Just looking for some feed back on the views of smoking and its impact to the hospitality industry?
Hotel fires at midnight?
I think it would be fair to say that almost all parts of the industry dislike smoking for all the additional cleaning and odour issues. However there seems to be little doubt that bars and pubs see a significant drop in patronage in the period just after any ban is introduced, with it taking some time to recover. The claim was of about a 10% drop in revenue when smoking bans were introduced here. (South Australia) Some venues try hard to get around bans, with a recent issue here being the casino placing poker machines in an outdoor area where smoking was still allowed. Clearly they saw value in this, although it has since been banned.
Passive smoking issues, and long term legal problems with staff claiming for problems when working in smoke filled areas remain a headache, and venues in areas where smoking is banned probable are rather relived they can avoid the issue.
When my county enacted new antismoking regs on January 1, I interviewed several restaurant managers asking them what they thought the effect might be on their businesses. To my surprise, they all answered “none whatsoever.” One of them ran a bar that was exempt from the new smoking laws, and she said they wouldn’t gain any business by allowing smoking. Another was right across the street from a town that had banned smoking a year earlier, and he said he hadn’t seen any gain or loss during that year. I was a little surprised.
OTOH, the casinos in both Missouri and Illinois are fighting any restrictions on smoking,
Nine out of ten times people ask if we have any smoking rooms I say, “No,” and they’re relieved. Some of them are downright thrilled. Having stayed in smoking rooms a time or two as a non-smoker I don’t blame them. The one guy is usually disappointed, but will just have to deal with it. Whether we allow smoking seems not to affect our business at all. The no pets policy has a bigger impact, but hey, I don’t make the rules.
The casinos seem to be the worst hit by the smoking ban we just got. The trouble is that you now have to stop gambling when you want a smoke! What’s worse is you have to go outside, away from the intentionally confusing casino interior, and just sit there for 5 minutes. People realize what time it is and start thinking maybe they should go home, especially since here it’s machine-only gambling so you have to cash out to go outside anyways.
I’d be perfectly okay with it, except that I’m surprised how many of my favorite little hole-in-the-wall bars are kept afloat by the row of video poker and keno machines in the back.