Paris hotel opens an anti-snoring room

The InterContinental-owned Crowne Plaza chain of hotels perhaps has the answer for travellers whose sleep is disturbed by their partners snorting and grunting their way through the night.

The chain is testing a "snore absorption room" in nine different hotels across Europe and the Middle East from June 27 to July 1.

Crowne Plaza Paris République (screenshot from YouTube video)

One of the hotels at which guests can book the snore absorption room - at the same price as any standard room - is the Crowne Plaza Paris République in the French capital.

And as Olivier Billard, the Rooms Division Manager of the hotel, told Europe 1, the idea is to allow both guests in the room to get a good night's sleep.

"The concept is being tested throughout the week at our hotel in just one room which has been specially converted to minimise the noise made by the person snoring," he told a rather perplexed and definitely ill-behaved team during Laurent Ruquier's afternoon round-table radio show on Monday.

"The walls and the headboard have been sound-proofed and there's also a special anti-snoring pillow which prevents the person from lying on his or her back," he continued.

"To help the person being kept awake by the snoring there's a white noise machine which emits a relaxing sound similar to the wind in the trees."

Sceptics might think that the idea nothing more than a publicity stunt especially as it's on a trial basis.

But as Business Traveller points out the Crowne Plaza chain has a reputation for "innovation".

In 2010 for example it came up with the idea of putting real grass in a number of its meeting rooms at two of its British and one of its Irish hotels to "unlock some long-forgotten childhood creativity."

And last year as part of an eco-friendly initiative the Crowne Plaza Copenhagen Towers in Denmark installed electricity-producing bicycles and offered guests a free meal if they produced 10 watt hours of power.

Sweet dreams

French claim a breakthrough in the battle against snoring

A new device developed by a French orthodontist promises a good night's sleep for snorers...and their partners!

Help could be at hand for those among us who suffer from snoring - both the "culprits" who noisily sleep their way through the night and their partners who have to endure the rumblings and snortings coming from the other side of the bed.

On Tuesday a laboratory in the northwestern French city of Rennes launched an "innovate device" which promises to put an end to sleepless nights by reducing the level of snoring and the amount of sleeping apnoea (the temporary cessation of breathing while sleeping).

Ah yes, where have we - the long-suffering partners forced to share the night time with high volume snorts and grunts reverberating around the bedroom - heard that before?

There are countless devices out there on the market that claim to reduce snoring, endless tips on how to sleep soundly while making less of a racket and (as a last resort perhaps) surgery for those who snore.

But as the British Snoring & Sleep Apnoea Association (yes there really is such a body) says on its website "There isn't a cure for snoring," only ways in which it can "be successfully controlled."


And that would seem to be the promise behind the product launched this week called the "Blue nocta".

It's a brace that has been developed by an orthodontist in Rennes, who spent more than 10 years testing several prototypes before coming up with the final product.

The brace itself isn't innovative, several others already exist apparently. But what is groundbreaking is "a screw that allows the patient to adjust the device before going to sleep," according to Denis Masquilier the head of the laboratory that'll be marketing it.

And here's the good news - no scrub that, GREAT news. It has been tested on around 500 people and has had a "one hundred per cent success rate".

"We mustn't forget that because of snoring and sleep apnea, sleep is disrupted," says Masquilier.

"People who snore are often people who wake up tired."

Ah M. Masquilier, that might indeed be very true, but they're surely not alone as anyone with a partner who could snore their way to Olympic gold would be able to testify.

All right so the cost of the brace at the moment is perhaps rather steep - €470 - and won't be reimbursed by the social security here in France, but it could be the answer to many people's prayers and the promise of a full night's sleep.

A Christmas present for the Superior Other One maybe?