Guest complaining about noise from other tenants

[David64]

Guest on the second floor complaint about TV, Voices and snoring from downstairs unit. Guest said he had to sleep in his car due to the noise. I checked it out and honestly cannot hear anything from the downstairs tenants, yes their TV was on. Rather new listing and I have questioned every guest and no others have had a problem or mentioned noise from downstairs. I offered to let them check out, They refused. I did leave ear plugs and a bottle of wine for the upstairs guest with a note sayin sorry and hope this helps. Other than this I am at a loss what to do. I think they might be overly sensitive as I really cannot hear what they say they hear. Ideas?

[Linda108]

Even if a guest issue is not shared by other guests, I agree with your response to try to  mitigate rather than argue with them.  Ear plugs and wine shows your concern.  That being said, frankly I think you are being set up for a discount request or a refund.  Sleeping in car due to noise downstairs....puhleeeze!  Hope that given your level of experience you will not be tempted to cave to any more of their demands.  

Still, just in case there are other noise sensitive folks, another item worth looking into is a white noise machine.  I have one and they are not expensive.

[Susan1404]

@David64- I agree with @Linda108 and if you want to provide something quick for a "white noise" effect, a box fan works wonders.  I have had guests bring their own with them just for that purpose.

[David64]

There is a box fan in each bedroom already. The guest suddenly departed saying they are heading home. So I went over and spent a couple of hours in the apartment while the downstairs guests were in. You can hear voices in the stairway but not upstairs in the apartment. I am really at a loss since they are the first guest that have ever had a noise complaint.

[Susan1404]

@David64I wouldn't beat yourself up over this.  There are some very picky guests who look for reasons to fuss.  I know because I've had a few of them, although most of my guests have been really nice and level headed people.  You can't please some people.

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@David64 

our units are in the city center but in one lane, one-way street. There are no heavy vehicles, trams, buses or trains but of course, some car or a group of people pass by during the night. One or two groups complained they couldn't sleep with OPEN WINDOWS because they could hear people and cars 😄 They obviously live at some very remote location

[Sarah977]

@David64  I wouldn't be too concerned about this- I think you handled the complaint professionally and you do provide fans to muffle sound. But I don't think that spending a couple of hours in there is relevant to actually understanding how loud it may be. Sounds can seem much louder at night when most of the area is asleep, and there aren't a lot of ambient sounds. I can barely hear my ceiling fans, for instance, during the day, but they are certainly audible at night, when there is little traffic, and the rest of the neighborhood is tucked away in bed.

Personally, I can never fall asleep with any sound of a TV, movie, or music, even soft music. Yet I know others who can't fall asleep without those sounds. But I don't expect others to take responsibility for that- I always travel with earplugs.