Why You Should Think Twice About Booking A Hotel Room On A High Floor

Part of planning a trip anywhere on the map often includes picking a preferred hotel to stay at while you're in town. According to Zippia, travelers these days have around 187,000 hotel options to pick from globally. Some of the factors that first come to mind when picking a hotel tend to revolve around fun amenities, great views, and comfortable furnishings. Something that often gets overlooked, but shouldn't in the name of safety, is what floor you end up on.

Booking a hotel room on a higher floor can be extra appealing to travelers for many reasons. A room on a high floor can certainly provide an exceptional view compared to lower levels. It can also often provide a sense of enhanced privacy and can come with the appealing advantage of less foot traffic overhead.

It's important to recognize that a hotel room located on a high floor can also be a dangerous choice for guests. It comes with some inherent risk factors included, particularly in the event of a fire. The reality of a hotel stay is that most guests simply don't consider taking time to map out their fire escape plan upon arrival when they stay on a high floor. In the event of an emergency, they unfortunately find themselves stories above the ground in unfamiliar terrain, unsure of where to head next or what might be blocking their escape path.

The risks associated with a fire emergency, when you find yourself on a high floor of a hotel, aren't just limited to not knowing the best escape route. It also comes down to questions of rescue logistics. In most cases, fire department ladders simply aren't designed to reach above the fourth story of a building. Because elevators are designed to automatically stop functioning when there's a fire emergency, this could make rescue impossible from a room on a high floor in the worst-case scenario.

Relying on elevators can also pose problems and inconveniences for those staying on high floors in hotels well beyond fire emergencies. If you're in town on a strict schedule, you'll want to consider the fact that the higher up you stay, the longer you're going to have to wait for the elevator every single time you want to leave the premises. If it's a busy hotel, it doesn't bode well for your overall time efficiency standards.

It's also not unheard of for elevators to break down once in a while in hotels. If you've booked a room on a high floor and are suddenly faced with having to trek up and down flights of stairs to reach the lobby, it could put a significant damper on the experience. Throw in having to haul all of that luggage you packed and you'll find it's a test of cardio strength you likely weren't ever planning on including in your itinerary.

It's unpleasant to consider, but important to recognize that when you book a hotel room on a high floor, it can be more difficult to protect yourself if it comes under attack. Situations of this type aren't everyday occurrences, but they do happen. Hospitality Lawyer cites incidents of hotel violence occurring in Manila, Mali, Burkina Faso, and the Ivory Coast in recent years. 

The key to surviving these incidents is often the ability to exit the hotel as quickly as possible. Having to navigate too many stairwells or elevators can put you at greater risk when you're moving from a high floor down toward the lobby. In some cases, surviving might mean exiting through hotel windows. On high floors, this simply isn't a possibility as it would be in lower-level rooms.

Taking all of these risk factors into consideration makes it well worth your while to request a room on a specific floor of the hotel if you can. Rooms between the second and fourth floors are typically considered the safest. They make an escape possible in the event of fire or attack and make coming and going from the hotel smoother as well. All around, lower-level hotel rooms will likely give you peace of mind when it comes to the safety and efficiency that you deserve during your stay.