Secondary Glazing for Hotels

Noise is the number one guest complaint about a room

Guests forgive a small room. They do not forgive being woken at two in the morning by taxis, a smoking area or a delivery. Town centre hotels sit on the exact streets that generate late night noise, and the rooms facing them collect the poor scores. The window is almost always the weakest element in the wall, so it is the element that pays back fastest.

What to specify in a guest room

The deepest cavity the reveal allows, acoustic laminated glass room side, and a seal that survives housekeeping opening and closing it every day. We prefer robust sliding or hinged units in guest rooms rather than lift out panels, because anything that has to be lifted will eventually be left leaning against a wall. On rooms facing a nightlife strip, specify the heavier glass rather than economising and repeating the job.

• Deepest practical cavity for low frequency noise
• Acoustic laminated glass room side
• Durable ironmongery for daily housekeeping use
• Trickle ventilation retained where required

Listed and period hotel buildings

Many independent and boutique hotels occupy listed town houses, coaching inns and converted civic buildings where the windows cannot be replaced. Secondary glazing is normally the only permitted route to a quiet room, fitted reversibly with recessive finishes and sight lines aligned to the existing joinery. We prepare drawings and specifications for consent applications at no cost.

Heat loss, draughts and running costs

Single glazed sashes in a period hotel drive both heating costs and guest complaints about cold rooms and draughty beds by the window. Low E glass in the same secondary frame that solves the noise addresses that at the same time, and the improvement is felt immediately because the down draught disappears.

Fitting without closing rooms

Everything is templated at survey and manufactured off site, so fitting a guest room is normally a matter of hours, not days. We work room by room to a rota agreed with the general manager, typically taking a small number of rooms out of inventory at a time and handing each back the same day, clean and made good. Out of hours and low season programmes are routine.

• Room by room rota agreed with the GM
• Rooms handed back the same day
• No scaffolding, no external access
• Low season and out of hours programmes

Where else the noise gets in

If the corridor door undercut, the ensuite extract, the party wall or the plant on the roof is the source, glazing will not cure it. We will tell you which rooms will benefit and which need a different fix, so the spend goes where it changes the score.