Fire risk assessments for hotels and hospitality from £349

Everything that makes evacuation predictable in a workplace is missing in a hotel. Guests do not know the layout, have not seen a fire notice, may have been drinking, may not speak English, and are asleep behind a closed door when the alarm sounds. That is why sleeping accommodation attracts more enforcement attention than almost any other premises type, and why the assessment must focus on the two things that buy time: a bedroom door that holds fire for thirty minutes, and a protected corridor that stays usable long enough for everyone to reach a stair.

Bedroom door condition is the finding we raise most often in hotels. Doors get damaged by luggage and trolleys, intumescent strips get painted over, self-closers are adjusted to stop slamming and no longer latch, and refurbishment introduces new locks and viewers that break certification. We inspect a meaningful sample rather than a token one, record each door by number, and photograph defects so maintenance can act without a second survey. Corridor protection is checked at the same time: ceiling voids, service penetrations, cupboards opening into escape routes and any furniture or artwork adding fire load.

Sleeping accommodation normally requires an L1 or L2 system to BS 5839-1 depending on the building and the strategy, with detection in bedrooms as well as escape routes. We check the installed category against what is actually needed, look at whether zoning lets night staff identify the origin quickly, and check the maintenance and weekly test records. In smaller guest houses we frequently find a system installed at the right category originally but degraded by years of head replacements and additions that no longer match any design document.

Most hotel fires start below the bedrooms. Commercial kitchen extract ducting is the classic: grease accumulation in a duct that runs through the building, often with cleaning records that cover the canopy but not the ductwork above it. We assess deep-clean frequency and evidence, suppression provision over fryers and ranges, gas isolation and interlock, cellar risks including gas cylinders and dispense systems, and the fire separation between all of that and the accommodation above. Where we find something serious, you get told on the day rather than in a report a week later.

The assessment has to establish what actually happens at night: how many staff are on, whether they are trained to investigate an alarm, how long they have before evacuation begins, and how guests with mobility needs are identified at check-in. We also check guest-facing information — the notice behind the door, the check-in briefing, and whether staff know how to assist someone who cannot use stairs. Serviced apartments and aparthotels with no staff on site at night need a different approach again, and we set out what that looks like.

Unstaffed serviced accommodation is a growing category and a genuinely awkward one, because it looks residential but functions as sleeping accommodation for people who have never been in the building before. Simultaneous evacuation is almost always the right strategy, which puts weight on the alarm system, on unambiguous signage, and on the information given at digital check-in. Where these units sit within a residential block, the assessment also has to address the interface with the block's own stay-put strategy — a conflict that catches out a lot of operators.

A small guest house or boutique property up to around 15 rooms is typically £349 to £549. Mid-size hotels of 15 to 60 rooms are usually £549 to £999, and larger properties with conference space, multiple kitchens and back-of-house plant are quoted on floor area and complexity. Groups and management companies get programme pricing across the estate. Surveys can run out of hours at no extra cost where that suits your occupancy.