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WYTESTONE CLEARS THE AIR

Local hotels go along with national trend of moving to a smoke-free environment.

Date published: 2/3/2007

BY ANDREA CHRISTIE

If you're looking for a hotel with a smoking room in the Fredericksburg area, your options are a little more limited than they were in the past.

Wytestone Suites, which has a location in Massaponax as well as in Woodbridge and Charlottesville, went completely smoke-free Jan. 1.

"We just came to the point where guests were asking for nonsmoking rooms," said Patricia Gray, general manager for the Wytestone. "We were running out of nonsmoking rooms."

A year ago, the Wytestone in Massaponax had one floor designated as smoking. More recently, it cut that to half a floor, leaving only nine rooms as smoking. And as of Jan. 1, it is completely nonsmoking.

"It makes for a much nicer environment, especially for the housekeeping that have to work in those rooms," Gray said. "There is also less damage because there are no burns in the furniture and carpet."

While the hotel expected some resistance, according to Gray it has lost only one or two customers because of the nonsmoking rule.

According to Lura Hill, the Fredericksburg tourism sales manager, not all hotel chains in the area have moved to completely nonsmoking, but when renovations occur many smoking rooms are lost to make more nonsmoking rooms available.

"There has definitely been a decrease in smokers over the years and an increase in the number of people asking for nonsmoking rooms," Hill said.

According to her, while not all hotels in the area are completely smoke-free, many of the local inns and bed-and-breakfasts are.

Bonnie De Lelys, innkeeper at the Richard Johnston Inn, said it has been nonsmoking since it opened.

"Nonsmoking is the preference of most of our guests," De Lelys. "Plus you just can't get the smell of smoke out of drapes and carpets. You can't put a smoking room next to a nonsmoking room because smoke travels."

Moving to a smoke-free environment is a national trend.

In October, Marriott made all of its 2,300 hotels and corporate apartments in the United States and Canada nonsmoking. In a press release , the chain cited health concerns for employees and customers as the main reason for switching.

In addition to health concerns, industry analysts also say having smoke-free rooms will save money for hotels because less cleaning is required.

In January 2006, Westin Hotels and Resorts was the first large chain to switch to completely smoke-free.

Westin's research found that 92 percent of customers requested nonsmoking rooms.

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Date published: 2/3/2007