First Major Hotel Chain Goes Completely Smoke-Free

Westin Hotels and Resorts is going smoke-free next month and will add $200.00 to the bill of anyone who violates the policy, said Senior Vice President Sue Brush. Smoking indoors and poolside will be banned at all 77 of the chain’s properties in the United States, Canada and the Caribbean beginning January 1. After that date, smokers will have to go to a designated outdoor area, she said.

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

Brush said that customers will be advised about the anti-smoking policy at check-in. If a guest violates the rule — “when we can observe it by smelling it or whatever” — a $200.00 fee will be added to the bill.

Hang on folks, we’re just getting warmed up.

“It’s really a cleaning fee,” Brush said. The 2,400 smoking rooms in the chain are undergoing deep cleaning and air purifying before the Jan. 1 changeover, “and once you smoke in there you’ve violated that entire environment and we have to clean it all over again.”

“Violated?“

Strange to say, that’s the way I’d feel if I found out an extra $200.00 was tacked onto my hotel bill because someone in housekeeping thought they smelled smoke in my room. I’d be especially surprised if it was “discovered” while cleaning my room after I’d checked out and the extra “fee” added on for the “damage” I had allegedly caused.

I smell lawsuits.

The smoking ban will apply not only to guest rooms, but also to hallways, lobbies, private balconies, the pool areas, banquet halls, restaurants and bars. Smoking outdoors is expected to be limited as well. The only exception will be eight restaurants run by outside companies and not under Westin’s control, Brush said. “They will be invited to participate,” she added.

“At the heart of all of our decisions is the comfort, well-being and quality of life for our guests,'’ continued Brush. “We view our hotels as a retreat from the rigors of travel. Our goal is to provide a place where guests can relax and restore their mind, body and spirit in a healthy way.”

Thank you, Dr. Brush. Will Westin only be serving fat-free food in the future? And is an absence of alcoholic beverages coming next in your tireless pursuit of my personal health? Perhaps in addition to the exercise equipment in some of the rooms, Westin can try shutting off the elevators so that a healthy jog up and down the stairs contributes to my cardiovascular conditioning?

Michael Jorgensen, general manager of the Westin Copley in Boston said, “We may have some smokers who aren’t happy, but if they don’t want to stay with us, we’ll replace them with someone who appreciates having a smoke-free room.”

I don’t know about you, but I am going to reconsider where I spend my money if the attitude of Westin Hotels management is that I am “replaceable.” And I know that if I was planning a meeting or other major event, I would seriously re-think holding it at any Westin property since the per-participant cost could skyrocket without warning or apparent recourse.

The anti-smoking policy will not extend to Westin’s overseas hotels or to other chains (see below for a list) that are owned by the same parent company, Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. Westin was the brand that “had the least amount of smokers to begin with,” Brush said.

Is that a trial baloon I see waving in the wind? A gamble to get the most PR impact with the least potential loss of business? If so, this is a plan that could backfire.

Gail White, owner of a travel agency in Calgary, said the chain is flirting with the wholesale loss of business from countries where smoking is more accepted than in Canada and the United States.

“I’m a non-smoker but I think they’re taking a bold step,” she said. “Even though in Canada we’re very conscious of [smoking], that won’t be the case elsewhere. It’s so normal in Europe, and so normal in Asia. All the Asians smoke.”

Brush said that there might be a dip in business at the beginning of the year as smokers go elsewhere, but Westin expects to quickly replace that business with travelers favoring the new policy.

There’s the R word cropping up again. Westin managers seem to refer to guests as replaceable quite frequently. I don’t know about you, but it gives me a warm feeling to know how highly I am valued.

“I don’t think it will be a net loss,” said Brush. “It should be a net gain.”

I am certainly glad that she is so confident. I also hope that she is wrong.

Apparently, we smokers are well known to be a calm lot who don’t protest, boycott or stir up trouble like militant anti-smokers. Perhaps Sue Brush might be interested in the polite opinions of the approximately sixty million American smokers who do not like being considered so easily replaceable and of so little value.

Perhaps not.

Enica Thompson of the American Hotel & Lodging Association said that Westin is the first major American chain to go smoke-free. “For an entire chain to become smoke-free, it’s cutting edge,” said Thompson. “We think other hotel chains will eventually follow suit, depending on the success of the Westin.”

