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Excerpts from: San Diego Hotelier Joins Nascent Smoke-Free Movement

REUTERS  [08/30/01]

   A fledgling movement to make U.S. hotels smoke-free got a boost on Thursday when Woodfin Suite
  Hotels, owner of 18 hotels in 11 states, said its six California properties will go smoke-free starting
  Sept. 1.

  The announcement followed a similar move by Howard Johnson International Inc., which said in June
  that its hotel on Pocahontas Trail in Williamsburg, Va. would become the chain's first smoke-free
  property.

  And on Aug. 1, Apple Core Hotels turned its 80-room Comfort Inn Midtown in New York City's
  Theater District into a no-smoking property.

  Hotel owners said they hope to make up for any lost business by winning over guests who prefer the
  smoke-free environment, but most admitted the move is largely experimental and traveler reaction will
  be closely watched before any major expansion of their programs.

  Apple Core Chief Operating Officer Vijay Dandapani said his company decided to take the
  no-smoking plunge for a simple reason: demand.

  ``It has nothing to do with public policy,'' said Dandapani, who added he knows of no other hotels in
  New York with a similar policy. ``There's tremendous demand. People are very upset when they've
  been promised a smoke-free room'' and they get a smoked-in room instead.

  Tom Farrell, executive vice president of Woodfin, said his company made its decision based on similar
  assumptions. He added that Woodfin plans to extend the program to its remaining  hotels if reaction is positive.

  ``We wanted to roll this out in California first because California has been very aggressive about
  smoking in public places, so it will be more likely to be well received here,'' he said. ``We obviously
  don't want to force anything on our customers they don't want, but we believe this is something they
  want and it will give us a competitive edge.''

  COST SAVINGS

  The handful of hoteliers who have taken the no-smoking plunge say the move will also help them save
  money in their housekeeping departments.

  The process of ``de-smoking'' a room -- eliminating all the negative effects when a room has been
  smoked in -- typically costs about $500 per room, said Bjorn Hanson, head of the hospitality group at
  PricewaterhouseCoopers.

  Smoking rooms also face higher costs associated with more frequent carpet shampooing, drape
  cleaning and minor repairs for such things as cigarette burns in fabrics, according to hotel managers.

  Furthermore, smoking rooms often take longer to clean than their non-smoking counterparts because
  they must be deodorized each day.

  ``It's also a benefit to the employees,'' said Dandapani of Apple Core. ``You can clean the rooms
  much faster, and if you have employees who don't smoke they don't get the smell. Even smokers
  complain when they walk in and get the smell of stale smoke.''

  Despite the benefits of going smoke-free, however, Hanson said many hotels may be reluctant to
  completely do away with smoking rooms in the near-term.

  The reason, he said, owes to the amount of time a patron spends in the average room. Whereas a
  customer might spend a couple of hours in a restaurant and up to four to five hours in a plane, the
  average hotel patron spends about 14 hours in his or her room each day, Hanson said.

  ``I don't think we will see many hotels go all no-smoking,'' he said. ``There may be a regional privately
  owned hotel that is doing that. It will be more the personal preference of the owner who might be
  anti-smoking doing it and making his own decision, whereas the public company has to be more
  careful because it limits the demand.''