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11 August 1999
Hot hotels
They asked about fire sprinklers, not lawn sprinklers
By Terry Riley
Whenever I stay in a hotel, I am fully prepared to survive a fire. It's almost an
automatic response.
Maybe it's because of the cold war evacuation drills at Roosevelt Grammar School in
the fifties. Maybe it’s because I know we're all more likely to be killed in a hotel
fire than murdered by a hotel mugger. Maybe it's because travel safety and security is my
schtick. Or maybe it's because I’ve been in four hotel fires in three countries—twice in the same city!
Whatever the reason, I like to cut my risk of becoming toast even before I register. I
prefer hotel properties that have fire detection and suppression systems installed.
Major hotel and motel chains do a fine job of protecting themselves and their guests
from fire. As a cross section, I checked with Hilton
Hotels, Bass Hotels and Resorts
(i.e., Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express, Crowne Plaza, Staybridge Suites, and
Inter-Continental Hotels and Resorts), Shangri-La
Hotels and Resorts, and Motel 6. All assured me
that their properties had smoke detectors and/or fire sprinklers installed in all guest
rooms. My experience is that these companies do indeed maintain fire safety standards that
meet or exceed government requirements as well as my personal expectations.
Finding independently owned and operated properties that have fire safety systems is
not as easy. There is no worldwide, fire safety building code to which all lodging
properties must adhere. And, according to Bob Elliott, a legal guy at the American Hotel & Motel Association there is not even a
nationwide code for the United States.
Instead, hotels and motels are built to comply with local and regional building codes.
Although you are likely to stay in a property which is required to meet fire code
standards, there is no guarantee that the property you select will be up to code -
particularly if your travel budget requires you stay at half-star establishments.
While many hotel/motel listing and rating services offer information about whether or
not properties have air conditioning, mini-bars, or data ports for computer modems,
surprisingly few indicate if the rooms are equipped with smoke detectors or fire
sprinklers. I’ve checked lodging guides published by the American Automobile Association (AAA), Blue Guides, Fodor’s, Frommers, Let’s Go, Lonely
Planet, Michelin, Mobil, and Open Road.
Here’s what I’ve found: None of the guides provided information regarding lodging fire safety for properties
outside of the United States.
For U.S. properties, only two guides—AAA and Mobil—offer any indication that U.S. properties comply with some
measure of fire safety. The AAA states in its guides that every hotel and motel listed in
its TourBooks provides in-room smoke detectors. In the Mobil Travel Guides, listed hotels
and motels include a little symbol indicating which rooms are equipped with smoke
detectors and/or fire sprinklers. (By the way, Fodor’s, the publisher of the Mobil
Guides, doesn’t include information about fire safety in its own listing of U.S.
properties. Weird.)
There is another source. U.S. government employees who are traveling on business are
required to stay in hotels and motels that have installed fire sprinklers and/or smoke
alarms so the Federal Emergency Management Agency
(FEMA) maintains a list of qualified properties. To be eligible for listing, hotels over
three stories must have sprinklers and smoke alarms. Hotels three stories or under can
qualify with just smoke alarms. The list is published for federal employees but is
available to anyone with access to the United
States Fire Administration’s web site.
A word of caution: The information on the FEMA list is based on voluntary
self-reporting by hotels, and this self-reporting system has its shortcomings. For
instance, Operation Life Safety reports, that
sometimes hotels have made the list by stating that they have sprinklers when instead they
only have similar looking, ceiling-mounted smoke alarms. And in one case, an employee
affirmed that his hotel was equipped with guest room sprinklers. It wasn't. Instead the
hotel had lawn sprinklers.
Conclusion: If you are staying at an off-brand property, Caveat incendo.
© 1999 Applied Psychology
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