A hotel's rating won't tell you whether you'll sleep.
Star ratings average everything together: the breakfast, the lobby, the staff, the wifi. A property can score well and still put you next to a nightclub, an elevator shaft, or a street that gets deliveries at five in the morning.
decibeds reads what guests actually wrote and counts one thing: how often people say the noise ruined it.
Two hotels in Lisbon
Same city, similar prices, and Booking rates them 9.2 and 8.2 — close enough to look interchangeable.
raise noise
raise noise
That gap is the entire product. A map can't produce it, and the star rating hides it. How the score works.
Cities
How a hotel gets its number
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Read the complaints, not the ratings
Booking asks guests what they liked and what they disliked as two separate questions. A noise complaint arrives pre-labelled, so no sentiment guessing is involved.
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Count, don't interpret
We match a narrow list of terms — thin walls, earplugs, couldn't sleep, sirens — against what guests disliked. Narrow on purpose: missing a complaint beats inventing one.
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Score from 100 down
Every percent of guests raising noise costs 2.5 points. Bed complaints cost less. Praise for a restful room adds a little back.
The worst property we've scored so far is Avenida da Liberdade Residence, where 30.7% of guests raise noise despite an 8.4 Booking rating. Read the full method and its limits.