Sorry to dig up an old thread but I just couldn't resist posting to this thread. I have a unique perspective on this subject as both a hotel owner and a user of ecigs. Charging people a $250 fee for smoking in one of my rooms is a very sensitive issue and represents a constant challenge for me. Most people figure it is just a way that a hotel can tack on an additional charge and pocket a bit of money. Unfortunately that is far from reality. When a guest smokes in a room it presents three problems for the hotel.
First and foremost is that the room has to be shut down. When a guest checks out rooms are inspected and any work that needs be performed is generally done between the checkout and checkin times. Usually that is done during a four hour window. When a guest has smoked in the room we immediately have to take that room off the availability and schedule it for a deep clean. During peak times, like the weekend, this is a way hotels lose revenue. Between the time the room is shut down, the deep cleaning is performed, and the room can be put back in availability an average of three days goes by. If you are charging an average of $150/night then the cost in lost revenue is $450.
Second is the actual cost of the deep cleaning. In a typical hotel room where a guest has stayed for one night a housekeeper can expect to spend between 30 and 45 minutes in that room. When someone smokes we need to perform a deep cleaning which means every surface in the room is wiped down including the walls and ceiling, all upholstery is steam cleaned and the carpets are shampooed. The cost alone for the upholstery and carpet cleaning, which is generally done by an outside service for smaller hotels, is around $150. A housekeeper can expect to spend at least double to triple the amount of time in that room than for a normal stay.
Third is the simple fact that even after all of these steps are done the smell can still linger. If the next guest who checks in still smells smoke we need to either move them, which shuts the original suite down again, or we need to take an extreme step which is to repaint the room.
At the end of the day its a bad situation for both the hotel, the guest who feels slighted for having to pay the fine, and the next guest in that room who might be bothered by any lingering smell. Believe me, I hate when I get a report of someone smoking cause it is generally a huge headache for everyone involved. The simple thing to do is to just not smoke in the room. All the being said, I have yet to notice any guest vaping in our rooms. Since I am a huge proponent of using electronic cigarettes I would not mind if a guest used one and have been tempted recently to sell them at the front desk. Although I can't speak for the Marriott or any other big chain hotel I can say that these kinds of situations are more of an issue for the hotel than the guest. I agree that this women should not have been charged and generally most hotel GM's air of the side of the guest in these situations. Most hotels would rather not upset the guest and enforcing the smoking fine is not something that is done loosely. The best thing that people like us can do is educate places that do not yet know the ins and outs of using an electronic cigarette. Although I would love to see people boycott Marriott (they are a direct competitor of mine) I think we need to remember that this experience represents a tiny minority. If the GM of that hotel doesn't understand how ecigs are different he/she is only looking at this from the perspective of thinking this is no different than regular smoking and they are reacting out of the frustration hotels go through when a guest decides to smoke in a room.
