The Hotel and Motel Fire Safety Act of 1990 (PL101-391) was passed into law by Congress to save lives and protect property by promoting fire and life safety in hotels, motels and other places of public accommodation. The law mandates that federal employees on travel must stay in public accommodations that adhere to the life safety requirements in the legislation guidelines. PL101-391 also states that federally funded meetings and conferences cannot be held in properties that do not comply with the law. PL101-391 is applicable to all places of public accommodation, and requires that such properties are equipped with:

• hard-wired, single-station smoke detectors in each guestroom in accordance with the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) standard 72;
• an automatic sprinkler system, with a sprinkler head in each guest room in compliance with NFPA standards 13 or 13R. Properties three stories or lower in height are exempt from the sprinkler requirement.

USFA has been charged with carrying out FEMA's responsibilities with respect to the Hotel and Motel Fire Safety Act of 1990. In addition to compiling, maintaining and publishing the National Master List, USFA is also responsible for taking steps to encourage states to promote the use of automatic sprinkler systems and automatic smoke detection systems.

These requirements are being followed by many non-federal and private organizations in order to reduce the risks.

Updated August 27, 2005

Hotels could be approved by FEMA. Hotels please click on the following link:

http://www.usfa.fema.gov/applications/hotel/online_registration.cfm

Return to RFP Page