23 / 10 / 2025 / Sin categoría

Fire safety in aparthotels: how to protect your guests and your property

From a fire safety perspective, aparthotels represent a building type with critical characteristics: although they operate under the commercial logic of a hotel —high user turnover, shared services, temporary occupancy— their architectural and functional layout is similar to that of a residential home.

Each unit typically has its own kitchen, appliances, individual heating and cooling systems, independent electrical circuits, and extended stay areas. These conditions replicate a complete domestic environment, multiplying potential ignition points.

In this context, fire containment textile systems fire compartmentation and smoke control barriers provide a versatile and flexible solution, allowing automatic compartmentalization and ensuring the integrity of sectors in the event of a fire.

What will you learn in this article?

Why fire safety is crucial in an aparthotel

This type of building presents a high density of independent units connected to shared cores, with intensive use of thermal and electrical systems. These conditions significantly increase the fire load and the likelihood of fire spread in the event of an incident. Below, we discuss the main fire risks in aparthotels.

Main fire risks in aparthotels

  • Multiple ignition points: each unit is a potential source of fire due to the presence of hot areas, electrical connections, combustible material accumulation, and limited technical supervision.
  • Discontinuity in structural compartmentalization: open solutions are often prioritized between common areas (lobbies, hallways, shared dining rooms), making it difficult to create stable physical barriers without compromising aesthetics. This requires mobile compartmentalization systems adapted to the building’s characteristics.
  • Shared evacuation routes and verticality: the concentration of units around a single vertical core of stairs and elevators means that a failure to contain smoke or fire on one floor can severely affect higher levels.
  • Occupancy variability and user behavior: the typical user of an aparthotel is not a permanent resident, making it harder to control the use of equipment and creating a larger margin for error during emergencies.
  • Regulatory limitations on existing buildings or change of use: many aparthotels are converted from residential buildings or offices.

Regulations and legislation on fire safety in aparthotels

In Spain, the Basic Document SI (Fire Safety) of the Technical Building Code (CTE) sets the conditions that buildings must meet to protect occupants from fire risks, limit its spread, and facilitate the intervention of emergency teams. This document is mandatory for both new buildings and refurbishments, and it is particularly relevant for aparthotels, as it combines criteria for compartmentalization, evacuation, fire resistance, and smoke control. Understanding how this building type is classified and regulated is key to designing technical solutions compatible with the current regulations.

What the DB-SI establishes about aparthotels and their use classification

The DB-SI classifies aparthotels under the Public Residential Use category, which includes buildings intended for temporary accommodation of people who do not constitute a stable family unit. This classification directly affects the requirements for compartmentalization, evacuation, and fire resistance. According to sections SI 1, SI 2, and SI 3, the main requirements applicable to aparthotels are:

Compartmentalization into fire sectors:

  • Each floor must be divided into fire sectors, with a maximum area of 500 m² per sector.
  • If this threshold is exceeded, compartmentalization must be achieved through fire-resistant certified elements.
  • Accommodation units are not required to be individual fire sectors, except in special situations (e.g., accommodations for people with reduced mobility).

Fire resistance:

  • The separating elements between sectors (walls, ceilings, and mobile solutions like fire curtains) must guarantee a minimum EI 60 resistance.
  • When these sectors are adjacent to vertical evacuation routes or critical use areas, the resistance must be EI 120.
  • Doors or other closing systems must be automatically operated, with a self-closing mechanism guaranteed without human intervention.

Evacuation:

  • Floors must have exits leading directly to protected stairwells.
  • These stairwells must be compartmentalized from the rest of the building using EI 120 closures.
  • When exits converge in lobbies or shared hallways, these must be compartmentalized to act as filters against fire and smoke.
  • It is prioritized that evacuation routes go through compartmentalized areas, and in the case of open solutions, mobile systems are allowed as long as they fulfill the required function and are certified.

Smoke control and vertical spread:

  • In areas with vertical openings (elevators, stairs, installations), compartmentalization with EI 120 elements is required.
  • In open or large areas, additional measures should be applied to channel and control smoke, especially if natural ventilation is not feasible.
  • This may include using smoke textile barriers as part of the pressurized control or mechanical extraction system, depending on the building’s design.

Fire protection measures for aparthotels

Any effective fire protection strategy in aparthotels must integrate both active and passive measures. Active measures —such as detection, alarm, and extinguishing— act once the fire has started. Passive measures, on the other hand, are intended to limit fire and smoke spread, maintain structural stability, and ensure safe evacuation conditions for as long as needed.

Within passive fire protection, compartmentalization is essential to confine the fire at its point of origin and protect adjacent areas. This compartmentalization is achieved through EI-rated closures —walls, ceilings, doors—, but also through mobile systems. In this context, fire curtains and smoke control barriers have become key elements in compartmentalization, especially in common areas, lobbies, hallways, or vertical evacuation cores where maintaining the space’s functionality without compromising safety is essential.

Advantages of fire curtains and smoke barriers in aparthotel buildings

Tecnitex fire curtains and smoke control barriers are designed with a focus on functionality, aesthetics, and adaptability, responding to the specific conditions of hotel-residential environments like aparthotels. Their versatile design allows them to be perfectly integrated into a variety of spaces, such as lobbies, hallways, dining areas, vertical evacuation cores, or common areas, without disrupting the building’s operation or compromising architectural aesthetics.

Thanks to their retractable nature, these solutions remain hidden during the building’s normal use, activating only in the event of a fire. This design not only ensures passive fire protection but also maintains the visual and functional flow of passageways, double-height spaces, or open-plan layouts, ensuring that safety does not interfere with the user experience or the aparthotel’s interior design.

Furthermore, one of the most significant operational advantages of these solutions is their ability to compartmentalize without losing usable space. In buildings where every square meter is used for services or circulation —such as accommodation units or common areas— this feature allows space functionality to be maintained without the need for fixed walls or intrusive construction elements.

Tecnitex’s fire curtains are made with high-performance technical fabrics, such as fiberglass with special coatings, which provide lightness, resistance, and durability. As a result, they do not add significant structural load and can be easily installed in both new constructions and refurbishments, even in existing structures with limited load-bearing capacity.

The entire Tecnitex product range is certified according to applicable European standards. The fire curtains comply with UNE EN 1634-1 in their various resistance configurations, while the smoke barriers are tested according to UNE EN 12101-1 and classified A2-s1,d0 according to UNE EN 13501-1. These solutions have been tested with over 1,000 operating cycles and guarantee smoke tightness of up to 25 Pa (with a leakage rate of less than 0.003 m³/h), making them a reliable and safe technical tool in critical evacuation and fire control situations.

If you have a new project with these characteristics and would like to learn more about compartmentalization solutions, feel free to contact us.

 

    Bibliography

    Ministry of Transport, Mobility, and Urban Agenda. (2022). Basic Document SI – Fire Safety (CTE DB-SI). Technical Building Code. https://www.codigotecnico.org/pdf/Documentos/SI/DBSI.pdf

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