I share Ms. Thompson’s opinion that the success of the Westin’s anti-smoking campaign will encourage other hotel chains to put similar anti-smoker policies into effect.

I also believe that the failure of the Westin policy would be beneficial for smokers rights.

The key here appears to be that those militant anti-smokers requesting non-smoking rooms at Westin hotels were “quite upset” at not being able to get the kind of rooms that they wanted. Westin management obviously responds to customers who become “quite upset.” It is simply the “squeaky wheel gets the grease” principle in action.

But since Westin previously set aside only 5% of their rooms for non-smokers, is there any wonder that these rooms were in short supply? Doesn’t it seems that a more reasonable and logical policy would have been to designate a much larger block of rooms as non-smoking — say 60 to 90% perhaps?

Instead…we have a total ban.

Rooms for smokers will not be in “short supply” at North American and Carribean Westin properties. They will be nonexistent.

About one in every four people in America smoke. Starwood Hotels and Resorts apparently has no problem telling one in every four people in this country that we are “replaceable,” undesirable and that they do not want our business.

The economy must be much better than I believed. I am encouraged by this good news.

Of course, Starwood Hotels probably does not see it the same way that I see it. They probably believe that most of the smokers in America will not become “quite upset” in the way that anti-smokers do when denied their rights. They believe that smokers will not phone, fax and email the company expressing dismay over a discriminatory policy penalizing a minority for engaging in a legal activity. Nor would smokers organize a boycott of all Starwood Hotel and Resort properties and take themselves and their families to hotels and resorts that do want their business.

Westin probably does not see their policy as discriminatory. After all, they are just looking out for the sensibilities of a majority of their clients who are offended by the presence of smokers among them. Smokers quite obviously, in the opinion of Starwood Hotels and Resorts management, are less enlightened, less intelligent, not as healthy, and not as concerned about others as non-smokers.

Don’t get me wrong — we smokers are still welcome to stay at Westin Hotels and Resorts after the first of the year.

As long as we know our place.

Which apparently is in designated areas outside the hotel and away from everyone else…

…perhaps somewhere at the back of the hotel.

Can anyone imagine what kind of reaction this announcement by Starwood Hotels would have received if this policy was put in place against any other minority group? Read the first paragraph of this article again, and let your imagination run wild for a minute.

Westin Hotels and Resorts is going ____________-free next month and will add $200.00 to the bill of anyone who violates the policy, said senior Vice President Sue Brush. _____________ indoors and poolside will be banned at all 77 of the chain’s properties in the United States, Canada and the Caribbean beginning January 1. After that date, _______________ will have to go to a designated outdoor area, she said.

Fill in those blanks with a specific gender, a sexual orientation, a racial or ethnic group, a religious faith, or any other minority. Can you imagine the reaction that exact same paragraph would have gotten from the general public with just a minor word substitution? Why, the phones and fax machines would have been going non-stop at Starwood corporate headquarters, and the executive responsible for the discriminatory policy would have received countless phone calls, letters and emails.

People would probably also be organizing protests and picketing — or perhaps smoke-ins where legal — outside Westin hotels and other Starwood Hotel and Resort properties in cities throughout the U.S., Canada and the Caribbean.

Westin Hotels and Resorts, as mentioned above, are part of Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. headquartered at 1111 Westchester Avenue, White Plains, New York 10604. Their phone number is 1-914-640-8100 and their toll-free number is 1-800-937-8461. Their fax number is 1-914-640-8388. In addition to Westin, Starwood also owns the Sheraton, Four Points, St. Regis, Le Meridien, the Luxury Collection, and W Hotels chains.

I know that the anti-smoker policy only applies to Westin Hotels and Resorts…for the moment. I also know that I’m not going to be staying at any of the Starwood properties as long as this policy is in place — in North America, the Carribean or anywhere in the world. That is a shame, since Starwood has some of the finest luxury hotels and resorts around.

I’m really sorry that they don’t want my business, nor the business of the approximately 25% of Americans who smoke. Then again, I’ve always enjoyed Marriott and Hyatt properties. If you happen to bump into me at one of these non-discriminatory, non-extremist, non-Starwood hotels while I’m staying there for business or pleasure, perhaps we can talk about the situation over a cigar.

Posted on Tuesday, December 6th, 2005 at 9:00 am.