More hotels are going smoke-free

Bill Spencer got fed up with replacing cigarette-burned comforters and carpets at the Durham hotel he manages. He didn't care much for the hassle and extra cost of making rooms smell less like an ashtray and more like a Hilton. Most of all, he hated the thanks-but-no-thanks from guests who refused available smoking rooms after all the smoke-free rooms were filled.

So he extinguished those problems. He banned smoking in the hotel.

"And we've not had anybody walk out," said Spencer, general manager of the Hilton Raleigh-Durham Airport on Old Page Road.

The 249-room hotel this month joined a growing list of hotels from Disneyland to Durham going smoke-free. It's a bold move, because a ban could potentially drive away business. Bolder still when it involves customers who indulge in the tobacco products that lined this region's pockets.

But hoteliers have been emboldened by rising reservations and a shrinking number of smokers. They think they can make more money by kicking the habit of indoor smoking.

Westin Hotels & Resorts made a big splash this year when it banned indoor smoking at all of its hotels in the United States. Others are following its example.

In the past two years, at least three Triangle hotels have banned indoor smoking. And at least one smoke-free hotel is planned.

Consumers aren't as tolerant of cigarette smoke as they were 30 years ago when one-third of American adults smoked, hotel industry consultants and hoteliers say.

"A lot of people will not stay if they see people smoking in the lobby," said Sanjay Mundra, a Cary developer whose planned North Raleigh Westin will be smoke-free when it opens in 2009. "As the awareness goes up about the second-hand smoke, psychologically, it's just not acceptable."

In 2005, 20.9 percent of American adults were smokers. That's the smallest percentage recorded by the Centers for Disease Control in the past half-century.

Hotels that aren't smoke-free have more nonsmoking rooms. About 74 percent of hotel rooms are nonsmoking today, compared with 61 percent in 1998, according to data collected by Smith Travel Research of Hendersonville, Tenn.

But many more are banning indoor smoking all together.

Spencer says it cost about $1,440 to get the smoke-stink out of 18 rooms at the Hilton, but that cleaning can cost up to $200 per room.

To keep from having to spend money to clean rooms again, many hotels charge $200 if they catch guests smoking. It's a strategy few would have attempted five years ago, after travel declined in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

"We were fighting for every piece of business," Spencer said. "Anything that would cause business to go away was not something we were willing to try."

As the economy has improved, travel has picked up, occupancy has increased and daily rates have recovered, according to data from local tourism bureaus. Hotel occupancy in Durham was 65 percent at the end of 2005, up from 62.1 percent in 2002. During the same period, daily rates rose 6.5 percent to a record $79.42. Similarly, Wake County occupancy rose to 66.2 percent from 61.2 percent, while room rates rose 5.1 percent to $69.26, the second-highest recorded rate.

The stronger market may hasten the trend. But even if it doesn't, more smoke-free hotels are probably on the way, said Reyn Bowman, president of the Durham Convention and Visitors Bureau. Workplaces, airlines and many restaurants have already banned smoking. And smokers are more accustomed to stepping outside for a smoke.

Not everybody finds it accommodating. Johnny Grindstaff's employer put him up at the Clarion in downtown Raleigh last week.

The 52-year-old Mount Holly man leaned against a chain-link fence in the hotel's parking garage and growled at the hotel's indoor smoking ban, while respecting the $200 charge he'd face for smoking inside.

"I don't mind having to go outside to smoke," he said between drags on a Marlboro Light. "I do mind having to walk this far from my room."

Last year, Grindstaff packed up and went to the Ramada Inn Blue Ridge. This year, that's not an option. The 123-room Raleigh hotel went from 20 smoking rooms to 10 last year before banning indoor smoking altogether this year.

"Even smokers a lot of times ask for nonsmoking rooms nowadays," said Mark Lafoon, a manager at the Ramada Inn Blue Ridge.

Smoke-free hotels haven't completely gone cold turkey. Most let guests smoke in outdoor areas.

"We'll just put you in a room with a balcony," Spencer said. "Step outside and smoke, like your wife makes you do at home."