356. NoiseAware vs. Minut: Which Noise Monitor Actually Protects Your Airbnb

Tim Hubbard (0:00)

There are two noise monitoring devices available for your vacation rental. One is the Minute device, the other is the Noiseware device. Today, we're covering which one is the better option for you, how to actually install them, what noise decibel to actually use, and which one of these options is covering smoke. If you've had problems with guests and noise in the past, well, this could be your fix. Stay tuned.

Welcome to Short Term Rental Riches. We'll discuss investing in real estate, but with a specific focus on short-term rentals, quick, actionable items to acquire, manage, and scale your portfolio. I'm your host, Tim Hubbard.

Welcome back to the Short Term Rental Riches podcast. I'm happy you're here again. If you've had any sort of trouble with noise, maybe you've got a large backyard and your neighbor has complained once or twice, rightly so. Well, two brands dominate the short-term rental industry today when it comes to noise monitoring. And actually, smoke, we'll get to that in just a second. One is called Minut, M-I-N-U-T. The other one is called NoiseAware. And most of the PMS programs out there, your property management software like HostAway or Guesty or Hospitable are going to be able to integrate with these tools as well. What does integration actually mean? Well, it means that if the noise level in your property goes above a certain limit that you set, it can notify your guests automatically. You don't need cameras. There's no recording or anything like that going on. Basically, it looks like a little smoke detector you put in your property, and it actually picks up noise. These can be a great option if you've had some challenges in the past, but of course, you do want to outline it in your house rules and make it clear that your property is outfitted with some noise monitoring devices. Guests might ask from time to time, think that they're being recorded. You can reassure them that nothing is being recorded. It's simply monitoring the level of volume. If you haven't revamped your house rules in a while, we'll grab a copy of ours down in the show notes. We've managed a lot of guests, over 100,000 at this point, throughout our properties around the nation, and we've definitely dialed in our house rules. You can simply copy ours and edit to fit your property.

Okay. When it comes to actually setting up your device, there's a couple of things you need to know. The first is the decibel limit. So this is what level of noise it's monitoring for. Depending on your property, you may or may not need this during the day, right? Maybe this is just a night thing that happens after 10 p.m., for example. But if you are in an area or you have a really nice setup with a big backyard, but you've had some troubles with neighbors in the past, even during the day, well, then you can set different decibel levels. Maybe you want to set one during the day around 55

But when night comes and things need to be a little bit more quieter, you need to be a little bit more careful not to be disturbing people, well, you might consider dropping it down to 45

If you set the threshold too high, well, then you might not actually be picking up any alerts.

Most of the time, we're going to set these thresholds. What our team does for most of our properties is between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m. And if you've just installed one recently, but you're getting lots of triggers, well, maybe you've got it set too low, or maybe you have it installed in the wrong place. So where should we actually be installing the device? Well, if we're talking about the interior of the home, the best place to put it is generally between your kitchen and the living room or the living area, because if people are getting a little more rowdy, rambunctious, usually they're going to the kitchen to get drinks and so on, and they usually tend to congregate around this area, that's going to be the best place to put it. If you have an outdoor setup and you've got a spa out there, for example, well, you might want to consider putting one of these near your spa. If you've had trouble with the neighbors in the past, again, this isn't recording anything. It looks like a smoke alarm, but you would want to put it under a covered area.

And also keep in mind, if you're installing it outdoors, you probably need to set the threshold a little bit lower because the sound won't be echoing off the walls. Both these devices are easy to charge. You just use a USB-C cable. But remember, you want to make sure to install the device away from things like AC vents. And also, if you're installing it higher, you got to remember that someone's going to need to charge it. So the battery typically lasts several months. You can monitor the battery levels online, and it charges really easily with just a USB-C cable. So my recommendation, if you have a good relationship with your housekeeper, which I hope that you do, this can be one other task that from time to time, they're charging, but they will need a way to access it. A lot of time, your housekeepers might travel with a small stepladder as well. Basically, just want to make sure that this is out of reach of a normal guest so they can't tamper with it and take it off if they wanted to.