Experience the difference of "Elite".

Noise complaints and noise policy

Sarah H
Feb 18, 2020 8:05 AM
Joined Jul, 2019 109 posts

We recently had an incredibly poorly timed incident. One property I help an owner manage had folks call the police at 0300 and disturb the neighborhood. This happens to be an HOA community (the only one I help manage in an HOA). Details don't really matter, I understand why neighbors are upset and drunk loud guests would upset me too.

That said - how are you working to manage noise in properties that have neighbors?
I prefer to engineer this issue out with location - meaning I would like to only help manage properties that don't have close neighbors, but that is not an option on this property.

I found a company called NoiseAware. Has anyone used this before? It's a noise monitor.

What expectations do you give guests regarding noise? Do you have policy in place for violations?

Chris L
Feb 18, 2020 4:33 PM
Joined May, 2017 199 posts

Check the community.homeaway.com and community.withairbnb.com forums. Lots of posts there about noise, parties, rules/restrictions, and solutions like NoiseAware and others.

My impression is that NoiseAware is fairly pricy but is kind of the gold standard in the "noise awareness" industry. There's another option, Roomonitor, that Airbnb is currently partnering with for a huge discount (https://www.airbnb.com/d/partyprevention).

Fortunately, the target demographic here in Branson doesn't really lend itself to parties (and implementing a 2-night minimum tends to screen out even the very few whose goal that is), so I haven't found value in noise monitoring solutions and haven't implemented them myself. I have a much bigger problem with *my* guests complaining about noise from neighbors (feet tromping around all day and night upstairs, the couple next door getting in arguments, etc., and one 1-star review I got for construction noise after a hailstorm shot holes in our building's siding. If I could install a noise detector that would alert the HOA or cops to noise from neighbors, now that I might find value in! :P