“You Want Your Guests to Be Happy in This Business”: Hoteliers’ Decisions to Adopt Voluntary Smoke-Free Guest-Room Policies

Abstract

Purpose:

To explore why some hotels have implemented 100% smoke-free policies voluntarily, the perceived consequences of doing so, and media responses.

Design:

Qualitative study of hotel management and quantitative content analysis of media coverage of smoke-free hotels.

Setting:

Hotels and media based in the United States.

Participants:

Eleven representatives of 5 independent and 4 chain hotels. Other data included 265 news items about smoke-free hotels.

Method:

We conducted 30-minute semi-structured interviews with hotel representatives and analyzed the data using qualitative content analysis. We also searched 3 online news databases for news items about hotels in our study, and collaboratively coded retrieved items; we analyzed the content and slant of news items.

Results:

Business considerations, including guest requests, competitor action, and cost savings, were the primary motivations for implementing 100% smoke-free guest-room policies. Health concerns played a minimal role. Hotels received positive feedback from customers and employees. Media coverage was favorable, emphasizing positive aspects of going smoke-free; the overall slant of news items was positive or neutral. However, few hotels marketed the change.

Conclusions:

Since hotel customers and employees are likely to experience long periods of smoke exposure and smoke-free hotels appear to be so well received, it may be timely to pursue policies making all hotels smoke-free.