Smoke-free hotels

Hotels in New York have been smoke-free since 2003 when New York’s Clean Indoor Air Act prohibited smoking in a host of areas including hotels. Other states including Illinois are yet to follow. Today’s Chicago Tribune has a report on two Kimpton Hotels in Chicago, the Hotels Monaco and Burnham, implementing a no-smoking policy this month. The report notes that “smokers now must stand 15 feet away from the hotels before lighting up their cigarettes, cigars or pipes. Any guest that violates that policy receives a $300 penalty”. A Kimpton spokesperson noted “We feel it is the right thing to do for our non-smoking guests, our employees and the look and the feel of the property”. Kimpton’s is only the latest to hotel chain to join an increasing long list of hotel names from Marriott to Westin and even countries like Ireland.

Published by

Vijay Dandapani

Co-founder and president of a New York based hotel company for 24 years. Grew the firm to five hotels in Manhattan and also developed a greenfield project at MacArthur airport, New York. Speaker at numerous prestigious forums including Economy Hotels World Asia, Lodging Conference, NYU, Columbia University Real Estate Roundtable, Baruch College's Zicklin School and ALIS. President and ceo of New York City Hotel Association since January 2017.