I know there have been numerous times that I’ve gotten to a hotel and all they have had is smoking rooms left. I’m a non-smoker and this annoys me. However, I usually see how the room is and if I can detect the smell of smoke in the room or on the sheets. Usually, more expensive places have nicer smoking rooms and I’m able to stay there fine.
However, I also figure that most smokers if they arrive and all that is left is non-smoking, will just go ahead and smoke in the non-smoking room. Is this true?
Do most smokers actually respect the non-smoking room or do they “just have a couple” in the room?
No, even if I made a smoking reservation and they have to put me in a non-smoking room when I get there (as happened on my most recent trip). It doesn’t take that much effort for me to go outside and smoke, and when a non-smoker gets that room after me, they could be bothered far more by the lingering smoke than I am by going outside.
There are also times that I want non-smoking rooms. For example, when I interviewed for my current job, they flew me up here and made a hotel reservation. I didn’t even consider a smoking room - or smoking in my non-smoking room - because it would have made my interview clothes smell like smoke.
I think sometimes that sheets and towels will pick up the smell of smoking if the maid wheels her cart into a smoking room. That faint smell drives me nuts for some reason, even worse than being in a smoking room.
That reminds me of a time when I actually saw the maid smoking in a room while she was working. It was a pretty cheap Motel 6 type place, but still. I don’ know if the room was smoking or not.
At the hotel my friend J works at, if there’s any evidence (smell or anything) that you were smoking in a non-smoking room, you’ll be hit with an extremely large cleaning bill - they have to steam the carpet, do the drapes, everything. It’s not cheap. It’s a nice-ish hotel, though - Amerisuites.
Absolutely not. I smoke a lot, but if no smoking rooms were available, I would find a smoking area or go outside to smoke, or find a different hotel if convenient. It would be totally unfair to the hotel or subsequent customers.
At the budget chain that I work at, smoking in a non-smoking room will get you slapped with a $100 fine. Fixing a non-smoking room that had been smoked in is a time-consuming process involving filters and special cleaner. Even then, it doesn’t work 100% and we may have trouble selling that room to non-smokers (the overwhelming majority) for a few days.
Well, on business trips, my colleague, a smoker, was placed in a non-smoking room and it certainly didn’t stop HIM from smoking. So, yes, some people do it.
I spend a lot of nights in hotel rooms, and people do this all the time. I once was actually woken up because there was so much smoke in the air. I went into the hall and you could see smoke coming under the door of the offenders room. I can’t imagine how much smoking you’d have to do to make that happen. Maybe there was a poker tournament going on in there.
It is much more common in smaller towns in lower end hotels (Hampton Inn, etc.) than in bigger cities or nicer hotels.
When I was a smoker I don’t think I ever stayed in a hotel room where smoking was allowed. Either way, I never smoked in one and I would not smoke in one if it wasn’t allowed. I would assume there would be a fine or a charge or even a yelling-at.
You would be amazed at what trips that hotel smoke alarm. They must be set higher in the smoking rooms or something - the alarm went off one night when I was at the hotel to bring my friend some dinner, and the big alarm base station tells him what room it is and he goes up there. Non-smoking room. They’d lied about smoking, but he was sure from the smell that one of them had been smoking a cigar - that’s all it took. It goes off a lot, often from people smoking where they oughtn’t. Then it beeps downstairs for hours and they don’t give him the code to turn it off.
I did it once, but it was really rather inadvertent. I had been at the hotel for three weeks, in a smoking room. I got a note saying they were working on the rooms, and I would be sent to an upgraded room for the last few days of my stay. I reminded them that I preferred a smoking room, and they said that it wasn’t a problem.
So when I switched rooms, I didn’t even think about it, I continued to smoke. On the last day of the stay, I happened to look out the window, which had a little ledge beneath it - full of cigarette butts. I found that rather odd, considering that it was (I thought) a smoking room. I later found a notecard tucked in one of the drawers of the night stand saying “Thanks for not smoking!” but it was under a bunch of notepads and stuff. I have a feeling that since they were renovating the rooms anyway, they didn’t care if I smoked in what was previously a non-smoking room, but I don’t think it was my fault for not knowing. I never got a complaint - and housekeeping kept cleaning the makeshift ashtray I was using - so apparently it wasn’t an issue.
I know one friend - who SWEARS he isn’t really addicted - that voluntarily accepted the big hit to his credit card for smoking in a non-smoking room. I told him they’d charge him, and his response was a shrug, an “Eh,” and a light.
Another time, my two buddies just opened the window and smoked leaning out of there. The next morning they saw the dozen or so cig butts on top of the awning in front of the building…