Quiet rooms at The Slow
Sound insulation at The Slow is severely inadequate, with widespread complaints about thin walls, poor floor-to-floor isolation, and intrusive street and internal noise that disrupts sleep.
No significant temporal improvement detected. Complaints from 2023 (June–August) are echoed identically in 2026 reviews (May–August), with the same core issues—thin walls, poor floor isolation, and street noise—consistently cited. This suggests the hotel has not addressed soundproofing deficiencies over a three-year span.
What the reviews tell us
Thin walls allow guests to hear neighbors speaking and moving in adjacent rooms, indicating poor inter-room insulation
Floor-to-floor sound transmission is inadequate; guests report hearing continuous footsteps from upper floors disturbing sleep
Street noise from motorcycles and traffic penetrates rooms at all hours, including late-night disturbances (1 AM–1:30 AM), with glass apertures identified as a specific weakness
Bar and restaurant noise intrudes into nearby rooms through inadequate sound barriers, with music and conversation clearly audible
Higher-floor rooms may offer some noise reduction, though this is not a reliable mitigation for the hotel's systematic soundproofing deficiency
The Slow's soundproofing is fundamentally compromised across multiple dimensions. Guests consistently report thin walls that transmit neighbor noise, poor floor-to-floor isolation (particularly from footsteps above), and inadequate external noise barriers. Street-facing rooms receive substantial intrusion from traffic and motorcycles, with one guest documenting late-night disturbances at 1:30 AM. Internal spaces contribute significantly to the problem: rooms adjacent to the bar and restaurant experience audible conversation, footsteps, and music from those venues. The architectural design itself appears problematic—rooms opening directly to common areas and glass apertures insufficient to block street noise. Recent reviews (2026) maintain the same complaints as earlier assessments (2023), suggesting no improvement over time. One reviewer noted that higher-floor rooms may be quieter, but this does not address the systematic wall and door insulation failures reported throughout the dataset.
Room Location Varies Noise Impact; Overall Problem Remains
One reviewer (Singapore, 2026) suggests higher-floor rooms may be quieter, implying lower floors or ground-level rooms are noisier. However, this is an observation about relative placement, not a contradiction of the core finding: multiple reviewers across different floor levels and room locations report significant noise problems. The core issue—poor sound insulation—is not contradicted; rather, the data suggests that room location (floor level, proximity to bar/street) modulates how badly the insulation failure affects individual guests, but does not eliminate it.
The evidence
Representative quotes from 13 supporting reviewsWalls are also thin - I can hear the neighbours next door
The sound-proofing is not that great. As they have their own bar and restaurant, our room was the nearest to it. Hence we could head people talking and walking around
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