That a hotel should take a register when a fire alarm goes off?

[Oscha]

I guess they’ll never know 100% who’s in the building or not. But shouldn’t they at least attempt to work out whether the guests they have staying with them have managed to evacuate?

I’m in a hotel with my very deaf DM and the fire alarm went off last night. The alarm wasn’t that loud, and if I hadn’t been here, she’d likely have slept through it. We evacuated to the car park and waited there; eventually the alarm stopped. On the way back in I talked to the man at reception and asked if we’d missed a register/roll call of some kind, and he laughed and said no. He also said he was the only member of staff on the premises, which surprised me.

This isn’t a little B&B, it’s a pretty big spa hotel with a lot of guests. I feel quite shaken by the experience-if I weren’t here my mother would still be asleep in bed, and apparently no one would have noticed or been able to tell firemen that there was someone missing, or which room the missing person was in.

Is this normal?!

I think it probably is , I've been in a hotel when the alarm went off for a bomb scare , it involved the anti terrorist squad and loads of us out on the street for quite a long time with no register , luckily for us the local coffee shop opened up all night

They'll have a procedure involving checking every room including bathrooms I assume

But it would be good if in a hotel like that the fire alarm triggered lights to come on and some flashing warning lights as well

Maybe they take the register if there is an actual fire/emergency. I don't think that's unusual to have one member of staff, although I think they should have at least two.

Some disabled rooms at the Premier Inn have emergency flashing lights in rooms as well a sound alarm.

Would have thought the onus was on the guest to let the hotel know at check-in if they would have difficulty evacuating in the event of a fire alarm e.g. can't get down stairs/won't hear fire alarm so hotel can pass that on to firefighters?

It's just not practical. They'd have no idea which guests were still inside and which had just gone out somewhere.

It’s quite typical that if you need assistance of any kind to evacuate during a fire alarm, you notify them when checking in so they can make your room a priority when checking all rooms are empty.

Had an occasion when the fire alarm went off at a hotel - myself and one other person went to the fire assembly point in the very large car park, everyone else plus staff had just gathered at the front of the hotel (potentially in the way of any emergency crews if they had been needed). Odd.

No it's not unusual. How would they know who was in their rooms and who was still out eg clubbing? It's a hotel not a prison.

Any guests who are unlikely to hear an alarm, whether through deafness or very heavy sleepers, should tell reception when they check in. Ditto anyone with mobility problems. The hotel should then have a list of rooms whose guests need help to evacuate and will check those rooms first if an alarm goes off.

It’s a good point that guests should let them know of deadness (or other disabilities). DM doesn’t stay in hotels often, but I’m going to suggest she does that for future holidays, especially if she’s alone!

I can see the practicalities mean it wouldn’t work. Unfortunately she is very shaken by the experience!

Deafness, not deadness FFS 🙄😆

DH used to work in a hotel and was frequently the only one there at night, usually there would be two of them but sometimes just one. IIRC somebody would be on call for emergencies because he sometimes mentioned having to wake up the manager and the manager being annoyed if it turned out to be nothing.

They never took registers for the reasons mentioned but would go in and bang on doors etc, even if it was a false alarm. Definitely a good idea to specifically mention issues with evacuating such as deafness.

It’s a lot of responsibility to be the only person there overnight isn’t it! I’m really surprised that’s normal. I guess 99% of the time a second person would be pretty redundant. But in emergency...!

It is a big responsibility. I think they should have at least two. Down to money as per.

I've been in fire alarms twice at hotels. One genuine, one probably set off by drunk guests.

Neither time a register was taken. We said for the first that if it had been a less contained fire, people would have been killed.
They tried to do a register.
They wandered round with a not very good loudspeaker calling "Is Mrs Aaron here, Mrs Aaron". They started at the top of the alphabet and after an hour were still only partially through the As.
After a s condition hour they hit on a better idea which was 13 members of staff holding up 2 letters and asking people to register with them by surname.
By which point a lot of people had left.
That was a large international chain hotel. We also, despite being out well over 3 hours were not even given an apology.

The other one, they didn't do a register but sent staff checking each room and sending people out. But they were quite shocked to find over half the people assumed a false alarm and ignored it until they came.
We were out, despite having 2 small children, nearly 10minutes before anyone else appeared.

I'd say rule in hotels is if the alarm goes off get out asap, if you're trapped then contact 999 and tell them you're trapped and your room number.

Stealth absolutely not. That would mean sending minimum wage staff into the hotel where there is potentially a fire to search every bedroom and ensuite. No way.
The duty manager will go to the location of the trigger before evacuation but they won't go into every room. That would be dangerous.
Each department head does pull a staff rota and the reception team have a check list of all guests in house and any rooms which may require assistance (then the DM with assistance- only if it was safe) would assist them. The rule is always never go towards the fire, alert everyone on your way out but if people show resistance to evacuating then you can try and persuade them but in the end you will leave them.

The firefighters will be given the rooming list and they will check each bedroom.

It wouldn't be accurate. If it was early evening or middle of the day guests could be out and about. Similarly, guests could have company not staying over.