“Great food, but the noise?”: Relationship between perceived sound quality survey and non acoustical factors in one hotel restaurant in Italy

Abstract

The empirical assessment of the quality of the sound landscape in restaurants and how it affects the overall customer experience has only recently begun to be addressed. Noise from recreational activities, such as discos, restaurants, bars, hotels, etc., characterizes the soundscape of tourist centers, where there is a need to ensure the coexistence of noisy commercial activities and the right to rest of citizens customers of accommodation facilities, often already compromised by traffic. Although there is a renewed sensitivity to the issue of noise, restaurants are often characterized by poor acoustics and a poor multi-sensory perception of comfort. This article examines the noise levels of a hotel’s dining room in an Italian tourist resort during lunch and dinner hours. The study included aspects related to the acoustics, lighting, and quality of the location, also for the assessment of the perception of comfort obtained was given to customers a questionnaire of satisfaction during the meal, every day for a week. Considering the correlation between the three components of the soundscape, namely people, sound, and the environment under consideration, this study aims to explore the effects of the soundscape on sound restoration for accommodation facilities in tourist resorts.