What kind of acoustic wall should you choose for a hotel?

What type of acoustic wall should you choose for a hotel?

: Hotel guest room partition walls generally require an STC rating of at least 50 for standard hotels, and STC 55-60 or higher for upscale or luxury hotels that need to guarantee maximum privacy for their guests. However, high STC walls alone are not enough for hotels, as the entire system must be considered together—including guest room doors, adjoining doors, corridor ceilings that often span multiple rooms, and other flanking paths unique to hotel construction.

Hotels are among the building types most sensitive to noise issues. Because guests are in an unfamiliar environment, they are more sensitive to noise than in their own homes. Even minor sounds from neighboring rooms can turn into negative reviews that impact a hotel's reputation. This article explains how to select acoustic walls for hotels and highlights often-overlooked points in hotel construction.

Recommended STC ratings for hotel guest room walls

The appropriate STC rating typically varies based on the hotel grade and the expectations of the target guest demographic.

• Standard Hotels: Partition walls between guest rooms should have an STC rating of at least 50, which renders normal conversation from neighboring rooms virtually inaudible. This is considered the minimum standard referenced by many accommodation building codes.
• Upscale to Luxury Hotels: Typically elevate the STC rating to 55-60 to guarantee superior quietness beyond standard levels, as this guest segment expects higher privacy, and higher room rates come with greater expectations for experience quality.

Walls alone are not enough; you must look at the entire system

What makes acoustic design in hotels more challenging than in other types of buildings is the specific Flanking Transmission pathways commonly found in hotel construction.

• Adjoining Doors Most hotels design guest rooms to be interconnected for families or groups traveling together. These adjoining doors are often the weakest point in the guest room's acoustic system. No matter how high the STC rating of the main wall is, if the connecting door does not meet the same standard, sound will predominantly pass through this door.
• Continuous Corridors Ceilings In many hotels, the suspended ceiling above the hallway in front of the rooms often continues as a single continuous surface across the entire floor. If the partition walls between guest rooms do not extend all the way up to the actual structural floor slab above, sound from one room can travel through the plenum space above the ceiling to another room without passing through the partition wall at all.
• Back-to-Back Bathroom Walls Arranging the bathrooms of two guest rooms back-to-back to save on plumbing work often makes the wall in that area thinner than other points and features numerous penetrations for utility pipes, making it another area that requires extra careful sealing inspection.
• Impact Noise from Upper Floors Footsteps or luggage dragging sounds from guest rooms on the floor above are common problems in hotels, which are distinct from vertical wall issues and must be specifically solved with impact isolation flooring systems.

Example of Acoustic Wall Systems from Trandar Acoustics for Hotels

Trandar Acoustics offers the TSIS system under Trandar Hitech Wall, which covers the STC range required for standard hotels. Systems such as TSIS53 d95 or TSIS56-58 (STC 53-58) typically meet these needs well. For luxury hotels requiring maximum quietness, systems from TSIS66 upwards provide an even higher level of STC performance.

To address the issue of ceiling noise transmission over hallways spanning multiple rooms, Trandar Acoustics provides the Trandar Hitech Ceiling system, specifically designed to block this type of flanking path. This solution has been utilized in real hotel projects such as Fairmont Bangkok Sukhumvit, which chose Trandar's Seamless Acoustics system for its lobby area to control both aesthetics and acoustic quality in a high-ceilinged reception space.

If you are planning a hotel project and need to design an acoustic system covering walls, doors, and ceilings all at once, feel free to chat with the Trandar Acoustics team to share your project details. We are happy to help analyze and recommend the ideal system for your hotel's grade and budget.