The American Hotel & Lodging Association says, however, that there are 50,800 lodgings of 15 or more rooms throughout the country. Many lodgings not rated by AAA are likely to be smoke-free, says AAA’s Michael Petrone.
A growing number of state and local governments have recently passed laws restricting smoking in hotels and other public places. And AAA, which annually inspects lodgings and has the most extensive list of smoke-free ones, approves and rates only about 31,000 lodgings.
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Westin Hotels & Resorts said it was responding to guests’ demands for a healthy environment and became the first chain to go smoke-free at its U.S. hotels.
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Marriott, the nation’s largest hotel company, made nearly all its more than 2,500 U.S. hotels smoke-free several months later.
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Marriott subsidiary The Ritz-Carlton, Walt Disney, Sheraton, Comfort Suites and a few other chains followed with all smoke-free U.S. hotels.”
We will continue to see either properties go entirely smoke-free or increase non-smoking rooms not only in the United States but around the world,” says Joe McInerney, president of the American Hotel & Lodging Association.Hyatt Hotels & Resorts — which has two smoke-free brands, Hyatt Place and Hyatt Summerfield Suites — agrees.
“The smoke-free hotel trend has finally caught up with the rest of the movement,” says Bronson Frick, associate director of the Americans for Nonsmokers’ Rights. “Airlines went smoke-free in 1990, and California was the first state to enact a strong smoke-free law that included restaurants and bars in 1994. It took the hotel industry until 2006 to catch on that there was public demand and support for smoke-free hotels.”
For more:Â http://travel.usatoday.com/hotels/story/2011/02/More-hotels-go-completely-smoke-free/43823744/1
