Hospitality Industry: Marriott Hotels

MARRIOTT CONTACT:
Stephanie Hampton
(301) 380-1217
stephanie.hampton@marriott.com
www.marriott.com

Mr. William Marriott
President CEO
Marriott International
1 Marriott Drive
Washington, DC 20058

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OpenThread: Marriott’s New Smoking Policy
Aug 02, 2006
While Marriott Hotels has earned kudos for its recent Smoking Ban amongst health nuts and social-smoking employee wives, but the backlash from smokers still continues.
Luckily for those addicted to the butts, USA Today reports that other hotel chains are still going to accommodate smokers. Extended Stay Hotels, InterContinental Hotels Group, Hilton and Hyatt Hotels are some such chains.
And today we got another piece of mail in our inbox, slamming Marriott for the ban which they think might have something to do with…religion? So before everyone goes all Mel Gibson on this whole thing we figured it was time to declare this a HotelChatter OpenThread. Let’s move the whole smoking debate into the comments area attached to this story. Comment away. Discuss amongst yourselves, be passionate, be informative, and fear not we will be constantly checking this thread to see where things stand. Oh, and if you want to read the email quote that kicked this thread off, it is posted unedited after the jump.
Read: http://www.hotelchatter.com/story/2006/8/2/144444/6432

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Clearing the air: Marriott heralds smoking ban as new level of service

July 25, 2006
By L.A. Johnson, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

It may be time for some enterprising hotelier to open smokers-only hotels. There may be a new niche market for that, now that traveling smokers are losing even more places to lay their heads.

Last week, Marriott International Inc. announced that all 2,300 of its U.S. and Canadian properties — representing 400,000 guest rooms — will be 100 percent smoke-free beginning in September. Common areas such as restaurants, lounges, meeting rooms, public space and employee work areas also will be smoke-free.

“Creating a smoke-free environment demonstrates a new level of service and care for our guests and associates,” J.W. Marriott Jr., Marriott International’s chairman and chief executive office, said in a statement. “Our family of brands is united on this important health issue, and we anticipate very positive customer feedback.”

That family of brands includes Marriott, JW Marriott, The Ritz-Carlton, Renaissance, Courtyard, Residence Inn, Springhill Suites, Fairfield Inn, TownePlace Suites and Marriott ExecuStay. More than 90 percent of Marriott rooms already are nonsmoking.

Westin Hotels & Resorts in the United States, Canada and the Caribbean went 100 percent smoke-free in January. However, only the 77 Westin brand properties in North America and a Westin in Scotland are smoke-free. Three other Westins in Fiji and Australia will be smoke-free by month’s end.

Marriott’s move to go smoke-free will have a greater impact industrywide than Westin’s because it “touches a lot more customers based on the sheer size of the Marriott system … and the sheer volume and reach that it has in touching every price point in the industry,” says Jeff Higley, editor-in-chief of Hotel & Motel Management, a lodging industry trade publication based in Cleveland.

“When a company like Marriott makes a decision like this, it’s often easier for other companies to follow suit.”

Joe McInerney, president and chief executive officer of the American Hotel & Lodging Association, lauded Marriott’s move.

“This is the first time [motels] in the mid level and economy level have gone to completely non smoking,” said Mr. McInerney, whose association represents individual hotel property members, hotel companies, student and faculty members and industry suppliers nationwide. “They should be commended for taking the initiative to do that and to protect their employees from second-hand smoke.”

He expects mid- and economy-level chains, such as Best Western, Days Inn, Howard Johnson and their ilk, will watch carefully to see whether Marriott’s smoke-free move pays dividends.

“My feeling is [Marriott] will increase market share [even though] they may lose some of the smokers,” he said.

The details are still being worked out, but violators of Marriott’s smoke-free rule could be charged $200 to $300 depending on the hotel brand and location.

“It’s a fee to recover costs incurred for that room having been smoked in,” said Marriott International Inc. spokesman Tom Marder. “It’s intended to cover the fact that a room will have to be cleaned.”

