To ask for help in deciding what compensation to ask for.... need answers as quickly as poss please.

[Namechangedespeciallyforthis]

Regular, very recently name changed for something else. In Australia, so it's 07:40 here. Need advice quickly before we check out of the hotel. Here's what happened.

Stayed in a fairly expensive hotel last night in their family suite with four kids, 1, 2, 9 and ten.

Just got the younger two to sleep and settled the older two, probably about 22:45, when a distant alarm started ringing. Eldest started panicking (as he is prone to), snd I told him everything was fine. About 3 minutes later, an extremely loud alarm started going off in our room. Called reception to ask what was going on, only to be told 'stay in your room until further instruction'. Fair enough, did what we were told. Five minutes later (with alarm still blaring), announcement through tannoy saying 'we are aware of an ongoing issue, please wait for further instruction'. Fair enough. Until my 9 year old says 'mum, I can smell smoke'. Walked over to his side of the room, and yes, was starting to smell strongly of smoke. Phoned reception again, took me nine or ten goes to get through as engaged, to be told 'yes, there's been a problem with the sauna on the 14th floor (we are on floor 13), but it's in control, please stay in your room!' Starting to feel a bit uncomfortable. Within five minutes our room is stinking and smokey. Kids and me are coughing (4 asthmatics between us), so husband goes out into corridor to investigate whereby he meets a member of staff who says, 'yes, the sauna has been on fire but is now in control, however, due to levels of smoke can you please evacuate to the foyer!'

Go downstairs (littlies asleep in double stroller, eldest panicking like mad, 9yo not really concerned), to discover that the WHOLE HOTEL, has been evacuated to downstairs!! We then waited about 30 minutes before being sent back to our (still stinking) room, where none of us (except the little ones) could sleep. It's morning now, everything stinks, and we just want to leave, but are unsure how much to request, if anything, is removed from our bill. On a side note, pool use was included in our room, which the kids wanted to do this morning, but now can't because it's closed due to the sauna fire.

Any advice would be welcome please before we go downstairs.

Great result ,well done.

Good stuff.

Bouttimeforwine, when you say pursue it further, how would you do it, and what would you say?

So I'm probably going to compose an email to the hotel tonight, partly (mainly), to commend the manager's way of dealing with us in the morning, but what else would you include?

I think I would take it further as what happened was so risky, but agree you should praise the manager for her handling this morning

Yes, I mean take it further as in, put it down in writing and insist on a response from the highest level that this won't happen again, as they will be be reviewing safety procedures and improving staff training. If that fire had spread, you could have died. It's a very serious matter.

Yes it's good that the manager recognised it, the next morning but it could have been a very nasty outcome. Take it to the top. Agree the manager should be praised but everything else stinks - both figuratively and literally insist that you want reassurance that it would never happen again in any hotels that they manage.

I remember watching a documentary about fire and it resonated with me as at the time I was living in a 60s high rise which had been converted to "luxury apartments". ANyway, it was saying that in certain types of building the stairwell can act as a chimney and sometimes it is safer to wait on your balcony if you have one than to actively go into the "chimney"/stairwell. So depending on the building, it might have been the best advice to stay put. However, seeing as everyone else was evacuated, obviously not in this building! Glad you got a satisfactory resolution OP.

op what you really need to find out is WHY everyone else was evacuated but you were not despite two calls to reception. Make sure you ask for a written explanation when you write to them.

I've emailed the highest person in the company that I can find, requesting that staff are retrained in crisis management and reiterating how dangerous our position was. Fwiw, we had no balcony, didn't even have actual windows - only big glass panels. The more we consider it, the worse it seems. We actually could have been seriously injured or even died. Tbh, I think the staff we spoke to were trying to minimise panic, but it was dealt with very badly.

It could have been a very different outcome. Let us know what their response is.

I think the other guests would not have phone down but on hearing the alarm just went out of the building.
You having small children decided like previous poster suggested to normalise the situation hence ringing.
I would also suspect that the staff member you spoke to got her drill mixed up, in the event of a fire you should just get out obviously, but in the event of a terrorist action with fire the advice is stay in your room, if you can, after Mumbai.
Normalisation is er normal I was in a fire once and despite not being able to see my friends in the student house due to smoke stood and discussed whether it was a fire or not, then I decided it was walked up the stairs to the nearest fire alarm, smashed it then walked back down the stairs 2 floors and out the front door ... Well done me... Except that the fire alarm was situated next to a fire escape, which I never thought to use when the fire service arrived they found my friends still talking and coughing on the landing alarm blaring I was outside watching the smoke billow out of the windows,panicking whilst the hospital manager laid into me about the cost to the hospital of false alarms... She could see what I could see.
Glad you had a good outcome but you do need to put it in writing because the hotel Need to sort out their procedure.

Will you keep us updated on their response please?

Why on earth when the alarm was sounding did you phone reception instead of evacuating the room - that seems an incredibly stupid thing to do.

Update. Must admin with the alarm going i think most people would leave the building. Had this at 2am once in a hotel. Alarm rang everyone left their rooms and stood in the pouring rain, fire man came, went inside, 20 minutes later everyone told to go back in. False alarm but glad it worked.

