Marriott to make all US, Canada hotels non-smoking (Reuters)

[NashVegas]

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Marriott International Inc. on Wednesday said it will make all of its hotels in the United States and Canada entirely non-smoking, beginning in September.

...

Marriott, based in Bethesda, Maryland, said more than 90 percent of its guest rooms are already non-smoking. It said more customers have been demanding non-smoking rooms.

The change covers such brands as Marriott, Ritz-Carlton, Renaissance, Courtyard, Residence Inn and Fairfield Inn.

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=domesticNews&storyID=2006-07-19T102615Z_01_WEN1308_RTRUKOC_0_US-LEISURE-MARRIOTT-SMOKING.xml&archived=False

"More customers have been demanding non-smoking rooms." More than 90%? Makes me wonder if they give people an option at booking time.

[lse7581011]

1. I Always Ask For Non Smoking But....

am a smoker and will no longer stay at Marriott properties. The fact that they are instituting this policy angers me!

[ima_sinnic]

3. whatever. I ask guests not to smoke in my home

--cigarette smoke gets in draperies and other fabrics and coats everything with a yellow film. It stinks and leaves ashes and accidental burn holes everywhere. Ashtrays are smelly and messy and require work to empty, clean, and keep track of. I know because I smoked for 30 years and regret the damage that it did not only to my body but also to my possessions. I believe if I owned a hotel or motel I would make the same rule. The cost of maintaining smoking rooms must be higher than nonsmoking. Maybe hotels should start charging more for smoking rooms.

[lse7581011]

7. I Don't Smoke In My Home or Anyone Elses!

But if I don't like the Big Brother attitude that is prevailing! I agree charging extra for smoking rooms would be just fine - in fact several chains already do that!

[Cerridwen]

20. Interesting

I lived in a small, carpeted apartment for 5 years. I smoked every day in it. It should have been saturated given its small size. When I was leaving and the non-smoking maintenance guy came in to do the final walk-through with me, he was surprised to learn that I was a smoker. He couldn't smell or see any evidence of smoking after 5 years.

[Sapere aude]

39. Good, then I don't have to put up with the stink!

Soon you will have no where to go. Why not do what's in your own best interest and quit?

[Minnesota Libra]

2. This is going too far - remind me never to stay at a Marriott again.......

.....I could see having entire floors of a hotel for non-smokers but the entire hotel???? That's a tad excessive.

BTW, what if anything is Marriott going to do about some of its patrons who are constantly in bad moods, bitching about anything and everything, forget their manners, and any number of other things???

[Drum]

4. Anti-smokers rejoice,

you've won another one.

Travelling just got a little tougher for some of us, but you should go ahead and crow.

[Bridget Burke]

5. Good for Marriott.

This appears to be a business decision. If a boycott by pissed-off smokers causes them to lose business, I'm sure they will reconsider.

[Gormy Cuss]

16. It was a business decision to allow smoking previously.

It used to be necessary because smokers were more numerous and nonsmokers didn't ask for rooms that didn't reek of stale cigarette smoke.

I agree with you. If it hits the bottom line, Marriott will reverse the policy.
I suspect that they've done their market research however and think this will be good for business.

[MurrayDelph]

17. ...and isn't amazing

that the argument of "let the free market decide" is suddenly no longer valid when it decides against the smoker?

I have stayed in hotels where someone had smoked in a non-smoking room. The smell is everywhere, and it gives me headaches. I can understand the motivation of the company: the cost to remove the smell properly is huge (those air freshener sprays never work, and cause headaches just as bad).

The "boycott" test will probably be in terms of what it does at the Ritz-Carlton in Las Vegas. Then-again, a non-smoking hotel
in Vegas would be welcome to some of us.

[Cerridwen]

19. There was actually a casino in Vegas that went non-smoking.

It went bankrupt and shut down after a few years.

