I was fortunate enough on a recent business trip to stay in a Five Diamond hotel property in Las Vegas. Overall outstanding. Really well managed and run flawlessly. Astonishing given the size of these hotel properties and the sheer number of rooms and suites.
One item that gets overlooked, in all categories of hotels, these days is the “problem” with connecting room doors. Why hasn’t some engineer come up with better sound insulation to muffle sounds between what really is another door into your room?
How important is this? Well, considering you are a hotel for, mostly, sleep, pretty important. Does it get much attention by hotel builders, engineers, or design teams? No.
Online reviews are replete with noise complaints from adjoining rooms. Coughing, snoring, intimacy ( 🙂 ) lead the pack.
Hotels, especially at the luxury level, need to spend a bit of time, when building or renovating rooms, on the connecting door problem. I did see, on a recent trip, a novel idea of inserting what appeared to be a cut down, foam mattress topper between connecting doors.
The above illustrates that you can hotels can spend anywhere between $50K and $900K per room buildouts and furnishings, but overlooking a small detail can generate way more guest complaints (and hassle for front office staff in moving folks) than compliments on exquisite drape fabrics.
Food for thought.
