Incredibly, the noise insulation between floors and ESPECIALLY walls in both hotels around the world and even expensive, modern apartment buildings in Manhattan

Incredibly, the noise insulation between floors and ESPECIALLY walls in both hotels around the world and even expensive, modern apartment buildings in Manhattan is absolutely atrocious. So I end up booking Airbnb's when I travel and renting top floors whenever I can. I find the build quality of new buildings (again, even uber luxury apartment condos) in the U.S. absolutely crap compared to Europe (I'm thinking especially of France and Germany). Over here on HN you have a strong contingent of people who push pro-density, pro-city, and anti-car. But some people (like myself) who suffer from a sensitive sleep are deeply affected and consider moving to the woods away from people just for this problem. I find the 'SLAM' sound of doors (in New York there's a spring loading per building code), the stomp stomp of upstairs, and the bass music of adjacent neighbors to be deeply disruptive from a psychological perspective.