Because sirens and flashing lights aren't enough

[WishfulSpirit]

Hi everyone. Today was an exciting day at my hotel. About 7:30am (30 minutes into my shift) the fire alarm goes off. It turned out it was a malfunctioning sensor (so that's good...no crispy critters) but not knowing where it was coming from I followed proper emergency response techniques and started herding the breakfast crowd out while housekeepers started banging on doors.

Well, apparently we missed a door, because later someone called down demanding to know why they "weren't notified about what was going on."

Um...it's a FIRE ALARM. Unless you're told otherwise, a fire alarm means "GTFO of the building you idjit." This was so silly my boss (who'll give the house away if you don't keep an eye on him) told me not to put the customer's email address on their folio (which will ensure they don't get sent a satisfaction survey).

On the plus side, he was walking in just as this all went down, meaning he got to see my emergency response skills in action (I'm good in an emergency, if I do say so myself...seven years of life-guarding will do that).

[bainsidhe]

I used to work in a hotel with 300+ rooms and every 6 months or so a sensor would trigger the fire alarm. Always amazed me how many windows had guests peering outside to watch as fire trucks arrived, yet they didn't evacuate.

[BrenDAnn]

So, if someone were to die that way, would the qualify for a Darwin Award? Methinks not. It'd be a quick thinning of the herd, though. The stupid....it burns! (Pun intended )

[Aragarthiel]

I found this earlier, and wanted to share.

[Chromatix]

It does qualify for a Darwin Award, as long as they don't cause other people to die too.

[WishfulSpirit]

Ok, ok, just to be fair, I have to state here that we found out later the alarms in her room as well as some others (as well as in about half to 2/3rds of the hallway) didn't go off at all. We didn't know those alarms didn't work, but I'm reviewing the emergency procedures, and I bet we were supposed to be banging on doors (which I thought the housekeepers were doing...I was staying at the desk in order to be a point of contact for the fire department, since I'm one of the few English speakers who were around that time of the day).

Anyway, no alarms during an emergency is NOT GOOD. I'm passing that on to my boss, who doesn't cut corners when it comes to guest safety.

[Shyla]

The alarms didn't go off? Definitely not good. I am assuming it's illegal as well.

[WishfulSpirit]

The alarms didn't go off? Definitely not good. I am assuming it's illegal as well.

Based on what (little) I know about code, we are required to maintain a properly-working alarm system, but I don't think they can come after you unless it can be proved you knew about the problem and didn't fix it, or neglected proper testing that would have revealed the problem.

I think proper tests have been being done, but something may have happened since the last test, perhaps with our half-assed contract labor crew screwing up the wiring like they screwed up the plumbing (shower rods mounted upside down, tub stoppers that come off in your hand, no venting on sinks...we're still figuring out what they fucked up on).

[cbinnc]

FYI, I know for Hilton properties, even if you remove the guest's email address, it can still send surveys if the reservation was originally made with an email address in there. We had a realllly horrible family reunion on weekend that we just knew would kill us on our surveys (even though we kissed their ass and bent over backwards for them). So we took out all their email addresses before we checked them out. Wouldn't you know it, about 5 of them still got surveys and they killed us on them.