A neighbour or the guard calls about noise from your homestay: message the guest within minutes, ask them to lower the noise, tell the complainant it is being handled, and write down what happened. Do it the same night. The building can fine the owner up to RM200 per offence, and repeated complaints are what push a building toward banning short stays.
Is a noise complaint the same thing as a party?
No, and treating them the same is how owners lose sleep. A party or a headcount problem is a rule-breaking guest, and we have a separate playbook for it: guests exceeded the headcount or threw a party. A noise complaint is usually much smaller. Across 100-plus units in Johor Bahru and Desaru, the typical complaint is an ordinary family doing ordinary things at the wrong hour.
The usual suspects, roughly in the order they come up:
- Arrival at an awkward time. Suitcase wheels on a hard corridor floor, a lift full of people, a door that closes with a bang. It is not misbehaviour, but at 1 am a neighbour hears every wheel.
- Voices in the corridor or on the balcony. Friends who are not sleepy yet, a phone call on speaker, children told off in a loud voice.
- Children running or jumping. Fine in daylight, a problem for the unit below at 10 pm.
- Speakers and karaoke. A small Bluetooth speaker is normal; a big one with a microphone is not.
- Early morning. A group leaving at 5 am for the Causeway, with the same suitcase wheels in the other direction.
None of these needs a punishment. All of them need a fast, polite message, because a neighbour who is ignored for an hour stops calling us and starts calling the management office.
What do we do in the first 15 minutes?
The order matters more than the wording.
- Get the facts from the person who complained. Which unit, what sound, since when. Guards sometimes relay a complaint as "very loud" when the neighbour only said "a bit noisy".
- Message the guest first, then call if there is no reply. A message leaves a written record of what we asked and when. A call is faster, so if the guest has not read the message in a few minutes we ring.
- Ask for one specific thing. "Please keep voices down in the corridor and balcony after 10 pm" works better than "please be quiet". Give the guest a way to say yes without losing face: "Thank you for understanding, the neighbours here are early sleepers."
- Tell the complainant it is handled. A short reply to the guard or neighbour: "We have spoken to the guest and asked them to lower the noise." Most people only want to know someone is acting.
- Check back once. About twenty minutes later we ask the guard or neighbour whether it is quiet. If it is not, we move to the next step below.
Everything is typed into the booking chat, so the owner and our team can read the same timeline in the morning.
What do we say to the guest, and what happens if the noise continues?
| Situation | What we say | Next step |
|---|---|---|
| First complaint, ordinary noise | Friendly request, quiet hours mentioned | Check back in about 20 minutes |
| Same noise continues after the request | A direct second message that names the complaint and the building rule | Phone call; tell them the building can act on the unit |
| A third round, or the guard threatens to involve management | Clear final warning: keep it down or the stay may be ended | Decide whether to end the stay, see below |
| The noise is really a crowd (more people than booked) | We treat it as an overcrowding case | Follow the headcount playbook |
Ending a stay is the last resort, not the first reaction. A guest who has paid for three nights with children is more likely to cooperate than to leave, and we would rather have a quiet guest than an empty unit with a one-star review. But if the same guest ignores a final warning, the building's complaint does not go away, and the owner is the one on the hook. We then talk about ending the stay, and any refund follows the booking terms.
What can the building actually do to the owner?
Under the Strata Management Act 2013, the JMB or MC can make house rules and fine owners for breaching them, up to RM200 per offence as reported by Malay Mail in January 2026. The rules about "nuisance" and "peaceful enjoyment" differ building by building. One Malaysian landlord guide notes there is no single national decibel standard for residential noise, so the building's own house rules, not a number, decide what counts as too loud. Building management is also the party that can, with a special resolution, ban short-term rentals altogether. That is why a string of small noise complaints matters more than any one of them: it is the evidence residents bring to the AGM. If you want to know what happens after a vote like that, read what owners can do after the AGM vote.
This is general information, not legal advice. Check your building's actual house rules and the by-laws.
What do we do the next morning?
- Write it up. Time, who complained, what the sound was, what we asked, how the guest responded.
- Tell the owner. Not just when there was a fine, also when there was a complaint. An owner who learns about it from the management office before learning it from us loses trust, and rightly.
- Message the guest once more. Thank them for their help, or, if it dragged on, say clearly that another complaint will end the stay.
- Leave a note for the next guest. If the corridor carries sound badly in one particular unit, the check-in message for the next guest says so politely.
- Do not use the deposit as a noise fine. The deposit covers damage and unpaid items, and we explain how that works in the deposit deductions article. Noise itself is not damage.
What should be in the house rules and the listing?
Put the quiet hours where the guest will see them before they arrive and again at check-in: the listing, the booking confirmation and the check-in message. As an example only, many buildings use something like 10 pm to 7 am, but your building's rules decide, so use the real ones. Also state the maximum number of guests, and say that corridor, lift lobby and balcony are shared spaces. A guest who has read the rule twice is easier to ask politely the third time.
If your building has strict arrival rules or lift-booking for suitcases, add them too. The best noise complaint is the one that never happens because the guest knew.
What can we not promise?
- We cannot make every stay quiet. Some guests are loud however clearly the rules are written.
- We cannot always recover a fine from the guest. Whether a building fine can be passed on depends on the booking terms and the evidence. We do not promise that the cost will always come back to the owner.
- A strict building is a risk whatever we do. If residents are already unhappy about short stays, a few complaints may be enough to start a ban vote, and a ban ends our management of that unit.
- A good reply does not remove a complaint from the building's records. It only improves the outcome.
What should an owner take from this?
Ask your manager three questions: who answers the guard's call at midnight, how quickly does the guest get a message, and will you be told about every complaint, not just fines. If you want a team that answers at midnight, you can start at our owner enquiry page; we work with units across Johor Bahru and Desaru.