Fire compensation
May 22, 2017, 11:21 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Jun 2016
Posts: 5
Fire compensation
I was at a hotel where I used 37,000 points. A guest caught some food on fire in the middle of the night. The alarm went off and just as we were ready to leave the room it stopped. I called the front desk and he said everything was fine we didn't need to evacuate. Get back into bed and the alarm goes off again. We leave the room and can smell the smoke. The hallway has visible smoke and the smell is awful and there are firefighters up there.
We go downstairs and the the front desk clerk says everyone on our floor must stay downstairs. There was no way to open any windows and the alarm will continue to go off until the smoke clears on it's own. This went on for another 30 minutes or so. Then the other floors are clear to go back to their rooms, but we had to wait for an all clear from the fire department for the smoke to dissipate on our floor. Probably another 30 minutes and we were told to go back to our rooms. Which smelled terrible.
This whole time the front desk clerk was trying to get ahold of the GM and was unable to. Other people on other floors complained and were told they would be compensated. My issue is because of the hotel design, my floor had to stay downstairs while they hoped the smoke would filter down through the stairwell and out the door they had open to the outside on the first floor. This was the only thing they could do.
The GM sent an email today offering 1,000 points back as a goodwill gesture. I think that is low, but what do you think?
We go downstairs and the the front desk clerk says everyone on our floor must stay downstairs. There was no way to open any windows and the alarm will continue to go off until the smoke clears on it's own. This went on for another 30 minutes or so. Then the other floors are clear to go back to their rooms, but we had to wait for an all clear from the fire department for the smoke to dissipate on our floor. Probably another 30 minutes and we were told to go back to our rooms. Which smelled terrible.
This whole time the front desk clerk was trying to get ahold of the GM and was unable to. Other people on other floors complained and were told they would be compensated. My issue is because of the hotel design, my floor had to stay downstairs while they hoped the smoke would filter down through the stairwell and out the door they had open to the outside on the first floor. This was the only thing they could do.
The GM sent an email today offering 1,000 points back as a goodwill gesture. I think that is low, but what do you think?
May 22, 2017, 11:48 am
#2
Moderator: Hilton Honors forums
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Marietta, Georgia, United States
Posts: 24,997
We recently took a trip to Michigan and Ohio, and stayed 2 nights at the Embassy Suites at DTW. We had several problems with the room - major one was that the TV in the living room was terrible - almost no picture, disappeared constantly into those pixels. We called, and they came and said "we need to replace the chip". Fine, they did that, didn't fix the problem. They came and tried something else. That didn't work. Finally, calling for the 3rd time, they said "we'll just switch out the tv"...that, obviously, worked. At no time did we get upset, my husband was very polite and patient (we also had 2 other minor problems with the room - the closet door fell off its hinges, my husband fixed that himself, and the phone was inoperable, took the guy 10 seconds to fix).
The front desk called after the tv was replaced to see if everything was ok. We said yes. She said "you guys have been so patient, we'd like to give you a discount off your room rate or some points". We said "points please", thinking it would be, what? 500? 1000? (really, it was not THAT big a deal, just annoying since we like to watch different shows).
Long story short (too late for that?
) she says "we'll credit 20,000 to your account"...after falling off the chair, and thanking her for her generosity, we wondered if they would ever actually show up - now, 2 weeks later, they did!
The front desk called after the tv was replaced to see if everything was ok. We said yes. She said "you guys have been so patient, we'd like to give you a discount off your room rate or some points". We said "points please", thinking it would be, what? 500? 1000? (really, it was not THAT big a deal, just annoying since we like to watch different shows).
Long story short (too late for that?
) she says "we'll credit 20,000 to your account"...after falling off the chair, and thanking her for her generosity, we wondered if they would ever actually show up - now, 2 weeks later, they did!
May 22, 2017, 12:04 pm
#4
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: Gloucestershire
Programs: BA Gold (ex-GGL, maybe future Silver), Hilton Diamond
Posts: 6,199
The difference is that the hotel with the fire met its service standards; if the property was evacuated because the hotel's hardware started the fire, or an employee did something stupid, then a full refund would be in order, but the 1k goodwill gesture is because the hotel has no obligation or ability to screen its guests and filter out the ones who don't know you don't put oil in the toaster.
May 22, 2017, 12:08 pm
#5
Join Date: Feb 2014
Posts: 921
It's low...so make a phone call to Hilton's 800 number and explain what you actually want. Don't leave it open ended. If you want your night refunded, say you want your night refunded. Don't say "I think 1,000 points is too low, what will you give me instead?"