Why on earth when the alarm was sounding - the initial alarm was a distant one, could have been shop next door, though perhaps the hotel's alarm system also isn't up to scratch.

The second alarm was clearly in the room - they should have evacuated.

Why put their lives at risk.

Even when the alarm was blaring in the room and they could smell smoke they phoned reception instead of evacuating - sorry I cannot understand why.

OP - was there a fire procedure on the door. Did you read it? Did it tell you what to do if the alarm went off. Did it anywhere say please phone reception?

I am sorry, but you have to take some of the responsibility for this. You put your family at risk and also the lives of the fire crews if they had needed to rescue you.

If I was in a smokey room especially with my children I'd have gotten the hell outta there immediately!

However, in this situation I wouldn't be paying anything.

Loxley, did you miss my post where I said that I wasn't sure why we didn't evacuate, and that I felt foolish. Obviously I am ultimately responsible for my family's safety, but the hotel had a duty of care which they clearly didn't follow. Quite aside from my two phone calls to reception, there was a tannoy announcement into the room(s?) asking us to remain in our room until further instruction, which fwiw, never came. That announcement only came a couple of minutes after my first call to reception. Had I not bothered to call reception, but still been in the process of trying to get us all out of the room, given I was loading two sleeping babies into a double stroller, we would still have been instructed to stay where we were. I'm not claiming that we weren't at fault, but the hotel certainly were too.

I'm glad it all finished okay, OP. When you went downstairs after the alarm, did you use the lift or go down the stairs? Just wondered.

Anyone remember It ain't 'Alf 'Ot, Mum?

Melvyn Hayes with his, "Evacuate! Evacuate!"

It's easy to feel stupid in hindsight, now you KNOW it was a fire. Bit I'd say that with the information that you had you did the right thing in staying put, if that is what you were told.

There are several situations where it is safer to stay put, eg terrorist attack, flood etc and both of those could have conceivably caused a smell of smoke. But you would have been a damn fool to walk down into a hostage situation, having been advised not to.

The procedures ith the hotel were at fault. Not you.

Thank you dalek. I've received a call from the General Manager this morning, and he could not have been more apologetic! He has admitted that the incident was dealt with dreadfully, and that several measures have been put in place to prevent it happening again.

Alarmingly, staff were first made aware of the incident by the fire alarm sounding, then immediately a phone call to reception by a male with a foreign accent who shouted 'I've set fire to the top floor!', then hung up. Staff's first reaction was that this was a deliberate attack, and immediately contacted police and the fire department, who advised that all guests should at that point remain in their rooms. However, many guests had already begun to evacuate.

The problems with our treatment began when shortly after, the fire dept discovered the source of the incident (menthol oil poured on the electrical element in the sauna which had immediately burst into flames), determined that it seemed to have been accidental, and advised that all rooms should then have been evacuated as per fire procedure. It was this which was not carried out, and sheer luck that dh stumbled across the security guard who asked us to then evacuate. In reply to pp, I specifically asked whether we should use the lift or the stairs, and was told to use the lift , although with a double stroller with two sleeping babies/toddlers, god knows how long it would have taken us to get down 13 floors. The final insult was being told to return to our smoke filled room afterwards, which the GM was utterly livid about!

As it turns out, the person responsible rocked up at reception at approx 03:00, and 'gave them-self in', admitted that they had been in the sauna with their gf, and thought that pouring oil on the coals would clear their sinuses! To the tune of $20k damage, according to the GM.

Anyway, the final outcome is that several measures are being put into place, pre recorded disaster messages for the tannoy, debriefings with all staff (including some disciplinaries), and crisis management training courses for all staff, as well as increased staffing numbers on night duty, as apparently, they were understaffed to deal with the incident.

Dh and I are being sent a voucher for a complimentary dinner bed and breakfast visit, valid for a year for the family, and a written apology. It has reassured me that other than panicking in the face of a crisis, what happened wasn't really our fault. Convincing ds1 to stay there again is going to be another matter though, he is still shaken over it and has been having bad dreams.

I'm glad you're all alright and the hotel has reached responsibly after the fact.

It's a funny thing reading your posts though, as it clearly hasn't occurred to you that sprottling with a double buggy complete with two children and choosing to get into a lift because you'd got a heavy buggy - really skewed decision making.

Pick up one child each and get down the stairs as quickly and safely as possible. Leave the buggy behind, it's heavy and slow going. Never ever get in a lift when there is a suspected fire.

I'm not having a go at you, as I agree with previous posters that people make incredibly bad decisions in disaster / emergency situations.

But made me realise I need to make an evacuation plan for my flat and teach the nannies really thoroughly so no one is put in the position of having to make critical decisions in the middle of a dangerous situation.

You escalating it to the highest level has hopefully made things a lot safer for future guests. Well done. The complimentary stay is a bonus. Make sure you ask for a lower ground though. Is there a different hotel in the same chain?

I must admit I wouldn't have thought twice about waking the babies. I'd have just picked them up too, and shot downstairs at the first ring of a fire alarm, let alone the smell of smoke.. It has made me think about the terrorist angle though. That would have never crossed my mind. Are you in the uk?

Just realised its Australia.