One of the things that frustrate me the most in this world is bars and restaurants built without an ounce of consideration for how noise levels affect the patrons' experience. For someone who's slightly hard of hearing (or at least likes to pretend so), past a certain threshold, ambient noise becomes nearly indistinguishable from the conversations I'm trying to have. An hour in such an environment is exhausting and often induces headaches.
I've been scratching my head for years as to why even some of the most reputable design and architecture firms can so blatantly ignore something that has such a big impact on the quality of the hospitality experience. Given how many places have horrible acoustics, it wouldn't be unreasonable to imagine that acoustics experts would turn this opportunity into a successful business. There is certainly a need for it, but I digress.
Until now, I never had a compelling argument as to why that would be a problem other than my own intuition and countless hours spent suffering. Science has vindicated me with this paper correlating bad experiences with adverse noise levels. The worse the acoustic experience, the fewer people enjoy their food.
Hospitality designers, take heed.