URGENT - USA - (Florida) Occupant load Question for Hostel?

Dear all,

We are on the verge of putting in an offer on a hotel for conversion to a Hostel in Florida but have hit a snag regarding beds per room.

I called the fire inspector today and he referenced a national fire code (chapter 7 ref 3.1.2) which states non sprinklered hotel buildings can only have 1 occupant per 200 sf of gross building area. When visiting some other hostels in Miami, that rule was clearly not followed.

Is there some other rule that supercedes this? Some on the forum have mentioned approx 44sq feet per bunk set. This would mean less than 4 people per room.

What is other peoples experience?

Robert