Casinos are different than hotels. It might work. Though probably not in a hotel in which a casino is attached. I've noticed many of the hotel/casinos have started including a non-casino entrance into the hotel to make it possible for non-smokers to enter without having to endure smoking. Of course, Vegas is a whole "'nother animal" so it'll be interesting to see how this plays out there.

[MurrayDelph]

32. That was the Silver City

It was a small casino-only low-traffic location in a strip mall. It was owned by Circus Circus, who
could never figure out how to make it profitable. In 1991, they tried to make it a non-smoking casino. In 1993, they made it smoking again. What they could never figure out how to do was make it profitable. So it was closed.

In the meantime, Harrah's Laughlin has a non-smoking casino, and a good number of the live poker
games are non-smoking.

[Cerridwen]

34. Actually, it was small casino-only high traffic location when it

was opened in 1975ish by the Major Riddle Corporation, under General Manager, Gene Lucas who had managed to make another MRC property, the Silver Nugget in North Las Vegas a profitable and popular local hangout. My mother helped Gene with the slots department on opening day. I went to work in the coffee shop a couple of months later. It was always busy, even the graveyard shift. It was visited by many big names of the day.

It was bought by Circus Circus in 1979 and did well enough for many years until it attempted to corner an unaddressed market in 1991 and became the first non-smoking casino. In an attempt to revive its downward spiral, it returned smoking to the casino in 1993. It was sold to Luke Brugnara, from San Francisco in 1999 who was denied a gaming license. It closed the same year and has since been demolished.

[TheCowsCameHome]

6. Good for them. It's their business and their decision to make.

Evidently they feel it's best for them and their clients.

They'll do just fine without smokers.

[lse7581011]

8. While They're At It

maybe they should banned alcohol too!

[KatyMan]

9. Alcohol doesn't

make my clothes stink if you drink it. Alcohol doesn't ruin my liver if I'm around while you're drinking and I'm not.

I would also have to say that smokers just don't realize how much they smell, and it's bad enough to make people not want to be around them.

Yes, I'm an ex-smoker.

:popcorn: Flame on!

[lse7581011]

10. No, But

alcohol can sure do a number on the furnishings of a hotel room if it's "regurgitated"!

[Show_Me _The_Truth]

11. So can

Sour Milk, Bad Clams, Carsickness, etc.

Cigarettes are disgusting and leave a passive disgusting smell.

I would wager that this is mostly driven by corpoate clients (yes Marriott is mostly a corporate type hotel) who get to a full hotel and have nothing but a smoking room option left. No matter what they do, you can't get that smell out.

Even if a non-smoking room has been smoked in once, you CAN'T get the smell out.

Smokers don't realize how much of an affect they have on those around them. Coming from a household of smokers here.

Private Company can attract the type of customers they want.

[Bonobo]

12. How about banning masturbation? It would save on cleaning bills...

[Show_Me _The_Truth]

15. Not even close to simiar

N/T

[Minstrel Boy]

36. no such thing as second-hand masturbation n/t

[sinkingfeeling]

13. OK, Marriott, I want to cash in my remaining 300,000 points. What to you

have that doesn't involve a stay at one of your hotels?

[Show_Me _The_Truth]

14. Allot

Check their website.

Racing School Weekends, Electronics, Golf Schools, Cruises...

I got a nice Home Entertainment Center--36" flat screen, Stereo for a little less than that amount a few yrs ago. Have another 450M to burn at Marriott. I travel too much if you can't tell.

[lse7581011]

18. Great Idea!

Thanks for the suggestion!

[Show_Me _The_Truth]

21. Rewards gone downhill

Okay, I havven't used my points for items in yrs. Well I just checked and it looks like allot of the items are gone (or I can't find them). I remember they use to have a storefront website that would allow you to pick electronics, golf packages, spa days and the like. It looks like thos have gone away.

Maybe someone else can find them.

[VegasWolf]

22. Marriott is not banning drug addicts, just their delivery devices. One

could still go outside and get their fix of nicotine.

