NATIONAL REPORT—Patty Griffin, a nonsmoker, recently found herself staying in a smoking room in a hotel in Texas. It wasn’t her first choice, but it was what was available. The smoking odor didn’t hit her hard, however, until she got home and unpacked. “I took out a cotton nightgown, and I couldn’t believe how much it smelled like smoke,” says Griffin, president and founder of the 300-member Green Hotels Assn., Houston, Texas. Certainly, hotels and motels are becoming more accommodating to nonsmokers such as Griffin who don’t want to smell stale smoke or be exposed to its health risks. In...

SAINT CHARLES, MO.—In less than half a year, FreshStay—lodging’s fastest-growing online network of smoke-free properties—has united 247 nonsmoking hospitality establishments located in 192 cities in nine nations. Most recently, FreshStay welcomed the 21c Museum Hotel as a member—making Kentucky the 48th state to join the FreshStay organization. “Now that the 21c Museum Hotel—a one-of-a-kind boutique property in Louisville featuring original artwork throughout it—has joined FreshStay, our members represent 48 of the 50 states,” says Ray Burger, founder of FreshStay. “Once smoke-free properties in Arkansas and Mississippi join our online union—and we’re working on those two now—we’ll have a...

NATIONAL REPORT—Old habits die hard. Most of us in the United States were raised in houses that used upright vacuum cleaners. Chances are your mother used an upright at home, and your grandmother before her. Now, you use an upright, not just at home, but also at your job. A recent survey by “Sanitary Maintenance” magazine found that 80 percent of cleaning equipment distributors named uprights as their company’s best-selling item. The alternative to uprights, canister vacuums, accounted for just 2 percent of sales. The situation is completely different in the rest of the world, where canister...

FRANKFURT, GERMANY—The Mövenpick Hotel Frankfurt City has opened as the company’s first nonsmoking hotel. The four-star business and conference hotel is located right next to Frankfurt’s trade fair grounds. The new hotel has a total of 288 guestrooms on seven floors, including two rooms with disabled access and eight rooms specially furnished for allergy sufferers. “Although we’ve been present in the Frankfurt area for a number of years now with a Mövenpick Hotel at Oberursel, we’re particularly delighted to have gained a foothold in the downtown area of this major city,” says the new general manager of the...

NEWPORT NEWS, VA.—Zentox has announced the expansion of its facility in Newport News, Va. The expansion will increase the company’s current square footage by approximately 50 percent, with 60 percent of the new space earmarked for the manufacturing of Photox units. Photox is an advanced air purification system for the reduction of indoor airborne microbiological and volatile organic compound (VOC) contaminants. Based on photocatalytic oxidation technology, Photox is designed to remove noxious odors, toxic vapors and infectious organisms from the indoor environment. It is available in two sizes—the Photox 500 and the portable Photox 100. The Photox 500...

BUFFALO, N.Y.—In response to customer requests, the Buffalo Niagara Marriott is adding PURE Allergy Friendly Rooms for their guests who suffer from asthma and allergy conditions, or who simply want the most comfortable stay possible. The PURE program provides guests an environment where every surface is treated to minimize contaminants, irritants and odors. “We are excited to be the first full-service hotel in western New York to offer our guests PURE Allergy Friendly Rooms,” says Dick Schroen, general manager at the Buffalo Niagara Marriott. “It is also great to be working with Buffalo-based PURE Solutions, the leader in...

HOUSTON—An increasing number of hoteliers are choosing to set their properties apart by becoming nonsmoking facilities. There are many advantages to making the change: • Providing a healthier atmosphere for guests and staff; • Protecting bathroom counters from burns, carpet from holes, etc.; • Extending the life of soft goods, carpet and interior paint of the property; • Shortening the time it takes housekeepers to clean a room; and • Creating a special marketing niche for your property. The Groveland Hotel near Yosemite National Park has been smoke free for the last 12 years since Peggy Mosley became general manager there. Peggy’s experiences provide boundless...

NEW YORK—The Premier became a fully nonsmoking facility on June 1. The hotel’s smoking rooms (24 rooms in total) underwent a deep cleaning process prior to their conversion to nonsmoking rooms. One hundred and one of The Premier’s rooms are currently nonsmoking. This conversion marks The Premier as one of the first New York City deluxe hotel rooms to become nonsmoking. The Premier is owned and managed by Millennium Hotels and Resorts, North America. The Premier is located at 133 West 44th Street in the heart of Times Square adjacent to the Millennium Broadway. The Premier features a...

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA—Sydney’s Courtyard by Marriott North Ryde Hotel has became a smoke-free property, in response to strong and consistent feedback from guests. The hotel’s move coincides with World No Tobacco Day, a global event to highlight the dangers of smoking. Effective immediately, “smoking rooms” no longer will be available in the 196-room hotel, located at the corner of Lane Cove and Talavera Roads in the Macquarie business precinct. “Our smoke-free policy is in line with increasing public concern and opinion against smoking in public places,” says Louise Byrom, general manager of the Courtyard by Marriott North Ryde....

SAINT CHARLES, MO.—Hot on the heels of Starwood Hotels & Resort’s announcement that its Westin Hotels would go smoke free, entrepreneur Ray Burger has launched a new Web site for hotels that are smoke free. As of late March, the online directory at www.freshstay.com had grown to 200 hotels. “An average of five smoke-free properties is added to the online directory every day,” says Burger, president and founder of Pineapple Hospitality Inc., which owns and manages the site. “Already, most states and 100 cities are represented. Dozens of national and regional brands as well as management companies,...