I havenâ€â„¢t heard of any more hotel chains joining Westin on the non-smoking bandwagon, which is too bad At least the marketing moves are accelerating: Procter & Gamble recently cited PricewaterhouseCoopers research to help tout its products as agents of odor removal.
P&G quoted several general managers praising the virtues of smoke-free air, virtues Westin recognized in December when it announced a ban on smoking in all of its North American and Caribbean properties. This August, a Marriott in Iowa will become that stateâ€â„¢s first smoke-free, full-service hotel. Also, visit www.freshstay.com to see a list of more than 100 smoke-free hotels.
The number of hotel rooms reserved for smokers is declining, Procter & Gamble says. Changing over smoking rooms to non-smoking rooms involves odor removal. Reserving rooms for smokers might be costly in terms of marketing; it certainly is when it comes to health. I think changing them over and paying to remove the odor is a cost worth incurring. I hope more hotel chains join an embryonic movement that shouldnâ€â„¢t be controversial.