QUIET ROOM® A QUALITY LABEL, RESERVED FOR QUIET HOTEL ROOMS

In our world today, which is growing increasingly noisier by the day, there is a similarly growing desire for silence. Many travellers are looking for quiet holiday locations, but also for quiet spots in busy environments like big cities. For years, noise pollution has ranked among the top five subjects of complaint among hotel guests worldwide; and this in turn has led to a growing demand for quiet hotel rooms.

The Quiet Room® label is a quality label reserved for quiet hotel rooms and sets out the first and so far only standardised guidelines regulating the issue worldwide. The label was developed by the Knowledge Centre Sound Insulation (KGI) from Holland, and presents an objective measure of sound levels in hotel rooms. Hotels that carry the QR label ensure that you will spend the night in a room that is well insulated against noise pollution.

How to recognise a hotel with the Quiet Room® label

Hotels with a Quiet Room® label usually have a Quiet Room® shield near the entrance and a Quiet Room® certificate at the reception desk. They also advertise with the Quiet Room® label. There are currently 104 hotels around the world that carry the Quiet Room® label.

Some hotels with the Quiet Room® label:

• Hilton Munich Airport (Germany)
• Crowne Plaza Changi Airport (Singapore)
• Sofitel London Gatwick (UK)
• Hilton Paris Orly Airport Hotel (France)
• Ramada Apollo Amsterdam Centre (Holland)
• The Tokyo Station Hotel (Japan)

What's measured?

In order to qualify for the Quiet Room® label, the reverberant sound period together with three different sound levels must be determined:

• Reverberant sound period: the period between switching off an airborne sound source in an area and the moment at which the sound level in that area drops to a level 60 dB lower than at the moment of switching off. To qualify for the Quiet Room® label the reverberant sound period must be ≤ 0.7 seconds.
• The airborne sound insulation between rooms (silence category): the difference in sound level between the receiving area (the area in the hotel room containing the bed) and the source area (the adjacent area in hotel room nr. 2). To qualify for the Quiet Room® label the airborne sound insulation between rooms must be between 52 dB and 62 dB.
• The airborne sound insulation between rooms and traffic areas: the difference in sound levels between the source area (here the traffic area) and the receiving area (the adjacent area in the hotel room). To qualify for the Quiet Room® label the airborne sound insulation between rooms and traffic areas must be ˃ 30 dB.
• The service equipment sound level (noise produced by technical installations in the hotel room, such as ventilation, refrigerator and toilet). To qualify for the Quiet Room® label the sound level must be ≤ 30 dB.

Quiet Room® Product Certificate

As the certificate is not easy to obtain, and in the hotel business small errors can lead to big shortcomings in performance, the KGI centre decided to help hotel owners who want to qualify for Quiet Room® certification, by certifying those products deemed most suitable for use and for building into hotels / hotel rooms. These are products with which the Quiet Room® label can be easily attained.

Manufacturers of soundproofing building products that can be used in the hotel industry can apply for an audit of the products to determine whether they meet the acoustic requirements of the Quiet Room® Product Certificate. The certificate then serves as proof that a specific product contributes to the Quietroom standards, and gives customers in the hotel industry a guarantee covering the product's reliability, security, quality and durability.

One such product, which has been certified as suitable for use in the hotel industry and those looking to acquire the Quiet Room label, is Knauf Insulation DRS SOUND SUPREME BOARD. Ours is the only product that meets Quietroom standards for insulating internal and external wooden door systems.

KNAUF INSULATION DRS SOUND SUPREME BOARD (DRS SSB) is an insulation board that is produced using a unique and patented technological process specially developed for use as an insulation core in wooden door systems where high sound insulation performance is required. The board consists of a composition of rock mineral wool and other ecological materials, which deliver superb sound insulation (up to 43 dB, depending on the core layers and density) together with excellent fire resistance (EI 30 – EI 90) and thermal insulation qualities. The state-of-the-art insulation core can be prepared as a single-, double- or multi-layer board with a full-core thickness of only 10–45 mm, and is custom designed according to customer specifications and requirements.

So, would you like to sleep in a quiet hotel room? Look for the Quiet Room® label. And maybe your doors will be insulated with our Sound Supreme Board, too.