As far as the incident goes, people put too much faith in lowly paid front desk and service staff people. All the time, people interviewed on thee news say "There was so much confusion". Back in Kindergarten or even Pre-School, they teach you to leave in an orderly fashion when a fire alarm goes off. Feel the door; look for the smoke, etc. These are very, very basic life lessons that people forget about. The front desk clerk on the first floor has no idea what's going on upstairs, except she's probably getting a bunch of phone calls.
As far as the incident goes, people put too much faith in lowly paid front desk and service staff people. All the time, people interviewed on thee news say "There was so much confusion". Back in Kindergarten or even Pre-School, they teach you to leave in an orderly fashion when a fire alarm goes off. Feel the door; look for the smoke, etc. These are very, very basic life lessons that people forget about. The front desk clerk on the first floor has no idea what's going on upstairs, except she's probably getting a bunch of phone calls.
May 22, 2017, 12:23 pm
#6
Original Poster
Join Date: Jun 2016
Posts: 5
You are right about grade school fire safety. It was the fact that the alarm stopped going off that caused us to call the front desk. We have had a fire alarms go off when we are at a hotel many times. (Seriously we have the worst luck with fire alarms and the hotels losing power.). All the other times were a child pulling the alarm, a fog machine at a wedding reception, the sensor went out...all false alarms. I have never asked for anything back in those cases, but we were unable to be in the room this time and the smell was bad when we got back.
I was conflicted due to the fact that the hotel didn't cause it, but I think their lack of a plan caused it to go on for longer than it should have.
I will call the number.
I was conflicted due to the fact that the hotel didn't cause it, but I think their lack of a plan caused it to go on for longer than it should have.
I will call the number.
May 22, 2017, 12:35 pm
#7
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: UK
Programs: LH lifetime Sen; HH lifetime diamond; flying blue silver
Posts: 285
I had an instance a year ago where the hotel was evacuated at 4 am. I was told it was burnt toast in the kitchen. It never occurred to me to ask for compensation. I don't want an employee to dither whether to press the fire alarm in case the hotel has to pay compensation with points.
May 22, 2017, 1:22 pm
#8
Join Date: May 2009
Location: EUG
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Posts: 8,220
May 22, 2017, 2:01 pm
#10
Join Date: May 2009
Location: EUG
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Posts: 8,220
The difference is that the hotel with the fire met its service standards; if the property was evacuated because the hotel's hardware started the fire, or an employee did something stupid, then a full refund would be in order, but the 1k goodwill gesture is because the hotel has no obligation or ability to screen its guests and filter out the ones who don't know you don't put oil in the toaster.
May 22, 2017, 4:03 pm
#11
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Join Date: Nov 1999
Posts: 24,153
If you ordered something to eat in a restaurant and it didnt come as ordered would you expect them to leave it or bring you what you ordered and then to comp the whole meal?
May 22, 2017, 4:30 pm
#12
Join Date: May 2009
Location: EUG
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Ive asked (at times demanded compensation for things) but thats when things went south due to the hotels doing. In this case I wouldnt expect even 1k in pts and probably would have told them thanks but no thanks.
If you ordered something to eat in a restaurant and it didnt come as ordered would you expect them to leave it or bring you what you ordered and then to comp the whole meal?
If you ordered something to eat in a restaurant and it didnt come as ordered would you expect them to leave it or bring you what you ordered and then to comp the whole meal?
This is a different case. He did not have use of his room (to sleep) for a long time in the middle of the night. I think that is worthy of fair compensation.
May 22, 2017, 5:55 pm
#13
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May 22, 2017, 7:47 pm
#14
Join Date: May 2005
Posts: 4,871
May 22, 2017, 8:47 pm
#15
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Join Date: Nov 1999
Posts: 24,153
2- yea I understand they lost time in the room, but to me its no different then someone running a red light and smashing into my rental car and thusly my plans for that night are ruined, Avis (or whomever ) didnt cause the accident should I be compensated by having 1 day not be charged since I didnt get full use of the car as planned?
B- had it been false alarms due to the hotels system being faulty or maybe even a fire that was the hotels fault I would agree with you, but when its all due to a 3rd party I wont fault the hotel since it wasnt under their control
there are a bunch of sites where it seems most folks are keen to not be made whole be it an airline,hotel or car rental, but to Profit off things and walk away having a smile on their face as they fleeced the other party. It wouldnt surprise me if they walk around with a vile of freshly dead insects to spread around.