By ADRIENNE MAND LEWIN
Feb. 8, 2006 — Starting next month, guests at Disneyland resorts in California will not be able to smoke in their rooms. But few want to anyway, say company executives.
By March 1, the Disneyland Hotel and Disney's Paradise Pier Hotel in Anaheim will no longer offer smoking rooms, said Rob Doughty, vice president of communications at Disney, the parent company of ABC News. The third resort, Disney's Grand Californian, has been a nonsmoking hotel since it opened in 2001.
The move is due to decreased demand, with just 35 requests for smoking rooms between now and 2010.
"Requests for smoking rooms have declined so sharply," Doughty said. "In order to make sure you're accommodating the guests who want a nonsmoking room with no odor from someone who smoked in there previously, it's just easier to go smoke-free in terms of just meeting guests' expectations."
The move follows Westin Hotels and Resorts' new ban on smoking indoors and poolside at all 77 of its properties in the United States, Canada and the Caribbean. Smokers will have to go to a designated outdoor area, Senior Vice President Sue Brush told The Associated Press. Those who violate the policy will be charged $200.
Doughty said the Disney resorts will also have designated outdoor areas for smoking similar to the areas already in the two Anaheim theme parks and retail and restaurant areas. "It shouldn't be disruptive at all," he said, adding, "a lot of our guests already do that now — they will smoke outside but not smoke in the room."
Complete story
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/Health/story?id=1594915&page=1
Feb. 8, 2006 — Starting next month, guests at Disneyland resorts in California will not be able to smoke in their rooms. But few want to anyway, say company executives.
By March 1, the Disneyland Hotel and Disney's Paradise Pier Hotel in Anaheim will no longer offer smoking rooms, said Rob Doughty, vice president of communications at Disney, the parent company of ABC News. The third resort, Disney's Grand Californian, has been a nonsmoking hotel since it opened in 2001.
The move is due to decreased demand, with just 35 requests for smoking rooms between now and 2010.
"Requests for smoking rooms have declined so sharply," Doughty said. "In order to make sure you're accommodating the guests who want a nonsmoking room with no odor from someone who smoked in there previously, it's just easier to go smoke-free in terms of just meeting guests' expectations."
The move follows Westin Hotels and Resorts' new ban on smoking indoors and poolside at all 77 of its properties in the United States, Canada and the Caribbean. Smokers will have to go to a designated outdoor area, Senior Vice President Sue Brush told The Associated Press. Those who violate the policy will be charged $200.
Doughty said the Disney resorts will also have designated outdoor areas for smoking similar to the areas already in the two Anaheim theme parks and retail and restaurant areas. "It shouldn't be disruptive at all," he said, adding, "a lot of our guests already do that now — they will smoke outside but not smoke in the room."
Complete story
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/Health/story?id=1594915&page=1