MGM Smart to Backtrack on Nonsmoking Room Fee

I understand the hotel's rationale--wanting to give guests a way of guaranteeing a nonsmoking room in a city where smoking is more accommodated than in most cities--but the person representing the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas who came up with the idea to charge guests a $20 fee to reserve a nonsmoking room must not have checked with his or her public relations team. The fee turned out to be a public relations blunder. In January the Vegas hotel did indeed begin to charge guests a $20 fee to reserve a nonsmoking room. This prompted immediate criticism by journalists and travelers. MGM Resorts International's rationale for the fee?

In a statement issued after the fee was rescinded, they said, "This policy was a way for guests to personalize their stay, by allowing them to upgrade a reservation to guarantee a particular preference--room style, floor, view. Nonsmoking room was included as one of the guaranteed options."

Travelers visiting most Vegas hotels already pay resort fees. Another fee was just too much. The policy also runs counter to every attempt MGM Resorts International has made to paint itself as environmentally/socially responsible. Its CityCenter project is one of the most celebrated green building projects in the world. Asking nonsmokers--those who actually care about their health and everybody else's right to breathe cancer-free air--to go through the extra step to reserve a nonsmoking room was ridiculous. Why not charge smokers the $20 fee? They are the ones destroying the soft and hard goods in guestrooms one puff at a time. Of course that type of fee will never happen in Las Vegas.

The fee even prompted Matthew L. Myers, Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, to issue a press release. More bad publicity for the MGM Grand Hotel. In the release, Myers said, "No one should have to pay extra to avoid exposure to a harmful substance that causes lung cancer, heart disease and other serious illnesses. What will MGM charge for next? A room without asbestos? One with a sprinkler system or fire alarm? One without bed bugs?"

Ouch. I think MGM got the message. Thank goodness they rescinded the fee. Your thoughts?