Hospitality Industry: FL Disney World hotel smoking

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Smokers should have some clout with big biz, politicians
May 9, 2007
JOHN HERBERT
I thought minorities were protected by the American Constitution. Not if you’re a smoker, apparently.
The latest to get fired up on non-smoking is Disney World in Orlando. Their 22 hotels and time-share resorts are going the clean-air route next month. Interesting that trucks all up and down State Road 50 continue to belch big black clouds of smoke.
So much for clean air.
Disney cites “no demand” as their official excuse for introducing a 100 percent smoking ban.
I don’t believe it.
Not when well over 20 percent of this nation of 300 million people smoke. Surely, there’s good reason to set aside at least four or five percent of their rooms for smokers.
We smokers are getting run over by political cheap shots from businesses seeking a free round of publicity and legislatures wanting to prove they are capable of taking some kind of action, any action.
What politician or businessman wouldn’t love to cushion his or her vote or bottom line by a few more percentage points? That 20 percent is a rather attractive target.
Smokers, as far as I can see, are wimps. They’ve pretty much taken their lumps lying down. An English smoker interviewed at Disney World by the Tampa Tribune said he couldn’t care less. Fine, but I guess that’s why the British have now banned smoking in their pubs. They can get away with it. Another cheap shot.
However, smokers should adopt some of the very same tactics the civil right movement employed more than a generation ago. Demonstrate for your rights. In county and state capitals. In Washington, too. Maybe even in London. There must be a case to be made against undermining the very British scenario of the burly rugby player in the pub with a pint in one hand and a smoke in the other.
It isn’t just the smoking bans that trouble me. It’s the old question of what next?
Many observers are predicting that a new prohibition against alcohol can’t be far behind. Several big cities have already banned trans fats. Some 40 percent of Americans are overweight or obese. Too many tacos? My politically correct wife stopped sm
oking a dozen years ago and almost immediately put on 15 pounds. Her giggly sisters now toss insults like “thunder thighs” her way.
I wouldn’t be at all surprised if separate drinking fountains appeared for smokers and non-smokers. And the day may come when smokers are relegated to the back of the bus; their clothes allegedly reek of smoke.
My guess is that a bucket of fried chicken is a bit more lethal than a carton of Marlboros. Insinuations are about all the no-smoking Nazis can offer. The tobacco lobby, on the other hand, overwhelms us with figures on causes and frequencies of various types of fatality. A few years ago, the U.N. commissioned a study of, as the agency said, the “harmful” effects of second-hand smoke. When the study came up minus conclusive proof, the results were suppressed.
That might be one of the burdens of so-called Big Tobacco. They’ve used too many statistics to defend themselves — more than we could ever need or absorb. Of course we die more often as we get older. That’s the course of nature — not of second-hand smoke. No matter what doctors or insurance companies say.
Disney and other big hotel chains like Marriott and Holiday Inn have to remember they are in the hospitality business. We, the customers (and smokers), are paying too much money for the hotels to dare tell us we can’t do as we like. They aren’t just being cruel; they are downright repressive. Isn’t that illegal?

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Disney resorts to ban smoking

May 3, 2007

LAKE BUENA VISTA? Kath Petchey, a cigarette smoker for 32 years, lit up freely as she walked with her husband along Downtown Disney’s shopping district Wednesday.

But if the Petcheys, from England, want to stay in a Disney hotel on their next visit, Kath Petchey won’t be allowed to smoke in her room, balcony or patio.

The ban, effective June 1, permits smoking at designated outdoor areas. It extends to all the Walt Disney Co.’s 22 hotels and time-share resorts.

“Disney is being a bit of a drama queen.” Kath Petchey said between drags of her cigarette.

Disney, however, is simply responding to demand from their guests, the theme park’s spokesman Jacob DiPietre said Wednesday.

The transition to become smoke-free will allow Disney to better accommodate the increasing number of guests requesting nonsmoking hotel rooms, DiPietre said.

The ban follows a 2000 measure that restricted smoking throughout Disney’s theme and water parks, limiting smoking to designated areas, DiPietre said.

“We’re focused on responding to what our guests are asking for and our guests are overwhelmingly asking for smoke-free rooms,” DiPietre said. “The number of guests requesting smoking rooms has declined dramatically in recent years.”

DiPietre could not provide figures tracking the decline, but said it has been “significant.”

Less than 4 percent of Disney’s more than 24,000 hotel rooms are currently smoking optional, DiPietre said.
Guests caught smoking after the ban could face cleaning surcharges as high as $500, DiPietre said.

