I wanted to enjoy my stay, but unfortunately I couldn’t sleep properly due to loud snoring coming from a nearby room. Although we weren’t in adjoining rooms, the sound travelled through the hallway and into mine - suggesting a serious lack of sound insulation and ineffective door seals. If I hadn’t stuffed bedding at the bottom of my door I doubt I’d have slept.
When I raised this on checkout, I was told - quite seriously - that I should have woken the other guest and asked them to stop snoring. That’s not only unreasonable, but completely sidesteps the actual issue: the hotel hasn’t invested in basic soundproofing. Lightweight doors, old or poorly sealed frames, and a lack of acoustic buffering in the corridor can all contribute — and this seems to be the case here.
No apology or gesture of goodwill was offered, not even something small like a coffee, which would have gone a long way at the time. I was told the issue would be reviewed for future guests, but that doesn’t help me - and doesn’t feel like an adequate response when the issue undermines the most essential part of a hotel: to sleep.
If a hotel chooses to not invest and wait for the bad reviews before individually compensating guests, it sounds like a bad economy but, whatever, that's fine by me.
Be careful though. The odd bad review will get in and stick unless you start compensating on check-out.
