Refund for Disturbed Night Due to Faulty Fire Alarm?

StingyYates

Good Evening, Fellow Fourmites

During my recent hotel stay, the fire alarm went off repeatedly throughout the night, making it impossible for me to get any sleep. As someone with autism, I find loud noises, especially alarms, particularly distressing, so this experience was incredibly overwhelming. The frequent interruptions caused significant anxiety and frustration, and I feel it’s understandable that being woken up multiple times by such a loud alarm would be upsetting for anyone. Given the circumstances, do you think I would be eligible for a refund? 

I have sent the hotel an email but has anyone had a similar experience, and if so, how did the hotel handle it? Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance!

Aylesbury_Duck

I would say you aren't entitled to a full refund, unless the hotel has one of those good night guarantee schemes and this qualifies, because you still had some benefit from staying.

I'd start by asking if they would do anything.  A polite request might elicit an offer of a discounted stay, credit, a bottle of wine, a free breakfast, etc.

Grumpy_chap

StingyYates said:

Good Evening, Fellow Fourmites

During my recent hotel stay, the fire alarm went off repeatedly throughout the night, making it impossible for me to get any sleep. As someone with autism, I find loud noises, especially alarms, particularly distressing, so this experience was incredibly overwhelming. The frequent interruptions caused significant anxiety and frustration, and I feel it’s understandable that being woken up multiple times by such a loud alarm would be upsetting for anyone. Given the circumstances, do you think I would be eligible for a refund? 

I have sent the hotel an email but has anyone had a similar experience, and if so, how did the hotel handle it? Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance!

This is a tricky one.  It is often commented that with services such as hotel stays, if you chose to stay it can't have been that bad.  That would be in the context of a dirty room, or some amenity missing that the room description led the individual to expect but was not there - maybe expecting bath plus separate shower but there was only a shower.

Obviously, the case of a faulty fire alarm overnight is not something you can see and make a decision on.  You have, by the time the fault becomes apparent, accepted the room and moving to another venue would be more disruptive.

You have received the majority of the value of the hotel for that night so, I think, the complimentary token as Aylesbury Duck suggests, might be the best outcome to aim for.

photome

how many times  during the night did it go off? I have been in hotels where alarms have gone off but only once during the night and just accepted it but if it went off multiple times ( maybe more than 3 or 4)  I would be wanting a refund

Emmia

And was the alarm actually faulty, or were your fellow guests setting it off via smoking or otherwise deliberately? 

I stayed in a hotel a few years ago where some lads on a stag do decided to set the alarms off in their rooms - prompting 3 evacuations into the rain at 1am, 2.30am and 4am - they got thrown out on the third one. 

(Edit: on the third one, if the hotel hadn't thrown them out, I think their fellow guests might have expressed their thoughts, with the kind of action that follows a massively interrupted night of sleep)

I didn't get a refund or a free breakfast/good will measure as the incidents were not really in the control of the hotel.

XzavierWalnut

I once complained at a Premier Inn due to upstairs room making lots of noise and got a full refund including paid for extra breakfast.
In a similar situation I complained about the same thing at a Classic Lodges hotel, and the manager said to contact him next time we went to the hotel. We were given a free upgrade to a wedding suite. Unfortunately on one of the nights the same happened again, and I complained.
We were given a free upgrade to a wedding suite again.
It is always worth a complaint, but make sure it is directly to the manager.

born_again

StingyYates said:

Good Evening, Fellow Fourmites

During my recent hotel stay, the fire alarm went off repeatedly throughout the night, making it impossible for me to get any sleep. As someone with autism, I find loud noises, especially alarms, particularly distressing, so this experience was incredibly overwhelming. The frequent interruptions caused significant anxiety and frustration, and I feel it’s understandable that being woken up multiple times by such a loud alarm would be upsetting for anyone. Given the circumstances, do you think I would be eligible for a refund? 

I have sent the hotel an email but has anyone had a similar experience, and if so, how did the hotel handle it? Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance!

Did you raise it with the hotel before you left?

DullGreyGuy

Emmia said:

And was the alarm actually faulty, or were your fellow guests setting it off via smoking or otherwise deliberately? 

I stayed in a hotel a few years ago where some lads on a stag do decided to set the alarms off in their rooms - prompting 3 evacuations into the rain at 1am, 2.30am and 4am - they got thrown out on the third one. 

(Edit: on the third one, if the hotel hadn't thrown them out, I think their fellow guests might have expressed their thoughts, with the kind of action that follows a massively interrupted night of sleep)

I didn't get a refund or a free breakfast/good will measure as the incidents were not really in the control of the hotel.

Had similar, but it was a woman who was smoking in bed, dunno if they made her or she did it of her own but she was at the door of the hotel apologising to everyone as we filed back in... when it happened for a second time it looked like some wanted to to share their feelings in more than an angry glare 

I think they did do a free breakfast in the morning but had status with the hotel chain so already got a free breakfast anyway. 

ThumbRemote

I don't understand the line of thinking that says you should only get a partial refund because you obtained some benefit. 

A hotel room is (usually!) booked for the purposes of sleeping in. If that's not possible at all, or only possible to a very low quality, then you should get a full refund. 

To take it to extremes, you wouldn't expect a partial refund if your hotel room had no bed, because you had some benefit from the bathroom. You wouldn't get a 20% refund because your room had no roof but you got some benefit from the walls. 

Nor am I convinced that the hotel can just say it's not their fault. The contract is between the OP and the hotel, not anyone else. 

A hotel fire alarm is very loud, as it's meant to wake heavy sleepers. The adrenaline jolt from a single alarm would keep many people up for some time afterwards - especially if they had to evacuate too. Multiple times really is unacceptable. 

DullGreyGuy

ThumbRemote said:

Nor am I convinced that the hotel can just say it's not their fault. The contract is between the OP and the hotel, not anyone else. 

How do you know the OP booked directly?

Whilst the OP has said it was a "fault" and it was "multiple times" they have never been back to either say how they know it was a fault and if multiple times was 2 or 10 times. 

If it was because someone was smoking, or maliciously triggered a fire alarm point rather than it being a fault that moves it into a very different place. Similarly if it went off once at 9pm and once at 6am is very different to it going off every hour on the hour through the whole night. 

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

ThumbRemote said:

I don't understand the line of thinking that says you should only get a partial refund because you obtained some benefit. 

I think it depends, if we assume OP was using the hotel as a base camp for something like a concert then I'd expect a refund of the room rate (excluding anything obvious such as breakfast) however if OP booked an executive room with a separate room with sofa, etc perhaps there is an argument that they derived that benefit from the stay and the refund should be the difference in cost between the standard room and the executive.

It would also be interesting to know exactly what aspect of the contract something like this is in breach off, services must be carried out with due care and skill so if the alarm wasn't maintained there's probably a link there but you'd expect hotels to maintain their fire alarms systems (as if they didn't and someone died the owner could be maybe be looking at criminal charges).