What Does a Soundproof Booth Cost? Price Breakdown, Lease Prices, and Hidden Costs

Soundproof booths are heavily advertised with a price tag. What’s rarely mentioned is why one booth costs €3,500 and another €9,000, even though they look nearly identical in product photos. That difference isn’t just profit margin. It’s in the wall construction, ventilation, and glass — and those three factors determine whether you’ll be satisfied in two years… Read more

This difference isn’t a markup. It lies in the wall construction, ventilation, and glass — and it’s precisely these three factors that determine whether you’ll be satisfied in two years or have an expensive phone booth no one wants to use. Below, you’ll find the price breakdown, bandwidths per format, and the costs you’ll need to account for yourself.

Bandwidths per format

The figures below are market price ranges excluding VAT, observed in public tenders in July 2026. They give you an idea of the scale; the exact price depends on the factors listed further down.

The jump from one to two people is larger than you might expect. That’s because a duo booth isn’t just wider, but also requires more ventilation capacity, heavier glass, and a sturdier structure.

What determines the price

1. Sound insulation — the biggest price difference

The key specification, and the only one you won’t see in a photo. Soundproofing is expressed in decibels: how much sound the booth blocks.

• Around 20 dB: You hear the office garden muffled, and the office garden hears you muffled. Enough for a brief phone call, but insufficient for a confidential conversation.
• Around 28–30 dB: the standard level for a good phone booth. Conversations are no longer audible outside.
• 34 dB and above: suitable for confidential conversations — HR, job interviews, medical information.

Every step costs money: thicker glass, double wall construction, better door sealing. This is the area where you can least save, because a booth that doesn’t dampen enough won’t solve the problem you bought it for.

Always ask about the measurement method. 'Soundproof' is not a specification. A dB value with the corresponding standard is.

2. Ventilation

A soundproof booth is a small, enclosed space. Without active air ventilation, CO₂ levels rise sharply within a quarter of an hour, and you’ll notice it immediately: headaches, loss of concentration, and users propping the door open — which ruins the acoustics completely.

The Belgian Code requires that the CO₂ concentration in workspaces normally remains below 900 ppm, or that at least 40 m³ of fresh air per hour per person present is supplied. For a phone booth, this means a fan with sufficient capacity — and it must be quiet, as a noisy fan in a soundproof booth is a contradiction.

Cheap booths save here. Ask about the ventilation rate in m³/hour and the noise level of the ventilator in dB(A).

3. Glass

More glass means an open feel and more natural light, but also more weight, higher costs, and less sound insulation. Laminated soundproof glass costs significantly more than single-pane glass. A fully glass front is visually appealing, but consider what the user needs: visibility is not an advantage during confidential conversations.

4. Equipment

Lighting with motion sensor, power outlets and USB, a desk, a stool or chair, a coat hook, and a screen for video calls. Together, this can easily make a € 500 to € 1,500 difference. Look critically at what you actually use: a monitor in a call booth sounds good but is rarely turned on.

5. Finishing

Standard colors are cheaper than custom designs. Upholstery in acoustic felt or recycled PET costs more than sprayed panel material, but contributes to internal soundproofing — you’re paying partly for performance, not just appearance.

6. Delivery and Installation

The post with the most surprises. Ask explicitly about: transport, installation, disposal of packaging, and whether the booth fits through your lift, stairwell, and door frames. A meetingbox that can’t reach the fourth floor is an expensive logistical issue — and you’d rather discover that before delivery.

Buy, rent, or lease?

A comparison over five years, based on the mid-range values from the table. Replace the amounts with your own quotes; the structure remains the same.

The break-even point is around four years. However, the math isn’t the whole story. Leasing is particularly interesting if you’re unsure how many cabins you’ll need: start with two, measure occupancy after half a year, and scale up or down. This is significantly more cost-effective than buying four cabins, two of which may remain unused.

How many soundproof booths do you need?

The question that should be asked more often than ‘what does one cost’. A booth that’s permanently occupied is just as useless as one that’s permanently empty.

Practical guidelines, depending on how much calling and video calling is done:

• Office with low call volume: approximately 1 phone booth per 30 to 40 workstations.
• Average office with hybrid working: approximately 1 per 15 to 25 workstations.
• Sales, support, or recruitment: approximately 1 per 8 to 12 workstations.

Treat this as a starting point, not as a standard. The most reliable method is to track for two weeks how often people leave to call outside or in a meeting room. That number is your actual need.

A second consideration: distribute multiple smaller cabins across the floor rather than clustering them. A booth located fifty meters away will not be used, and then every euro spent is wasted.

Costs that are rarely included in a quote

• Square meters. A 1.2 m² phone booth in a building costing € 200 per m² per year costs € 240 per year in space.
• Electrical connection. A booth requires a power outlet. If there isn’t one nearby, an electrician will need to install it.
• Filters and maintenance. Ventilation systems have filters. Schedule replacements in your maintenance plan, otherwise the airflow will gradually decrease unnoticed.
• Cleaning. A cabin used by dozens of people per week must be included in the cleaning contract. If not, it will be avoided within a month.
• Relocation. If the location turns out to be poorly chosen, relocation typically costs a few hundred euros for disassembly and reassembly. Plan for this rather than trying to avoid it.

What a phone booth delivers

To justify the investment internally, it helps to compare the cost against what noise disruption costs. Research on acoustics in open offices consistently shows that the sound of talking colleagues is the biggest source of concentration loss — it’s also the reason why an international standard for the acoustic quality of open offices, ISO 22955, was introduced in 2021.

A call booth costing € 6,500, depreciated over five years, amounts to € 1,300 per year. Divided among the twenty employees using it, that’s € 65 per person per year. That’s a low price for addressing the most frequently mentioned complaint about open-plan offices.

What we would pay attention to

If you take one thing from this article: ask for the dB rating and ventilation rate, and compare quotes based on those two figures. Two booths with the same price tag may differ significantly in these factors, which determines whether the booth will still be usable in a year.

Check out our acoustic sound booths for offices with specifications per model, or read our detailed guide and comparison for acoustic sound booths. Need more space than one person? Look at acoustic meeting rooms and meeting pods.

Unsure if a soundproof booth is the right solution for your noise issue? Then the overview of acoustic solutions is a better starting point — sometimes a ceiling does more than a booth. Request a quote for a custom price.

Frequently asked questions about the price of a phone booth

What does a phone booth cost?

A single-person sound booth typically costs between €3,500 and €8,000 (excl. VAT), depending on soundproofing, ventilation, glass, and equipment. A duo booth ranges from €8,000 to €13,000, while a meeting booth for four to six people costs between €14,000 and €28,000.

Can you lease a mobile phone?

Yes. Lease prices typically range between € 90 and € 200 per month for a single-person cabin. This is especially interesting if you are unsure how many cabins you need and want the flexibility to scale up or down.

What’s the difference between a budget and a premium phone booth?

Primarily soundproofing and ventilation. A booth that dampens 20 dB and one that dampens 34 dB may look similar from the outside, but differ in wall construction, glass thickness, and door sealing. The ventilation rate and the noise level of the fan also vary significantly.

How many sound booths does an office need?

As a rule of thumb: approximately one phone booth per 15 to 25 workstations for average call volume, and one per 8 to 12 workstations for sales, support, or recruitment teams. The most reliable method is to track for two weeks how often employees step aside to make calls.

What costs are often overlooked with a call booth?

Delivery and installation (often quoted separately), the square meters the booth occupies, an electrical connection, filter replacement, and cleaning. Also check in advance whether the booth fits through the elevator and door frames.

Last updated on 24 October 2026 by Stijn Belmans