I was at the Embassy Suites in Santa Ana last week and noticed that all the fire doors were marked with EXIT at floor level as well as the illuminated sign at ceiling level.

So some things are getting better in some places.

My dad was in a New Orleans hotel fire in the late 60's or early 70's. Got out fine, but lost almost everything.

He and I were staying in Toronto when the alarm went off. He was 80+ and had angina so we got dressed and exited (9 flights down) despite the voice system telling us to stay in our room while the cause of the alarm was being investigated. No fire.

Finally, the alarms went off when we were traveling with Dad on holiday. He was in the shower and didn't hear it but my 11 year old son notified his grandfather and ready to evacuate by the time I got from the front desk to his room (I was in the lobby when the alarm went off.) I praised him but then pointed out that waiting in the room was safe in this case (it was a ground floor motel room!) The poor kid was so used to high rise hotels he followed the safety drill automatically without thinking about his surroundings. (That one was a small fire in the kitchen.)

(Yes, we did fire drills at home when the kids were little - I ran a home day care and we'd have a drill at least once a year, including a drill that required them to find an alternate exit - I'd stand between them and the nearest door after triggering a smoke detector and scream "I'm the big fire!" as they came around the corner so they'd have to quickly rethink their exit plan.)