bmrisko

I am in the middle of a 46 night stay at a Homewood and was awakened at 1:30 am due to a property wide fire alarm. 15 minutes later the fire department gave the all clear, but no one can get the sirens turned off on our floor including the one in our room. They are shut off everywhere else. The sirens have been going off for 3.5 hours now and I am beyond the point of trying to get any sleep now as I have to be at work in 2 hours. First of all would you press for compensation and if so, with corporate or the local property? I am not paying for the stay so I'm definitely not after a monetary refund. I understand things can happen and I try to roll with the punches, but this is beyond ridiculous.

Doc Savage

Since you have such a long stay, I'd push for at least enough points for a free night. The local should handle this. In the face of a 46 night stay, that's small change.

Too bad you didn't get a different room 3.5 hours ago to at least sleep in, not necessarily move all your stuff.

bmrisko

I misspoke, it was 2.5 hours ago. The thought to ask for a temporary room change crossed my mind but it was one of those situations where I sat in bed for awhile with my headphones on and figured by the time I walked down to the front desk it would have stopped, but it hasn't. At this point it isn't worth it. Also for some reason that I can't explain, my wife has managed to fall back asleep and I don't want to wake her.

Doc Savage

It's actually been shown that lying quietly even if you can't sleep is somewhat restorative. Maybe pump some good tunes over your headphones and close your eyes for a while, at least.

bmrisko

I managed to put some relaxing tunes on and let myself lie there for another hour and the fire alarm finally went off at 5am when my wife's alarm went off. After I walked my wife out to her car, I stopped by the front desk and the manager was there with the fire suppression folks. Apparently a duct sensor had gone bad on our floor and they were having trouble overriding it. The manager offered me compensation without me even asking, so as of now I'm happy with the proposed resolution. Everyone was very apologetic, just not a fun way to spend the evening.

EDIT: Alarm just started going off again...

eajusa

If it is as loud as the one at the DoubleTree Boston at Bayside then you would be deaf by now (headphones or not). Last stay there, false alarm went off at midnight, woke me up in a delirium. Ear piercing and I already have tinnitus, so run out to entrance holding ears. At least I wasn't naked.

bmrisko

Luckily we had a 2-room suite and the alarm was in the living room. After we shut the door, it muted the alarm some to minimize the ear piercing, but still it wasn't enough.

bricksoft

This is a serious safety issue. You should not have been allowed back in your room/hotel while the alarm was still ringing.

How do you know if the alarm is ringing because it is broken or because there is a fire? Especially when this happens.....

emilio911

If the fire alarm was not properly muted by the fire department, I suggest that you call them back so that they mute it. They are the only ones who have the right to mute an alarm.

Bowgie

Bricksoft knows something about safety code. Not safe to re-enter with an alarm sounding regardless of whether there is an actual fire. This is so serious a violation, that Hilton corporate needs to have a discussion with the franchise about whether they can continue to operate under the Hilton banner.

Wonder why the OP hasn't named the particular Homewood?

Tedgrrrr

I don't think that is correct? I've been at a couple hotels where the fire alarm has gone off, and we were told NOT to evacuate. including at the Fairmont in Vancouver where the alarm went off for a good 30 minutes and a number of firetrucks came. There was a voice over some sort of speaker in each room saying that we could stay in the hotel until further notice.

You may be thinking about high schools

bmrisko

I haven't named them b/c at this point I don't think it is relevant. As I stated, the fire department was on site and muted the sirens, but for some reason they couldn't get the top floor muted, so the fire suppression folks were called out to investigate if/what sensor was faulty. We were given the all clear to re-enter by the FD, so I would guess they are equally at fault with the hotel for allowing us to re-enter with a siren still sounding. Yes, if a real fire had actually occurred while our alarm was still sounding erroneously, it could have been very bad, but at that point I was more concerned with trying to get some quiet and rest and if I truly felt unsafe, rather than just annoyed, I wouldn't have re-entered the property. Also, I guess I assumed if there was a real fire, someone would have called our room or run down the hallway on our floor as the manager and numerous other folks were on-site trying to address the problem throughout the early morning.

I may still contact Hilton after we check out, even though we have already been promised a free night voucher, but I don't want to rock the boat while I'm still checked in. Also, we are basically moved in here at the moment with a lot of personal possessions from our home, so it is not worth moving hotels during our stay as everything else has been wonderful and it would be a major hassle.

dliesse

Interestingly enough, it was at a Homewood many years ago that my friend and I just about had to pull the alarm and call the fire department ourselves. We were having breakfast when smoke started billowing from behind a cabinet -- the waffle maker cord had shorted and caught fire. We pointed it out to the staff who stood around like goobers saying things like, "maybe we should call the fire department." Well, duh! Since we were on our way to a football game, anyway, we hustled back to our room to get our stuff while the Keystone Kops figured out what to do. The alarms finally went off as we got to our floor, and even then the housekeeping staff completely ignored them. You can bet Corporate got a letter about this episode!

RogerD408

Yes, please do inform corporate. Basic training is missing here. Nobody thought of grabbing a fire extinguisher? Did they just stand around waiting for the fire department to show up? If they did, get out of there NOW! I would not trust them with my safety another minute. Staff should be fully trained on how to use the safety equipment. Laws call for it to be available but nothing about trained staff to use it.