how 5-star hotels prioritize acoustic quality in every detail of their spaces—extending far beyond guestroom partitions to encompass ceilings, common areas, and multi-purpose rooms alike.

For guestroom partition walls where inter-room privacy is critical, the TSIS system under Trandar Hitech Wall serves as the primary solution implemented in these developments to achieve the high STC ratings demanded by 4-to-5-star hotel brands. Backed by our ongoing track record with both property developers and hotel management partners, Trandar remains a trusted choice for premium hotel projects across Thailand.

If your goal is to elevate a hotel to 5-star standards in terms of acoustics, guestroom partition walls should achieve an STC rating of at least 55—a benchmark traditional masonry walls struggle to reach without substantial increases in thickness. The Trandar Hitech Wall (TSIS) system solves this challenge by delivering superior sound insulation through a thinner profile, providing hotels with both premium privacy standards and optimized, highly usable floor space.

Planning a new hotel project or a guestroom renovation? Reach out to the Trandar Acoustics team via chat and share your project details. Our experts are ready to assist you with system analysis and recommend the ideal TSIS configuration tailored to your star-rating objectives.