Is road noise a deal breaker?

[Heather1344]

Hi! I am considering listing my house as an Airbnb, but I am concerned about negative reviews due to our home being close to a main road. We are in a very small town (less than 10,000 residents), but during the day there is a decent amount of traffic (semis, dump trucks, etc) since we are only a few miles from the interstate. This is something that often bothers me (I'm highly sensitive to noise), however the rest of my family says they don't notice. Also worth noting is that at night it is very quiet, since there's no loud trucks and only a little local traffic. Our house is in an area where visitors would most likely be doing outdoor touristy things (tons of nature/natural springs here), so I would assume they're not coming to sit inside all day, but it's still a concern. Is this something I should be overly paranoid about? Even to the point of not listing?  

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Heather1344 Just like your family some people will care, others will not. Just be very upfront with the potential for noise in your listing and hope people read it.

[Heather1344]

Ok, will do! Thanks so much😊

[Cheri354 · Accepted solution]

You can mention it in an informative, upbeat way such as; property is located on a street that is busy during the day but good for relaxing evenings by the fire/watching a movie. Make sure to mention day trips available for guests (nature/natural springs). My guess is that if they are outdoor-lovers, they will be out most of the time and sleep well 🙂 But consider informing them to avoid backlash.

We stayed in a beach location that stated it was near a traffic-y area. It had more than one bedroom so we used the one farthest from that road and it was fine. However, it made watching a movie at night nearly impossible in the front living room 🙂 But, we appreciated the heads-up and they also commented that the price was lower for some of the house's quirks. Given that it was just around the corner from the sand, we were fine with it. They had some other issues but traffic wasn't a problem. For the most part, people don't want surprises 🙂

[Heather1344]

Thanks so much! That's super helpful info! Like you said, we do have additional rooms (2 actually) that are facing away from the road, so there's options for sure. I think I was nervous about mentioning it from the get go, but not being blindsided is definitely a better route...and making it upbeat is a great idea too!😊 

[Julie5577]

We're in the flight path of a major airport, depending on the wind direction, and handling it on the listing is tough especially since there are dozens of listings in this neighborhood and most don't mention it.  (Not sure how that goes!)

We are overt about it in our listing, plus we provide earplugs and a white noise machine next to the bed. Still, we get comments.  But it's all we can do.