Improved guest satisfaction — not punishment — is the impetus behind the smoking ban, he stressed.

Smoking areas will be established outside and a distance away from Marriott properties.

“It’s not going to be literally where guests enter the hotel or common areas of the hotel, but it’s going to be a space that’s allocated for smokers,” he said.

The move may drive some loyal Marriott guests who are smokers to other chains, but it opens the door for other guests who “don’t want to deal with going to a hotel at 9 at night and being told there are only smoking rooms,” Mr. Higley says.

What is a smoking wayfarer to do? Might some entity emerge to serve the unfiltered masses yearning to breathe nicotine? Is their cash not still green, and does it not spend as well as that of nonsmokers?

“You’d think you’d have smoking hotels or smoking restaurants, but there doesn’t seem to be much of a development that way,” said Denis P. Rudd, a professor and director of the Hospitality and Tourism Management program at Robert Morris University.

“I originally thought it was really going to hurt the restaurant and hotel and whole travel industry, but it doesn’t seem to be. I think people are just adapting to it.”

However, given the industry’s heightened focus on catering to guests’ every whim, Mr. Higley says he wouldn’t be surprised at some point to see some hotelier say, “We welcome smokers. Here’s a pack of cigarettes instead of a mint on your pillow.”

It was Larry Mundy who joked in his May 2006 column for www.hotel-online.com that “all-smoking” hotels” with names such as “Le Nicotine, Hackton Inn, Emphysema Suites and Coughyard by Marlboro” could become the next big trend.

In 2004, 44.5 million adults — about 21 percent of the U.S. population — were smokers, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

News of Marriott’s smoke-free edict pleased anti-smoking groups and dismayed smokers’ rights groups.

“We believe it’s the beginning of a trend as businesses realize that second-hand smoke is a serious health hazard,” said Greg Hartley, assistant director of SmokeFree Pennsylvania and Web master of www.NoSmokeDining.org, which lists bars and eateries that prohibit smoking and includes a link to some smoke-free lodging information. “Customer demand is one factor, and the more important factor is the workplace safety of the employees in hotel bars and restaurants. The bottom line is you shouldn’t have to choose between your health and your job.”

Smokers rights groups believe smokers are as entitled to hotel accommodations as anyone else.

“We know where not to go, and if they adopt that worldwide, we know where not to go, but unfortunately, this is a trend that will expand to other hotels,” said John Turci, chief executive officer of the international group FORCES — Fight Ordinances and Restrictions to Control and Eliminate Smoking, www.forces.org. “We’re seeing the same trends, intolerance, indifference and fears with smoking that you saw with alcohol prohibition.”

Mr. Turci isn’t aware of any group that’s keeping a list of hotels where smokers are welcome, but he thinks someone should start one.

The Smoker’s Club Inc., www.smokersclubinc.com, doesn’t track lodging, per se, but does list “Travel: Places to Go” and “Travel: Places Not to Go” as part of its encyclopedia.

“The idea that someone smoking on a separate floor of a hotel is causing significant concern for guests on the floors below is nonsensical,” said Michael J. McFadden, mid-Atlantic regional director of The Smoker’s Club Inc.

“If a hotel has any sort of decent ventilation system at all, there should be no problem. Ask yourself, how often have you personally ever been bothered by someone smoking on a floor above you in a hotel?”

Smokers’ rights groups believe smokers should be allowed to peacefully co-exist with nonsmokers.

“We believe there needs to be mutual respect,” Mr. Turci said. “There is nothing wrong with having no-smoking or smoking rooms in hotels. One cannot say, even assuming passive smoke hurts, that in my own room, I’m going to hurt anybody.”

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One-size-fits-all policies ignore real-world market forces

Jul 24, 2006

Re: “Marriott to make all brands nonsmoking,” July 20

The announcement by a major hotel chain that it will soon ban in-room guest smoking once again illustrates that the marketplace adapts to a diversity of customer preferences without coercion.