[AlCzervik]

23. thats what i do, i smoke but i hate the smell of smoking rooms

and i don't smoke in my own house or anybody else's, i go outside.

[VegasWolf]

24. That's what I did when I smoked too. I couldn't stand the stench of

a "smoking" room.

[sinkingfeeling]

25. OK, but I've spent tens of thousands staying at Marriott's and I won't

give them another penny. Thank you.

[VegasWolf]

26. So have I, a home away from home. The worst rooms were the high-

rises where the windows would not even open. Marriott "smoking" rooms really stunk bad. You could smell the smoking floors from the elevator.

[AlCzervik]

27. we stayed at the Marriott county hall in London in April, plenty of

smoking floors, ours was non-smoking and thankfully we had a big window that actually opened.

[Bake]

28. I have been "platinum" Marriott Rewards level

And I'll rethink my hotel choice in the future.

So I hope it DOES hit them in the bottom line.

Bake

Oh, yeah, I'm a smoker.

[uncle ray]

29. it's just going to result in more pissed off customers

it will not STOP people from smoking in their rooms. now smokers will be pissed when they find they have no option fo choosing a smoking room, but will just end up smoking in the non smoking room anyway, stinking it up so the next non smoker is pissed off too.

[VegasWolf]

31. Smokers are doing that now. Some hotels have started charging an

extra 100 dollars for people who smoke in non smoking rooms.

[noonwitch]

30. I always thought that having smoking and non-smoking rooms was working

Usually it's not even just by room, it's by wing or floor, so you don't even have smoke seeping in from the next room.

If the bathrooms still have fans, smokers will still smoke in their rooms.

[High Plains]

33. Well, fuck you, too, Marriot. Can't make any room for smokers.

Then I can't make any time to stay at their hotels.

[noonwitch]

35. Hiltons and their cheaper sister hotels, Hamptons are better

I like Hampton Inns. They are affordable, most have indoor pools and hot tubs, and they have smoking rooms available, plus free breakfast.

[AngryAmish]

37. Good for them

Their shareholders will tell them if this is a good idea.

(BTW, I can't stand anti-smoking nuts. I object to gov't coercing this but if marriot wants to do this, then OK.)

[Sapere aude]

38. Well there goes the smoker's rights again.

The right to pollute and stink up a room so the next guest can enjoy the effects too! The right to yellow the walls and drapes. The right to drop hot ashes in the carpet on the bed and on the furniture.

[TheCowsCameHome]

42. Don't forget the right to make burn marks on the bathroom countertops

when they're too lazy to pick up their cancer sticks after they've scrubbed the yellow nicotine stains off their teeth.

[Sapere aude]

40. As an ex smoker I ask, why don't smokers want to take responsibility for

the effects of what they do?

I know they are addicted to a drug. I was also. It is very hard to break the addition and it is easier to deny it and blame those who don't want to put up with the effects for the effects.

If you smoke you have to take responsibility of the effects of smoking. The effects of what you do are negative and people just don't want to accommodate them any more, as they have in the past. The thing to do is face your addition and quit. I understand what you are going through as an ex-smoker. Flame away.

[High Plains]

41. In this case, smokers are only asking for the right to a hotel room.

It seems like hotels have previously been able to handle this. In this case, it is a private company making its own decision, which is its right. It is also my right not to patronize them any long.

And speaking of patronizing, God, how I hate self-righteous former smokers like the one I am now responding to.

[Codeine]

44. You don't have a *right* to a smoking room.

It's *their* room, and they can place all sorts of restrictions on it; no cigarettes, no pets, no hotplates, no noise after 10pm, etc. You do not, nor have you ever, had a "right" to smoke in a Marriot.

[DancingBear]

43. Marriott is a HUGE supporter of BushCo

They spent millions on his '04 "Inauguration."

I haven't stayed at a Marriott since I found that out, nor will I ever.

Just a heads-up to those who Buy Blue.