Westin to Launch Ban on Smoking

A major hotel chain is going smoke-free next month and will add $200 to the bill of anyone who violates the policy, an executive said Monday.

Westin Hotels & Resorts is banning smoking indoors and poolside at all 77 of its properties in the United States, Canada and the Caribbean, Senior Vice President Sue Brush said. Smokers will have to go to a designated outdoor area, she said.

Enica Thompson, spokeswoman for the American Hotel & Lodging Assn., said Westin was the first major American chain to go smoke-free. She predicted that “many of the other hotel chains will probably want to see how it works out for Westin” before following suit.

Eight Westin hotels were already smoke-free, and at least 5% of the rooms at the others had been set aside for nonsmokers, Brush said. But market research found that 92% of Westin’s guests were requesting nonsmoking rooms and some of those who couldn’t get them were “quite upset,” she said.

Brush said customers would be advised about the policy at check-in. If a guest violates the rule -- “when we can observe it by smelling 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 in the chain are undergoing deep cleaning and air purifying before the Jan. 1 changeover.

The smoking ban will apply to hallways, lobbies and restaurants, except for the eight restaurants that are run by outside companies and not under Westin’s control, Brush said.

The policy will not extend to Westin’s overseas hotels or to other chains, such as Sheraton, that are under the same parent company, Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc.