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Breaking News: Marriott Says Butts Out

July 19, 2006 at 12:53 AM | 1 Comment

The Marriott Smoking Ban has been elevated to OpenThread Status, Comment Here

Marriott Hotels has made a huge announcement in today's Wall Street Journal and those of you puffing away on your cancer sticks with your morning coffee ain't gonna like it.

Peter Sanders writes that the hotel chain has decided to ban smoking in every room of its 2,300-plus hotels in the U.S. and Canada (including the hotel's other brands like the Ritz Carltons and Renaissance hotels), "in an effort to extinguish an increasingly common source of guest complaints -- the smell of lingering cigarette smoke."

At first, this sounds a little more drastic than it is since 90 percent Marriott's guest rooms were already non-smoking. But the hotel chain goes one step further banning smoking from public spaces that includes restaurants, bars, meeting rooms and employee work areas. (Uh-oh, we feel like Marriott's gonna lose more than a few workers this week.)

If you do get caught smoking, Marriott will hit you with a $200 to $300 cleaning fee and any extra charges that could occur in the room needs to be taken out of service. For those who can't go without a smoke you can hit up one of the hotel's designated smoking areas which has to be 25 feet away from the entrance, so essentially in the parking lot.

You still have the rest of the summer to smoke away in Marriotts but by the end of September the no smoking edicts will be in full force.

What do you think of Marriott's No Smoking policy? Does it make you want to stay at a Marriott now or are they just ruining the fun? Send us your thoughts or post your comments below.

Image via LotteryMonkey/Flickr

Related Stories:
· Marriott to Ban Smoking From All Rooms [WSJ]

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Author Photo: juliana by juliana

1 Comment

Return to » Breaking News: Marriott Says Butts Out

  1. laurieb

    HotelChatter Member
    February 19, 2007 at 5:44 PM




    Re: Breaking News: Marriott Says Butts Out

    Bill Marriott,

    I am not sure your age but based on your photo I would guess you to be around 70.  Please tell us Bill, how have you lived so long?  Especially with all the second hand smoke you have been subjected to your entire life?  How is it our nursing homes are filled to capacity?  Is it now a lie that people are living longer more productive lives than ever before in history? Yet, many zealots, who simply hate "smoke" and "smokers" for that matter, are blaming SHS for most all ailments and thousands of deaths.   Do you really think not offering any smoking rooms is fair and makes sense?  Common sense has taken a back seat in this "once free" society and has been replaced by the media.  Do we really need to check the local weather when we actually see it raining, just to make sure it really is raining? SHS and the effects thereof have been grossly exaggerated and blown way out of proportion.  Common sense should prove this to you and to me when folks your age are doing wonderful and living full lives.  We do not need another study to prove this.  Most of these so-called studies are fixed with a pre-determined outcome anyways.  You are surely wise enough to know this.  When we start sacrificing our freedoms and begin to discriminate against those who have different beliefs and enjoy different legal vices than our own, then we no longer deserve freedom.  Just because it's the "most popular" decision to make, to outright ban smoking from your Hotel, does not make it right.  In fact, it's a slap in the face of those who died for our freedoms so that we could all pursue happiness in our own way, be it smoking or non-smoking in this particular instance.  What's next, should we now ban automobiles because they kill people every day?  We all have a choice, atleast for now.  Please do not adjoin yourself with those who seek to destroy our freedoms and who seek to control every aspect of our daily lives, including dictating what we eat or whether we enjoy smoking or not!  Please think about the implications regarding this decision.  Your business profit will only decrease by the lack of those who enjoy smoking, especially since customers stay at your hotel to relax and vacation.  You will most assuredly lose those customers. Neither are most people going to stay at your Hotel solely because you have banned smoking.  Very few will even care. Having a choice is what people expect.  It's worked for you in the past and will continue to work for you in the future.
    The decision you have made, in our opinion, was very unnecessary and has planted the seeds of discrimination, loss of freedoms, and is very hurtful.  

    Respectfully,

    Bill & Laurie Blumenstock
    Brookville, Ohio

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