Too many hotels don't allow guests to directly dial 911 for emergency situations. Thousands of hotels were found to prevent emergency calls according to a survey conducted after a woman who was stabbed multiple times, died in a Texas motel because her daughter wasn't able to dial the emergency number.
American Hotel & Lodging Association performed the survey that showed that many hotels make guests dial '9' before they can call 911 or they have to go through some other system such as calling the front desk in order to be connected to emergency services, News.com.au reports.
Federal Communications Commission member Ajit Pai released the results of the survey on Monday after he had sought the information on hotel 911 calls.
According to the survey, roughly 45 percent of franchised hotels and motels and 32 percent of independent hotels allow guests to dial 911 directly. The survey found that there are about 53,000 hotels and motels in the United States.
"These statistics are alarming. They show that the telephone systems at tens of thousands of lodging properties across this country could fail Americans when it counts,'' said Pai. "My message to the hospitality industry has been straightforward: This is not acceptable.''
Pai is starting a new round of surveys with companies that sell phone systems to hotels and workplaces to see if they can be changed to allow dialers to reach 911 directly.
The original survey was done after a December 2013 incident in which Kari Hunt Dunn was stabbed to death in a motel room in Marshall, Texas. Dunn's 9-year-old daughter tried to call 911 four times from the hotel room, but it didn't work because she had to dial 9 first to reach an outside line. Following the stabbing, a petition demanding that Congress require hotels and motels to allow direct dialing of 911 earned 440,000 signatures.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
