SJC1K

I stayed at a Hyatt Regency property last night. My own schedule meant that I was only going to sleep from 1:15 a.m. until 6:45 a.m., but at 6:15 a.m. the smoke detector in my room started chirping loudly every 30 seconds or so. After I figured out that it was the smoke detector, I pulled the battery but it kept chirping. I called the front desk and they sent someone up to replace the battery in about 10 minutes, but my last half hour of sleep was lost.

Would you ask for compensation? If so, what would you ask for? Half an hour of sleep isn't much, but I was counting on it to be fully functional today. A hotel guest expects to be able to sleep, and unlike noise from other guests or fire alarms, this is 100% within the control of the hotel. If you change the battery regularly, this will never happen.

gooseman13

Personally, I wouldn't ask for compensation, but I would drop a note to the GM mentioning the inconvenience that you experienced. Points aren't going to make up for the missed sleep. However, as a GM I certainly might look at your feedback and say, we didn't meet our own standards, inconvenienced a guest, and should made a goodwill gesture to recognize it.
And if they don't offer anything, well, that can help guide your decision about staying at that hotel in the future.

notquiteaff

2000 points would seem reasonable (though I wouldn’t explicitly ask for it). The real inconvenience for me would be having to call the front desk and having to deal with someone coming to my room while I am trying to get ready for work (or whatever the plan was). And of course it could have happened two hours earlier.

They should indeed proactively change those batteries before they fail in the middle of the night.

antonius66

At the PH Park city, the fire alarm kept going off in my room during the middle of the night randomly. Happened 3 times. They moved me to another room at like 3am and comped that night. It certainly wasn't just a smoke alarm but for reference. I thought what they did was fair.

craz

You guys got to be kidding me. 1stly Id rather have a smoke alarm go off due to malfunction, then for it to malfunction when it should have gone off and didnt

When it comes to issues for compensation, my $1 rule is Did the hotel have control of the situation and did it happen due to negligence on their part and how did they do to fix the problem. Here I just dont see that hotel was at fault unless the OP. knows that hotel knew there was a problem with the alarm.

Also once notified they were very prompt in fixing it

This is just IMO a case of bad luck and I wouldnt ask for anything

Exiled in Express

I experienced a full blown false fire alarm and evacuation under another hotel flag. The hotel made up for it by comping breakfast for all guests, as you were already getting that via status whatever free breakfast would be worth seems appropriate.

SJC1K

The hotel did have control of the situation. I change my smoke detector batteries twice a year so that they never start beeping. If the hotel's practice is not to change the batteries until they fail, it's very likely that they'll fail when a guest is in the room.

gooseman13

A smoke alarm going off due to malfunction doesn't reduce the chance of it not malfunctioning when needed.

Additionally, it didn't go off due to malfunction, it went off as designed because the battery was low. Smoke alarm batteries have a general level of predictability. A hotel absolutely can schedule regular battery changes so that the alarm doesn't go off randomly at 6am.

I agree with you, response was good, and should be considered as a mitigator.

antonius66

Minor issue but preventable. A quality hotel would proactively do something but not much. Maybe send up a bottle of wine or add some points. People white knighting the hotel seem to forget, you pay a premium to stay in a hotel. It isn't charity. That payment comes with reasonable expectations. This not happening is a one of them. So yeah, I expect a stay to be without issues like disturbing me in the middle of the night because you didn't maintain and service the safety equipment properly. OP didn't say they wanted a free night but acting like unless the hotel burglarized your belongings, nothing else is worth anything is absurd.

craz

Wrong, do you know for a fact that they didnt change the batteries?! Ive had mine run out before 6 months, which might (not saying its what happened) happened in your case as well. If you knew for a FACT that the hotel didnt change the batteries in heh past 6 months then Id agree with you!

Ive also had my watch battery changed only for 2 weeks later for it to stop, brought it back and they replaced the battery, no damage done. in your mind, otherwise you would have spoken to the hotel about it and not asked here. But you

Trust me Ive gone to the mat with many a hotel over the decades but its when I knew they Messed up and it was 100% their fault. W/o knowing when exactly was the last time they changed the batteries, I cant blame them. Then again it didnt happen in the middle of your sleep but 30 mins before you wanted to get up and you want the World as compensation, it doesnt matter that the hotel didnt know that ,

Sorry I cant but feel its not the 30 mins of lost sleep but the chance to ca$h in that is #1, and instead of low balling an offer to the hotel you came on here to see what we thought was the max you could pull out of the hotel. I dont believe I ever did that , when I wanted to be compensated I told the hotel what I felt was fair and it wasnt based on how much did I think I could get out of them, but rather by what I felt would make me whole. And thats why I wouldnt have asked for anything for a 30 min loss of sleep, especially if I had control of when I would hit the sack

craz

Yea but lets say the batteries are 100% dead, then it would never go off, is what I was referring to, or the batteries are 100% Live but something inside the alarm was damaged somehow so it wouldnt go off, eg it was painted over and paint got in and shorted it (if thats possible) Point is under both of those Id fault for Hotel for not properly taking care of it and that would come out after the FD inspects the hotel as is done many times after a fire and the FD says there were smoke detectors but they were not in working order.

Cara332

I stayed at a Hyatt Regency this past Friday night and woke up to the hotel alarm clock going off at 6am. We hit the snooze once and 10 minutes later when it went off again I had to turn on the lights to figure out how to shut it off. A big nuisance that I noted in the survey and the manager replied apologizing. I don’t know what kind of person still uses the alarm clock in a hotel, but it seems they do it to stick it to the next guest.

EuropeanPete

Every Hilton room in the whole world has a special clock on the bedside table which is designed to always be on the wrong time but to nonetheless have an alarm set to go off at 4am every morning.

craz

." This not happening is a one of them. So yeah, I expect a stay to be without issues like disturbing me in the middle of the night because you didn't maintain and service the safety equipment properly" It didnt happen to the OP in the middle of the night, but as they said 30 mins before they wanted to get up, I would agree with you had it had it happened hours before one wanted to get up.

mglvrug