The Sheraton Grand Hotel & Spa sits at Festival Square in central Edinburgh, facing Edinburgh Castle. The five-star hotel has 269 bedrooms, the One Square bar and restaurant, the One Spa with its rooftop hydropool, and a dedicated meetings and events complex with 14 function rooms, the largest of any hotel in the city.
SmartMist Fire installed water mist fire suppression throughout the Sheraton Grand. The team also installed dedicated sprinkler protection for the saunas within the hotel spa.
It is a different setting from the housing developments and student accommodation SmartMist usually works in, and it shows how far the same system carries: a building where hundreds of guests sleep each night, most of them in an unfamiliar place.
Project overview
- Building: Sheraton Grand Hotel & Spa, 1 Festival Square, Edinburgh, EH3 9SR
- Operator: Sheraton Grand Hotel & Spa, part of Marriott’s Sheraton brand
- Project type: Five-star hotel with 269 bedrooms, restaurant, spa and events complex
- SmartMist service: Water mist fire suppression installation and sprinkler installation for the spa saunas
- Sector: Hospitality, Edinburgh
Why suppression in a hotel
Automatic fire suppression is not a blanket requirement for every hotel in Scotland. The requirement depends on the building type, work type, warrant date and whether the building falls within the current scope of Standard 2.15. The non-domestic technical handbook also recognises that suppression can be installed for life safety, property protection or as a compensatory feature within a building’s fire safety design, and it recognises mist systems among the alternative suppression technologies available to designers.
The case for a hotel is easy to see. Guests are asleep at night in a building they do not know, spread across hundreds of rooms. An automatic system reacts to fire without anyone needing to raise the alarm first, and it gives the people in and around the room of origin more time to get out.
The installation itself had to respect what a hotel of this kind is:
- A building that operates around the clock, every day of the year
- A five-star finish where nothing in a guest room should look like plant
- Varied spaces, from bedrooms and corridors to a restaurant, spa and function rooms
- Clear handover information for the hotel’s engineering and operations teams
Why water mist
Water mist systems suppress fire with fine water droplets that control flames and reduce heat. As the NFPA notes, they achieve this with less water and smaller pipework than standard sprinkler systems.
In a hotel, both halves of that matter commercially as well as practically. Smaller pipework is easier to route through an existing building and its ceiling voids. And lower water flow limits the damage when a system activates. A conventional discharge that soaks a bedroom, the corridor and the rooms below does not just cost repairs, it takes bookable rooms out of service. Water mist reduces that exposure while doing its primary job of protecting the people inside.
The result
SmartMist Fire completed the water mist installation at the Sheraton Grand Hotel & Spa. The completed installation gave the hotel:
- Automatic fire suppression protecting sleeping guests across the bedrooms
- Dedicated sprinkler protection for the saunas within the spa
- A discreet finish in keeping with a five-star property
- An installation planned around a building that never closes
- Full handover documentation and aftercare support for the hotel’s teams
What operators can take from the Sheraton Grand
The strongest fire suppression decisions are made early. For hotels, the requirement depends on the building type, work type, warrant date and scope of the project, so operators should check the relevant technical handbook before making design decisions. The wider point still stands: automatic suppression can make the building safer for the people asleep inside it and more resilient as a business.
The project also completes a picture of where water mist fits. SmartMist installs across new build housing, residential conversions, student accommodation and now hospitality, and the same qualities carry through each: small pipework, a discreet finish and low water flow, with the 30-minute shut-off helping to limit unnecessary water discharge where it is specified as part of the approved system design.
If you operate a hotel or another building where people sleep, ask three questions early. What would automatic suppression add to your fire safety strategy? Is water mist suitable for the building and its finish? How would installation fit around your operation?
Planning a project?
If you are responsible for a hotel, student accommodation, an apartment block or a new build development in Scotland, SmartMist Fire can advise on water mist systems, installation planning and the best route for your project.
Speak to SmartMist Fire early, before fire suppression becomes a late-stage problem.