In the District, hotels are exempt from the now partially implemented mandatory smoking ban, yet the result will continue to be maximum accommodation by individual businesses and in the aggregate. Some hotels already have — or will — prohibit smoking and some will provide for customer choice, all based on actual demand and common-sense business considerations.

The irony is that the D.C. City Council, in mandating a one-size-fits-all policy for other hospitality providers, failed to recognize that the same real-world forces have long been in effect at our city’s restaurants, restaurant/bars, taverns and nightclubs. Literally hundreds of dining and drinking establishments provide a range of options for all, including those who desire no smoking, the nearly 1 in 4 who choose to smoke and those who simply don’t care.

What we will soon get instead under a mandatory ban is forced social engineering by means of smoking prohibition and the total absence of freedom of choice for business owners, employees and patrons alike. The result is that hospitality will no longer be hospitable for all.

Mark Lee
Washington

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Hotel chain tells guests to butt out

July 19, 2006
By KIMBERLY PIERCEALL, The Press-Enterprise

Smokers seeking sanctuary at Marriott hotels won’t have much relief starting September.

Rooms, lobbies and even balconies will be off-limits when the third-largest hotel chain in the world phases out designated smoking rooms later this year. Demands by nonsmokers for smoke-free rooms and the cost of eradicating left-over cigarette smells fused to the carpet and sheets prompted Marriott International Inc. to ban smoking at all its 2,300 U.S. and Canadian hotels, including 16 in Inland Southern California.

The decision by Marriott — which already had 90 percent of its rooms smoke free — follows a trend started in January, when Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide Inc. disposed of designated smoking rooms at its Westin hotels, choices that have irked at least one smoker.

“You go to a hotel to relax. For people who smoke, that is a large part of their social experience,” said Audrey Silk, leader of the New York-based group Citizens Lobbying Against Smoker Harassment.

“If you can’t have a cigarette in your own room, that takes out the entire enjoyment of the vacation,” she said by phone.

For Cheryl Groom, 50, the smoking ban is good news.

“That’s great, we’re very nonsmoking,” Groom said, who is visiting the Fairfield in Palm Desert from San Diego.

California’s strict smoking rules largely exempt hotels, allowing smoking in 65 percent of a hotel’s rooms, lobby areas and banquet space where food is not served. Marriott’s policy affects all guest rooms, restaurants, lounges, meeting rooms, public spaces and employee work areas.

“We’re still trying to wean out some of the regulars that have come here forever and expect a smoking room,” said Tom Donovan, regional operations manager for Brea-based Campbell Lodging Inc., which owns the Marriott Fairfield Inn in Palm Desert. The company started phasing out its smoking rooms about four months ago.

Hotels such as the Marriott-owned Fairfield Inn say the ranks of smokers have dwindled significantly since 1965, when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said 42.4 million U.S. adults smoked, compared to 20.9 million in 2004.

“I’ve never had anyone booking a room say, ‘I need a smoking room,'” said Carmen Van Krieken, group sales coordinator for Palm Desert’s Fairfield Inn.

But for smokers such as Silk, Marriott and Starwood’s decisions may scare away a segment of the population.

“It’s not even so much about the smoking. It’s this punitive treatment — being singled out,” said Silk, a retired police officer. She said she’ll encourage members of her group and other fellow smokers to boycott the chain.

“They’re telling 25 percent of the population that they are no longer in the business of accommodating you,” she said. “We’re probably the only group in history that is begging for segregation.”

Once the J.W. Marriott Desert Springs Resort in Palm Desert converts its 50 smoking rooms to nonsmoking, the 884-room hotel plans to reserve an area outside for smokers, spokeswoman Emily Bird said.

“I’m sure we’re going to get some people who are frustrated,” Bird said.

“I think we’re catering to the vast majority,” she said of nonsmokers.

Marriott said in a statement that it anticipates no revenue decline because of this decision.

Marriott’s decision isn’t necessarily unique, but its decision to ban smoking at all of its hotels is a sure sign of where the industry is headed, said Richard Behr, general manager of the Miramonte Resort in Indian Wells, owned by Destination Resorts.

