Nations in the News

NO SMOKING, SERIOUSLY!

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. -- A major hotel chain is going smoke-free nextmonth and will add $200 to the bill of anyone who violates thepolicy, an executive said last week.

Westin Hotels & Resorts is banning smoking indoors and poolside atall 77 of its properties in the United States, Canada and theCaribbean, said senior Vice President Sue Brush. Smokers will have togo to a designated outdoor area, she said.

Enica Thompson, spokeswoman for the American Hotel & LodgingAssociation, said Westin is the first major American chain to gosmoke-free and predicted that "many of the other hotel chains willprobably want to see how it works out for Westin" before followingsuit.

Eight Westin hotels were already smoke-free, and at least 5percent of the rooms at the others had been set aside for nonsmokers,Brush said. But market research found that 92 percent of Westin'sguests were requesting nonsmoking rooms, and some of those whocouldn't get them were "quite upset," she said.

Brush said White Plains-based Westin is positioning itself toattract guests seeking "personal renewal."

"When we talk to our consumers, what they want for their personalrenewal is a smoke-free environment," she said.

Brush said customers will be advised about the policy at check-in. If a guest violates the rule -- "when we can observe it bysmelling it or whatever" -- a $200 fee will be added to the bill.

"It's really a cleaning fee," she said. The 2,400 smoking rooms inthe chain are undergoing deep cleaning and air purifying before theJan. 1 changeover, "and once you smoke in there you've violated thatentire environment and we have to clean it all over again."

AP