I'm not saying that the fire alarm was due to a malfunction, it does not matter what caused it. I was inconvenienced by the alarm and the delayed response by Marriott to end the situation. The hotel has taken responsibility for the matter, as they should. In the condo situation described described above, there was no central party that could easily take responsibility and/or provide compensation for the disturbance. If you really wanted to, you could try taking the stoner to court for some frivolous reason. In the US, we are obsessed with assigning responsibility and guilt in every situation (clearly a broad generalization, but just look at the proliferation of lawyers in this country). You can either complain about this facet of our society or learn to work with it. I choose to work within the system, and now I am 10k points richer (big wow!).

Also in response to Sprite, if you were to stay in my home, first of all you would not be paying. If the alarm went of while you were sleeping and you had to wait outside for 30 minutes, I would probably apologize sincerely and make you a nice breakfast. Pretty decent compensation for a free stay.