Earlier this week I had a quick overnight trip to Houston. For the most part it was routine–arrived late afternoon, went to an evening work dinner, came back to the hotel, washed my face, changed into my jammies, texted with the Home Warrior, turned on my white noise, and went to sleep.
Suddenly I was ripped out of a deep sleep by a hideous shrieking sound–the fire alarm. My heart was pounding but I did what I usually do when this has happened before, and tried to call the front desk. Since no one answered I figured the best thing to do was (unfortunately) head outside just in case.
I grabbed my phone and room key and headed out. Some people were rushing, but mostly it seemed people were leaving just to be safe, rather than out of fear. We all got out to the parking lot, and stood around in small groups or looking at our phones.
It wasn’t cold but it certainly wasn’t warm. As I looked around I could see that there were people in all sorts of stages of dress and undress. It was…..something all right. And made me SUPER glad I had on yoga pants and tee shirt, my typical sleeping clothes whenever I’m at a hotel. At home I may wear a nightgown but on the road…nope. Just in case, which turned out to be Tuesday night.
Luckily we were only outside a few minutes when hotel staff came to tell us it was not an emergency, just a malfunctioning alarm, and safe to head back inside. It took me a while to fall back asleep (which was not great for the following day but oh well) but overall not a huge deal. But whoa, will I forever be wearing clothes to sleep in hotels forever. Because in a real emergency you don’t want to have to worry about finding pants when you should be running to safety!
Readers, has the fire alarm ever gone off while you were staying in a hotel?
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Many years ago, I was on a winter work trip and in the shower when the fire alarm sounded in the hotel that morning. I quickly got as dry as possible, pulled on my work out pants and sweatshirt since they were out on the bed, wrapped my head in a towel and pulled on my boots and coat. I ran downstairs and out the door. Fortunately, it was a short time in the cold and when the hotel manager saw me, he made me come inside and stand in the lobby. I guess he knew it was a faulty alarm. From that day on, I always left my work out clothes on the bed and my coat out. Thankfully, it’s never happened again.
Yes!! And I’m going to take your advice on hotel sleep wear from now on! My experience was long ago, at an airport hotel in Houston. Not only did the fire alarm go off, but fire control water sprinklers in one room doused the man sleeping in his bed! All a technical problem, no emergency. But obviously I’ve never forgotten.
I’ve had it happen. My issue is when the room is too warm- then its hard to sleep in sleep pants and t-shirt. But in that case I leave my clothes from the day before on the foor of the bed (the side I am not sleeping on). My phone is always charging on the nightstand and I always pick a spot to leave my key card when I enter the room so I never forget it, or have to fumble for it if an alarm goes off.
The only time I had a fire alarm go off in a hotel was in DC and Debra Messing was in the elevator in a hotel robe with her signature red wavy hair. False alarm for that fire alarm too!
Yes. We stayed in the Grand Californian at Disneyland over Christmas week and the top of the Christmas tree caught on fire and burned the ceiling above it. The embers fell and melted spots on the carpet. This was at around 2 a.m. They evacuated us to California Adventure for the next 4 hours. I have always worn yoga pants since then.
Yes! On my wedding night, at the hotel where we were staying/hosting everyone! There was a comics convention going on at the hotel where we had booked the suite and the block of rooms. Someone at the convention pulled the fire alarm. It was after the reception was over, right after I had gotten out of my gown. So I got to stand on the driveway in the hotel, in my jammies, hair still in the updo, and hang out with all my relatives. Very awkward indeed!
Yes, happened to me at a Courtyard Inn when I was staying in Long Island, NY. Someone in the kitchen burned something which triggered the fire alarm. Everyone piled out of the hotel into the chilly weather and waited in the parking lot. After about 20 minutes we got the OK that we could go back to our rooms. The bad part was that this happened at around 4:30/5:00 am when we had a 6:00 am wake up call. It was a rough morning to say the least because no way could we fall back to sleep after that.