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Hot Hotels (too)
Err Travel · October 19, 1999

Whenever I stay in a hotel, I am fully prepared to survive a fire. It's almost an automatic response.

Maybe that’s because I know we're all more likely to be killed in a hotel fire than murdered by a hotel mugger. Perhaps it was the cold war evacuation drills at Roosevelt Grammar School. Travel safety and security is my schtick, so maybe it's beginning to get to me.

On the other hand, I’ve been in four hotel fires in three countries - twice in the same city! What's your guess?

Naturally, I’d prefer not to put my survival plan and skills into action again. These days, I would rather cut my risk before I register. I prefer hotel properties which 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.

Next week, I’ll present what you need to do to when you first arrive in your room. You'll be ready to give yourself a fighting chance of surviving a hotel fire.

Dr. Terry Riley is a psychologist and travel security authority. His column appears on Saturdays. Visit his site at http://www.appliedpsychology.com or e-mail him at riley@appliedpsychology.com.