Any building or portion of a building in which sleeping accommodations are provided to 16 or more persons who are not related is considered a (n) :

• A. Dormitory
• B. Hotel
• C. Apartment
• D. Hostel

Answer: (A)

The key idea is how sleeping spaces are classified when the occupants are unrelated and the number is large. When a building or portion provides sleeping accommodations for 16 or more people who are not related, it is treated as a dormitory. This reflects the way life-safety rules are applied to facilities where many unrelated people share sleeping spaces, creating different egress and fire protection considerations than other lodging or residential types.

Why this fits best: a dormitory is defined by lack of relation among occupants and a substantial sleeping population, often in a shared facility such as a school, military housing, or worker housing. Hotels are geared toward transient lodging with guest rooms, apartments are self-contained living units (usually for unrelated individuals but as separate dwellings), and hostels involve inexpensive lodging but aren’t defined by a specific 16-person threshold of unrelated sleepers. The 16-or-more-unrelated criterion is the distinguishing feature that points to dormitory.