Silence is a Luxury: How We Calculate the Calm Score

Noise: The Traveler's Invisible Enemy

You book a beautiful 4-star hotel. The photos are stunning, reviews excellent, price reasonable. You arrive, set down your bags… and discover your room overlooks a six-lane avenue. Honking wakes you at 5 AM. Your stay is ruined.

This scenario is one of the most common traveler disappointments. Yet no comparator took this criterion into account. Until Bednight.

Our Methodology

The Bednight calm score is calculated from open geographic data, primarily via the OpenStreetMap Overpass API. For each hotel, our algorithm analyzes the environment within a 500-meter radius and identifies potential noise sources.

Analyzed Noise Sources

We measure the distance between the hotel and four categories of noise sources: major roads (highways, boulevards, high-traffic avenues), railways and tramway lines, airports and aircraft approach paths, and nightlife venues (nightclubs, live music bars).

Score Calculation

Each noise source receives a weight based on its typical sound intensity. A highway at 100 meters impacts the score more than a secondary street at the same distance. The final score is a 0-to-10 rating, where 10 represents absolute silence.

A score above 8 indicates a very quiet environment — typically a hotel away from major arteries, in a residential neighborhood or natural setting. A score between 5 and 8 corresponds to acceptable urban noise. Below 5, expect significant noise.

Concrete Examples

La Mamounia, Marrakech — 8.5/10

Despite its location in the heart of the medina, La Mamounia earns an excellent calm score. Its century-old 8-hectare gardens form a natural barrier against urban noise. Rooms facing the inner gardens are particularly quiet. Only suites on the Avenue Bab Jdid side lose a few points due to traffic.

Canaves Oia, Santorini — 9.2/10

Oia is an entirely pedestrian village with no car traffic. Canaves additionally benefits from its caldera-edge position, facing the sea with no roads nearby. The only perceptible sound is waves and wind. An oasis of absolute peace.

Aman Tokyo — 9.5/10

Located in the Otemachi Tower in central Tokyo, the Aman achieves a remarkable score thanks to exceptional soundproofing. Rooms starting from the 33rd floor are so isolated from urban noise that you forget you're in one of the world's densest cities. Technology compensates for the urban location here.

Score Limitations

Our calm score is based on geographic data and doesn't account for internal hotel noise (elevators, air conditioning, neighboring rooms). These aspects are covered by our NLP analysis of traveler reviews, which detects mentions of interior noise.

The score is recalculated monthly to incorporate urban changes: new construction, road openings, nightclub closures.

Expert Tip

When booking, always cross-reference the Bednight calm score with recent reviews mentioning noise. A hotel with a good environmental score but reviews mentioning noise may indicate an internal soundproofing issue. Systematically request a room on upper floors and facing the courtyard or garden if available.