Smoking rooms are disappearing from hotels

TO THE list of endangered travel facilities—which includes pay phones, communal aeroplane screens and concierges—there is one more to add: smoking rooms. Even a few years ago, guests were routinely asked whether they would prefer a smoking room or not. But today fewer hotels are offering smoking rooms and those that do have a vanishingly small supply.

According to the latest report from the American Hotel and Lodging Association, a trade group, the share of hotel rooms that are non-smoking has steadily risen from 74% to 97% over the last decade. And the proportion of hotels that only offer non-smoking rooms has jumped from 38% in 2008 to 85% last year.

For a business traveller with a tobacco habit, then, there are few options. Those seeking a dash of glamour will struggle, as 97% of luxury hotels do not have smoking rooms. Only among budget-hotel category—the lowest price segment of five listed in the survey—do the majority of...Continue reading

from Business and finance http://www.economist.com/blogs/gulliver/2017/11/stubbed-out?fsrc=rss