Hotels

Lobby Acoustic Design for Hotels

Find the noise source and its route through the space. Treat sound leaking between rooms differently from echo inside one room.

Explore the ideas
Entry corridor leading toward a dining area beside a glass-front cabinet
Entry inspiration: a clear approach and shallow landing storage.

Plan in this order

  1. List sources of speech, equipment and impact noise at the busiest time.
  2. Put quiet work away from busy edges where possible. Check doors, gaps and service penetrations before adding finishes.
  3. Use absorption for excessive echo. Ask an acoustic specialist where speech privacy or isolation is essential.
Worked example

A hard-finished foyer amplifies door closings and makes conversations audible in the adjacent lounge.

Add absorption at the ceiling or on a wall away from the door, then improve the door’s soft-close behavior. Recreate an ordinary arrival and listen from the lounge seating.

How to test it

Recreate the noisier activity and listen from adjoining seats and rooms with doors both open and closed.

Apply it to this space
Layout
Keep the entrance route open to reception and place lounge seating outside the check-in queue.
Detail
Use a hard-wearing floor at the door, softer seating beyond, and warm vertical light at the desk.
Trade-off
A large lounge feels generous but may stretch reception sightlines.
  • Roll luggage from entry to desk
  • Check the queue does not block the main path
Wood display partition between an entry-side passage and living room
Entry inspiration: a permeable divider that softens direct sightlines.

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Details worth a closer look

Photographs for design inspiration
Living area with a glass partition beside a television wall
Entry inspiration: glazed separation that preserves borrowed light.
Living room seating group with a clear approach from the front of the room
Arrival inspiration: keep the first route into the room open.

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