Gastnutzer
5. Juni 2024
I lodged at the Altoona Comfort Suites Friday, May 31, 2004. On Saturday, June 1, 2024 my wife and our 17 year old son joined me. We reserved an additional room for Ben, and so the three of us lodged in 2 rooms, #309 and #311, at the Altoona Comfort Suites Saturday, June 1, 2024. At approximately 8:15 pm Saturday evening a power outage occurred, disabling the lights and air conditioning. My wife, our son, and I decided to walk the stairway down to the lobby. No emergency lights in the stairwell! Pitch-black on the 2nd and 3rd floor stairs. We stepped very carefully and found the railing, following it to the lobby. The 1st floor lobby egress door was lit with a very small light, but this did not light the area beyond the immediate 1st floor door opening. What if the building required evacuation during a power outage, and guests lodged on the upper floors were forced to navigate the steps in the total blackness, especially guests with mobility issues, or someone with small children or an infant in arms? I highly recommend that Altoona Comfort Suites immediately install emergency lighting on the 2nd and 3rd landings in both stairwells, and that the emergency lights be tested monthly. When we entered the lobby, I expected the Manager on Duty to be studying the building’s Continuity of Operations (COOP) binder, open to the tab ‘Power Outage’. She was not. Frankly, I doubt if the Altoona Comfort Suites has developed a COOP. I highly recommend that the Altoona Comfort Suites develop a COOP, memorialize in writing the instructions in a binder readily available to all personnel, and that the binder be updated at a minimum quarterly or ad hoc as necessary. I also recommend that all personnel be thoroughly trained in emergency guest safety and property security. Clearly from the events my family and I experienced last Saturday evening, guest security and safety are the lowest priority. I asked the Manager on Duty if she had contacted the power company regarding the outage. She stated she did not know who to contact or how to contact them. My wife guided the Manager on Duty step by step on the Manager on Duty’s cellphone how to search and locate the power company providing electrical service. The Manager on Duty expressed with great concern that her manager was not answering her phone, and that the Manager on Duty was growing exceeding anxious, and I could see she was experiencing ‘management paralysis’. I asked her if she had a strong flashlight with which she could walk both stairwells and check for any problems, and that I was quite willing to assist her. I asked her if she had rapped on the hall door of the elevator on each floor, determining if a guest was trapped in the elevator car. At that point the Manager on Duty ran outside and stood in the parking lot, lit a cigarette, and refused to re-enter the building. My wife, our son, and I carefully climbed the pitch-black stairwell to the 3rd floor and our rooms. The rooms had warmed to the p
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