Whether you are in the hotel business full time or you just rent your spare rooms out to strangers coming into town fro the Dave Matthews Band concert over the summer, fire prevention has got to be one fo the top things on your mind.
Fire alarm inspections serve as a litmus test for whether or not your place of lodging is safe for the people who decide to stay with you. Taking them seriously can save you a great deal of money and everyone a great deal of loss should a terribly unfortunate fire erupt and set your place aflame.
Fire alarm installation is not something that can be overlooked. First of all, it is against the law, but second and most importantly of all, fire alarm systems save lives on a staggeringly regular basis. When fire alarm inspections have been shown to indicate that the sprinkler systems were working properly during a fire, there has never been a case of more than two people dying in a fire. This is according to the National Fire Protection Association, or the NFPA.
Still, hotel and motel fires claim the lives of roughly 15 people every year and at least 150 people are injured during that span of time. If fire protection systems keep people alive and well, that must mean that hotel and motel facilities are not paying close enough attention to whether or not their systems are doing everything they are supposed to be doing when it comes to keeping their guests safe from fire hazards.
Of course, human life is all that you need to consider yourself with when you think about your fire protection system. At the same time, there is no getting around the fact of the matter that is property damage and loss of money. The big picture tells us that $76 million is lost every year as the result of fire damage. That is no small bit of scratch.
No one ever wants to be faced with the prospect of going completely out of business for something a traumatic and devastating as a fire, but when you have done everything you can to make sure that the place you are offering to people as a place to rest and lay their weary traveling heads, you want to be able to rest assured yourself that you have put all of the pieces in place to ensure that everyone is as safe as possible.
When you put a fire protection system in place that you know is top quality, you can then set your sites on the important matters at hand, like tending to the needs of your guests. Have fire alarm inspections on the regular and make sure that the fire department is a partner with you in your fire protection plans.
Most of the time, you will not find a motel or a hotel that highlights fire safety instructions the way they do dining facilities, the workout rooms, or the pool. They might be inclined to think this way because they do not want to overemphasize the negative possibilities of something like a fire happening while they have guests staying with them.
The thing is, though, the possibility of a fire is a real and genuine concern and should be a real and genuine concern for anyone who is staying somewhere away from home. If someone is staying at a strange place where they are not familiar with the fire safety procedures, they might not choose to stay at that location again if their stay is interrupted consistently by thoughts of a possible fire.
Always make sure you show every guest what the fire protocols are. Give every guest a detailed map of how they should exit from their rooms as well as how they should exit from the common places like the pool, the gym, or the dining areas. Make available to your guests the results of the fire alarm inspections so they can know that everything is up to date.
If you can do these things, you will be creating a space where your guests can feel comfortable and confident that their stay will be grand.
