The travel Industry is preparing for their busy season, and folks have begun planning for vacations, beginning with transportation to finalizing decisions of where to stay; researching these things can be a tedious task and even challenging when trying to make the right choice for travelers for the right price. Choosing the ideal hotel for you and your family requires patience and time. Families as well as individuals traveling today prefer a smoke-free environment, but for as long as I remember, it was optional for non-smoking rooms; today…even smokers want a non-smoking room. Why? Guests don’t like the ‘rancid’ smell of everything in the room, from bedding to cigarette burn holes in furniture and more. The smell of smoke lingers and is absorbed by everything in the room, including the walls and carpet. Smoke rises…so if you are staying in a hotel that offers smoking rooms on lower levels, most likely you’ll smell it as it leaks through the venting system.

Non-Smoking rooms are not a guarantee that it will be fresh ‘without’ odors, in fact…when hotels change ownership, sometimes they decide to make those old smoking rooms into non-smoking ones, but the odors persist; I learned while staying at a Choice Hotel the cigar smoke I smelled (after being in the room for only 2 hours) had been a smoking one in the past and the air freshener they used only covered it for a short time. It costs the hotel industry an absorbent amount of money to keep up with repairs from smoking rooms, then…having to remove it from their inventory to make necessary repairs, adds to their losses. Today…more hotels are looking at becoming full-fledged smoke free environments; allowing smoking only in designated outdoor areas. This will be more cost effective for the business and less of a liability when it comes to insurance, not to mention for its guests.

Just when everyone seems to get comfortable with no smoking policies…then comes along electronic cigarettes, and smokers thought they’d be able to use those in place of actual cigarettes on hotel properties; as well as other places. However, the Department of Transportation clarified its rule a couple of years ago that the ban included electronic cigarettes on all commercial flights; which in turn…helped hotels to follow suit.  Providing a clean, healthier air is a priority among upscale hotels, but others are looking into it as soon as possible; this would also help the longevity of the interior décor on hotel properties. When people pay to get a good nights’ rest, they want to know that they’re in the cleanest room possible, making their experience a pleasurable one.

Some states are now declaring smoke-free environments (meaning all indoor public spaces), and I imagine this trend will continue. So far, 11 states have banning laws regarding e cigarettes; New York, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Maine, New Jersey, North Dakota, Oregon, Utah and Vermont. Others are following, but have partial bans in place with the exception of some larger cities; such as Chicago, Boston and New Orleans. Smoking and second hand smoke causes damage to our bodies, and though everyone has a right to choose if they want to smoke, it is now the majority that chooses not to…so I see this as respecting others. Every day we are exposed to chemicals (pollution) in our air, but to go to a hotel that has smoking rooms today…”No thank you.” I’m all in favor of cleaner, healthier air…aren’t you?

 

Make your week count.