A pub with three letting rooms is judged as sleeping accommodation, not as a pub. That changes the alarm, the doors and the escape route, and it is where most inspections find their problems.
A B&B, guesthouse or pub with letting rooms is judged as sleeping accommodation under the Fire Safety Order, so its assessment has to show how guests asleep upstairs are warned and can get out: the alarm grade, the fire doors and the escape route from the rooms. Whoever runs the premises is the responsible person, and the assessment must be recorded in full.
The Fire Safety Order treats sleeping risk as the serious end of the scale, and Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service prioritises it in its audit programme. A guest asleep on the first floor of an inn has a kitchen below them, a bar full of people who will leave by the front door without a thought for upstairs, and a staircase that may be the only way down. The assessment has to look at that building at 2am, not at lunchtime.
It applies to bed and breakfasts, guesthouses, inns and pubs with letting rooms, restaurants with rooms, and farmhouse B&Bs — anywhere paying guests sleep, however few.
Does each room reach a place of safety without passing through the bar or kitchen? Is the stair protected? Is there a second way out, and if not, what compensates for it?
Small premises with a handful of rooms often get away with a Grade D interlinked system; more rooms, more floors or a commercial kitchen below push towards a panel system. We say which, and why. See alarm grades.
Extract, appliances, whether it sits on the escape route, and what separates it from the stair. Commercial kitchen fires are the classic cause of a hotel evacuation.
Bedroom doors, the door at the top of the stair, the kitchen door. Whether they are fire doors, whether they close, whether they are wedged. See fire doors.
Guests do not know the building. Escape routes need to be visible when the power is off and the corridor is full of smoke.
Who checks the alarm, who does the fire drill, what the guest information card says, and what the night arrangement is when the owner lives off-site.
There is no room-count threshold in the law — one paying guest is enough. But the guidance does step up with size and layout. A B&B with two rooms on one floor, the owner sleeping on the premises and a straightforward stair is at the simple end and the assessment says so. An inn with eight rooms over three floors, a commercial kitchen and a function room is a different document with a different alarm specification. We write to the building in front of us, not to a template.
One. The bar and restaurant are non-domestic premises under the Fire Safety Order in their own right, and the rooms are sleeping accommodation on top. A single assessment covers the whole building, with the sleeping risk driving the priorities. If you also run a beer cellar with CO2 cylinders or a kitchen on bottled LPG, we note the DSEAR angle and can deal with it in the same visit.
Coaching inns in Narberth and Haverfordwest, seafront guesthouses in Tenby and Saundersfoot, harbour pubs in Fishguard and St Davids, farmhouse B&Bs everywhere in between. Listed buildings are common and change what can be done to doors and stairs; we have assessed plenty.
Related: Pubs, restaurants and hotels · Holiday lets · Annual reviews
Yes. Any premises where paying guests sleep is in scope of the Fire Safety Order, and since October 2023 the assessment must be written down in full whatever the size. A two-room B&B is a short, inexpensive job.
It depends on the number of rooms, floors and what is below the bedrooms. Small, simple premises often meet the standard with an interlinked Grade D system; larger or more complex ones need a panel. The assessment states which and why, so you are not oversold.
Usually, with care. Listed status does not remove the fire safety duty, but it does shape the solutions. Upgrading existing doors, adding closers and intumescent strips, or compensating with detection are all routes we have used in Pembrokeshire's older inns.
Sleeping accommodation is a priority for Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service's audit programme, so yes, it is one of the premises types most likely to be visited. Having the assessment and the evidence behind it ready is the whole point.
Tell us the building and we will give you a fixed price on the phone. Most assessments are booked within the week.