Understanding all about noise in So Villas
Relative isolation of So Villas:
All our villas are isolated, and located between 150 meters and 2km (yes 2km!) from the first neighbors. However, the distance is not enough to make any noise possible in the villas. Here we explain how it works and why there are limits.
A little physics lesson on noise propagation:
Noise propagates in all directions from the source (that's you!). Distance reduces the noise by 6 decibels for each doubling of the distance. For example, if at 10 meters from the source we record 90 decibels, at 20 meters, we will record 84 decibels, and therefore at 320 meters (this is the average distance of our first neighbors), we will record 60 decibels, which is the noise of a washing machine. And frankly, we understand that our neighbors, in the middle of the countryside, do not want to have the impression that a washing machine is running continuously 😀
Noise outside in our Crazy Villas:
In some homes, those where there are no barriers (such as a thick wall or a forest) between you and the first neighbor, we ask that you keep the decibel level below 70 decibels at the house level, outdoors, day and night. This allows you to have lunch or dinner outside, as well as outdoor activities. However, outdoor microphones and speakers are not allowed. Except for the little JBL (not included) that will accompany your chill ambiences at the pool 🙂
This is particularly important for the following villas: La Bergerie, Ramenerie, Luigny and l'Ecottay. These villas are oriented towards the neighbors, without any obstacle to attenuate the noise, so it is necessary to be particularly careful.
Feel free to check out our other villas, not all of which have the same outdoor restrictions: Radar, Ricardiere, Etisseaux, Champs Corons for example, or think about our villas with indoor pools (Villas de la Ricardiere and Champs Corons), where reasonable sized enclosures are accepted indoors around the pool!
The noise inside our Crazy Villas:
As far as indoor noise is concerned, as long as the windows and doors are closed, you can make full use of the speakers we provide in the houses, and party. However, you must stay below 110 decibels (which corresponds to a nightclub party!).
How do we protect you and our neighbors?
In most of the Crazy Villas we have installed the boxes of our partner Roomonitor (all the useful information is available here: https://roomonitor.com/fr/) which allow us to alert you if the noise is too important and thus to avoid an unloading of gendarmes in the middle of the night or in the middle of the day (the rules of disturbance are valid during the day as well as at night contrary to the generally accepted ideas!) which would spoil your stay ... and our relations with the neighborhood, the city hall, the local authorities, the region, ... in short which would ruin our concept and our efforts to develop a nice and respectful tourism.
Important point : Roomonitor does NOT record your conversations! It's a noise detector, not a CIA spy 😉 There is no recording, just volume measurements.
What sanctions?
If the box registers several exceedances of 70 Db over 5 consecutive minutes, we are alerted and we warn you immediately by phone. In case of recurrence, our steward will come to understand what is going on in the house. At the 3rd warning we will be forced to let the gendarmes intervene and you risk eviction as well as a heavy fine 🙁
We may also have to keep all or part of your 1000 EUR deposit in order to compensate our neighbors and/or to pay a possible fine. Everything is detailed in our GTC
Example of noise warning and correction:
As you can see from this graphic, a group of guests got a little crazy on a Saturday afternoon! Roomonitor did the job, we were informed and were able to ask the guests to turn down the sound BEFORE the neighbors went nuts and called the cops... everything else about the stay went well and everything was back to normal 🙂