If Disney does not have the demand for smoking rooms, then the theme park should reduce the number of smoking rooms available, not ban smoking rooms altogether, said Gary Nolan, U.S. regional director of The Smoker’s Club, a smoker’s rights group.

“Disney is going to send money elsewhere,” Nolan said.

Abraham Pizam, dean of the Rosen College of Hospitality at the University of Central Florida sees Disney’s smoking ban as a positive move.

The odor from smoke lingers long after the smoker has checked out of the room even permeating to nonsmoking rooms, Pizam said.

“Nonsmokers are really belligerent,” Pizam said. “They want a smoke-free environment and they don’t want to be affected by secondhand smoke.”

Some hotels located on Disney property are not owned by the theme park and will still offer smoking rooms after Disney’s ban takes effect next month.

The 17-floor Royal Plaza hotel, for example, offers its fourth floor to smokers.
Not all smokers are upset with the ban.

Samip Bhavsar, of San Jose Calif., was taking a smoke break Wednesday outside Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort, where Bhavsar was staying in a nonsmoking room.

“(The ban) doesn’t bother me at all,” he said. “(I only smoke) when I travel or when I’m with friends.”

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Smoke signal: More hotels impose bans

Christopher Boyd
Sentinel Staff Writer
March 15, 2006

Hotel rooms are among the few remaining redoubts for cigarette smokers whose habit increasingly is relegated to benches on the peripheries of parking lots.

In what could fast become a trend in the lodging industry, even the availability of those rooms is shrinking.

At Westin Hotels and Resorts and Disneyland in California, smoking is out — and ever more hotels and resorts are restricting where guests can light up.

“People these days hate smoke,” said Abe Pizam, dean of the University of Central Florida’s Rosen College of Hospitality Management.

The no-smoking movement has been growing across the country, with state and local governments adopting restrictions. Florida prohibits smoking in most indoor public spaces, including bars and restaurants.

Hotels are just the latest flash point in a cultural shift, Pizam said.

Westin, which operates the Swan Hotel at Walt Disney World and the Grand Bohemian Hotel in downtown Orlando, banned smoking in its 29,000 hotel rooms around the nation in January. Under the new policy, Westin prohibits smoking in all rooms, restaurants, bars and public areas at its 77 properties in the United States, Canada and the Caribbean.

“We found that only about 4 percent of our guests smoked in their rooms,” said Sue Brush, Westin’s senior vice president. “Obviously, it was a risk, because 4 percent represents millions of dollars in revenue. But we concluded we could get more business as a result of making this change.”

Westin, which has promoted healthy lifestyles as part of its advertising campaign, concluded that an outright prohibition on smoking would fit its image.

Westin isn’t the only hotelier ending or considering an end to smoke. Disneyland in California imposed a ban at its hotels last month, and smoking has been restricted to ever smaller areas at Walt Disney World.

“On average, 95 percent of our rooms are now nonsmoking,” Disney World spokeswoman Kim Prunty said. “There is a general downward trend in smoking that is continuing.”

Prunty said Disney World and Disneyland cater to somewhat different clientele. Disney World attracts a substantial number of foreign travelers who are less accustomed to restrictions on smoking than domestic ones.

Other hotel companies are reducing smoking rooms.

Lisa Cole, spokeswoman for Hilton Hotels, said group travelers and overseas tourists continue to create a demand for limited smoking rooms.

“A lot of hotels have found that people don’t want smoking rooms,” Cole said. “For now, we’re leaving it up to our individual properties to set smoking policies.”

Hilton owns the Doubletree Hotel on International Drive and The Hilton at Walt Disney World Village, a hotel where 8 percent of the rooms allow smoking.

Westin says the ban on smoking required an initial investment of about $2.9 million.

“Bedspreads needed to be replaced, drapes needed cleaning, walls had to be scrubbed and carpets needed shampoo,” Brush said. “The idea was to get the odor out and start fresh.”

Pizam, of UCF’s Rosen College, said the decision to ban smoking is, in the end, driven by the market and customer preference.

As popular as smoking bans are with some guests, smokers continue to represent a niche. If enough hotels ban smoking, Pizam said, a genre of hotels that cater to smoking might appear.

“I wouldn’t be surprised that there is a whole class of hotels for smokers,” Pizam said. “But the jury is still out on Westin. I expect other companies will wait and see. If Westin loses market share, the trend might not move so fast.”

Christopher Boyd can be reached at 407-420-5723 or cboyd@orlandosentinel.com.

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