The Miramonte’s rooms are all nonsmoking, and only outside areas are reserved for smokers. Smokers there aren’t unhinged by the idea of smoking outside, he said.

“I think a lot of smokers these days are trying to be politically correct,” Behr said. “You’ll get the occasional person who chooses to smoke in their room, and there’s not much you can do about that.

“It permeates the fabrics, and people who don’t smoke are very sensitive to that,” Behr said. “It’s very difficult to get that smell out of the room.”

Smaller boutique hotels, such as Michael Green’s Triangle Inn in Palm Springs, an independent, might struggle with an overriding smoking ban since it deters a portion of the population, he said.

“We get a mix of people,” Green said. “Some weeks we’ll have nobody, and other weeks, it seems like everybody (smokes).”

Staff writer Sandra Baltazar Martinez contributed to this report.

Reach Kimberly Pierceall at 760-837-4410 or kpierceall@PE.com.

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Marriott to make all US, Canada hotels non-smoking

Jul 19, 2006

NEW YORK, July 19 – Marriott International Inc. on Wednesday said it will make all of its hotels in the United States and Canada entirely non-smoking, beginning in September.

The company said the policy change, which it called the largest in its industry, covers more than 2,300 hotels and corporate apartments with nearly 400,000 rooms.

Marriott, based in Bethesda, Maryland, said more than 90 percent of its guest rooms are already non-smoking. It said more customers have been demanding non-smoking rooms.

The change covers such brands as Marriott, Ritz-Carlton, Renaissance, Courtyard, Residence Inn and Fairfield Inn. Marriott has nearly 2,800 lodging properties in the United States and 67 other countries.

NEW YORK (Reuters) — Marriott International Inc. said Wednesday it will make all of its hotels in the United States and Canada entirely non-smoking, beginning in September.

The company said the policy change, which it called the largest in its industry, covers more than 2,300 hotels and corporate apartments with nearly 400,000 rooms.

Marriott (Charts), based in Bethesda, Md., said more than 90 percent of its guest rooms are already non-smoking. It said more customers have been demanding non-smoking rooms.

The change covers such brands as Marriott, Ritz-Carlton, Renaissance, Courtyard, Residence Inn and Fairfield Inn. Marriott has nearly 2,800 lodging properties in the United States and 67 other countries.

Related in the sense of “Now that we got you to do something we want, it’s easy to force you to do everything we want!”

CWA Says Marriott Should Stop Blowing Smoke About Porn

July 20, 2006
Stacey Holliday

Concerned Women for America (CWA) says that if the Marriott hotels care so much about their customers, as indicated in their recent decision to ban smoking from hotel rooms, they should stop offering hard-core porn in their hotel rooms.

“Creating a smoke-free environment demonstrates a new level of service and care for our guests and associates,” said J.W. Marriott Jr., chairman and chief executive officer of Marriott International. “Our family of brands is united on this important health issue and we anticipate very positive customer feedback. … Demand for nonsmoking rooms continues to rise with new information from the Surgeon General on the hazards of secondary smoke.” See: http://marriott.com/news/detail.mi?marrArticle=137410

“We’ve been after Marriott for years to stop providing pay-per-view porn,” said Jan LaRue, CWA’s Chief Counsel. “But their excuse is that some customers want it. What’s that percentage? If it’s only about 5 percent, they’ve lost that excuse. I’m guessing that their cut from porn is a lot bigger than their cut from cigarette machines in the lobby.

“Marriott has placed itself in a perplexing box by banning smoker-friendly hotel rooms, even though 5 percent of customers want a smoking room. If it’s about ‘health,’ why are they banning smoking only in hotels in the United States and Canada? What about former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop’s report on the dangerous consequences of viewing pornography? What about the mental and psychological health consequences related to dependency on porn?

“With summer in full swing and many families looking for hotel accommodations during their vacation, we hope that Marriott will eliminate pornography as an amenity and lead the industry in creating a truly safe and wholesome environment.

“Not only would they reduce their potential legal liability related to a sexually hostile environment, I bet there would be a boost in sales as well,” LaRue concluded.