A Guide to Hotel Design Pt 7: Silence is Golden

To be woken in a five star hotel at an ungodly hour in the morning is unacceptable. When an hotel hasn’t the wit to organise its bottle recycling collection at a time after breakfast one wonders whether the management has any idea of how quiet their bedrooms might be. Indeed why does the building design dictate the bottle bank is below a bedroom window anyway?

To have a wonderful bed in a room with good blackout does not guarantee a good night’s sleep for the guest. The third major rule for any hotel is that bedrooms should be quiet.

Some hotels recognise this and at least one English group, Premier Inn, has a sleep guarantee, and refunds the room cost if the guests sleep is disturbed by noise from outside the room. Some hotels however disturb the guests sleep by noise within the room. Silence is indeed golden if noise means the guest demands a refund, a legitimate complaint given that guests check into the hotel expecting to be able to sleep.

Yet silence need not be difficult to achieve, and achieving it can be aided by design. Kurt Ritter of Rezidor believes that airport locations are the most profitable locations for an hotel. Yet you can stand in a bedroom in his beautifully designed Park Inn Liége and watch an old fashioned jet, a Douglas DC8-63freighter of 1960’s vintage, take off at decibel levels missing from modern aircraft and not hear a thing. Similarly the Marriott’s Renaissance at Heathrow in London proudly advertises plane spotting weekends with bedrooms overlooking the main runway, but guest can hardly hear an aircraft. This almost magical trick is achievable through careful design of the building structure and the use of triple glazing with the correct acoustic performance.

Why then does any guest need to hear the hotel bottle bank being emptied at 0615 hrs in the morning? Or hear the hotels air conditioning fans on the roof? Or hear (and smell) the kitchen extract fans?

Bedroom design should be the first criteria for architect, services engineer and planner. Building design should not leave problems to be resolved by the interior designer and the operator. All to often it does.

Fun fact: I’m usually the person friends rely on to organise trips, schedules, and group plans.

Workhighlights: Successfully coordinating events from planning through to delivery and seeing everything come together on the day.

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Work highlights: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Fun fact: People tell Sienna she gives off Bridget Jones vibes, and she loves to bake, always making sure there are shortbreads floating around the office

Work highlights: Sienna joined Forum Events & Media Group while studying Communications and Media, starting in the sales team where she managed and helped launch the first the PA Life Leading Venues of London SHOWCASE, where she built relationships with luxury venues across the capital. Drawn to the stories behind these spaces, she naturally transitioned into the editorial team, creating social media and editorial content. Upon graduating in June 2026, she is excited to be joining as Assistant Editor for Hotel Designs and SPACE.

Fun fact: When not working, Jess can usually be found tending to her kitchen garden in the Sussex countryside or foraging for herbs in the nearby woods. A keen grower, she recently studied a RHS Level 2 Diploma in the Principles of Horticulture during her spare time.

Work highlights: Jess joined SPACE magazine in 2022 and has since progressed from Assistant Editor to Editor. During this time, she has worked across many aspects of the publication – from shaping editorial strategy and overseeing operations to contributing to art direction and representing the brand on stage at industry events including Surface Design Show and WOW!house.

Alongside her role at SPACE, Jess has built a creative career spanning the arts, culture, design and travel sectors. Prior to joining the magazine, she spent more than a decade in the commercial art industry, in artist liaison, gallery management, and curating collections for the hospitality sector across hotels and cruise ships. During this time, she also worked on freelance projects as a writer, photographer, and creative content producer.
 
Jess studied photojournalism at London College of Communication and the Danish School of Media and Journalism and holds a first-class BA (Hons) in Culture, Criticism and Curation from Central Saint Martins.

Fun fact: Katy has spent years perfecting all kinds of accents and loves a good impersonation!

Work highlights: Katy has been with Hotel Designs since the beginning, way back in 2015 when Forum Events & Media Group acquired the brand.

During this time, she has fostered many meaningful relationships with clients from across the hospitality spectrum, as well as playing a pivotal role in the launch of The Brit List Awards, Hotel Designs MEET UPs, client-led roundtables and panel talks, brand and website redesigns, HD Wellness Sets, DESIGN POD podcast, Hotel Designs LIVE panel talk series, Accessible Design Talks and more. Katy is always on the lookout for the next opportunity to help grow the Hotel Designs brand even further.
 
Most recently Katy has stepped in to the role of Publisher atSPACE magazine, the printed bi-monthly publication focused on hotel design, architecture, and development.
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