No Smoking Policies- Can you share yours?

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catnip

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Is it realistic to totally ban smoking anywhere on your property?
If your policy is stated as such, and clearly noted, can you enforce it? And how?
I am really not willing to even designate an area as I feel many smokers will push those boundries as my only place would be an uncovered picnic table distantly located from the house.
 
Non-smoking in the house, butt-buckets are available on the porch. Smokers are generally few and far between, and we've had no problems in 6.5 years. They usually just sit out on the porch and watch the hummingbirds, butts are always disposed of properly.
 
No smoking in the house. Butt buckets on all the porches, break wall & marsh deck. Since I do not smoke, I have to make an effort to remember to empty them.
Bill
 
no smoking in the building or on the decks due to fire laws. it was an old wooden building ... wooden decks
i had two big trash barrels with ash tray type tops in the parking area -- partly because we were opposite a general store and it cut down AMAZINGLY on the amount of trash strewn about. -- partly because we also had an art gallery in the barn next door and they would smoke walking the long driveway up to the barn.
you could try to keep people from smoking outside on your property but how? would you run outside when you see someone and yell at them? what if they are in their car? in lots of areas, outdoors and in personal vehicles are the only place smokers can go. better to have something for those cigarette butts to go into or you might find them tossed in the garden, in the driveway, or put out in potted plants! (i hate that)
for the most part, i found people respectful of the no smoking ... they would often ask if they could sit in the outdoor adirondack chairs and smoke. i told them yes and to please put their cigarette butts in the ash trays i described.
 
I think the best you can do is state it is a totally non-smoking property. But I'd be prepared to find cigarette butts in your planters or yard outside if you don't have a butt bucket available.
We are smoking in outdoor areas only and have really found the smokers to be very conscientious about butt disposal in the available ashtrays. Unfortunately when someone smokes they carry that smell with them so the room still smells of it and it requires more laundering/Febreezing.
 
the stinky smell off their person is what makes the rooms reek, unfortunately, esp if they smoke in their car, which most do.
 
This is mine. Its on the website and in all rooms:
  • We maintain a Smoke Free Environment indoors.
  • Smoking is not permitted inside any room of the Inn.
  • Smoking is only permitted on porches or patio/outdoor areas, as required by State Law. If you choose to smoke in any room of the Inn, your credit card that is on file will be charged a $300 cleaning fee.
  • Check with Innkeeper for designated smoking area.
 
NO SMOKING HERE ANYWHERE! No butt bucket..no designated area...NO NOTHING!
We only had 2 people in 6 years abuse this policy. We asked them to leave. They promised they would not do it again...and did not...however because they reaked...so did the room:-( Total cleaning required.
Had some who walked the quarter mile down our driveway to smoke in our neighbors yard:) OR they sat inside their own car and smoked.
If they don't like our policy they can stay somewhere else. I for one would not bend an inch to accommodate a smoker.
 
We have no smoker friends. Sorry, I am highly allergic to cigarette smoke and no one comes to my house who wants to smoke.
 
Good to know it had been a non-issue for most of you. I guess if it presents a problem, they can smoke in their car (I would never think to include that in my no smoking property) or I can revisit designating the patio table by the pond as an allowable smoking area.
Thanks for the comments
 
If you are 100% smoke-free it should include the porch too. I don't want guests walking past a smokey smelling porch with people smoking out front. It's like going to a bar / restaurant and having to walk through the smoking section to get to the non-smoking section. It doesn't make sense. I also agree with the cleaning fee if you can prove it was them. They might blame it on the guest before and it's their word against yours with the credit card company.
 
See this is the thing, innkeepers, my Nana was planning a trip out to see us and died before she could make it, she was a heavy heavy smoker, had smoked her entire life.
I would give anything to have my Nana stay here and she would need a place to smoke outside, near the pond or gardens would be fine. Unfortunately there are those from the old days when smoking was glamorous and now they are hooked. Don't make them all out to be bad people.
Sometimes we need to take back that thought where the guests are just numbers to us. Trust me when I say I hate smoking, I do. Funny the things we tolerate when it suits us...I can think of worst things. Just my opinion.
(Just my luck the couple checking in shortly on their 50th anniversary will end up being smokers! Mother Murphy's law of innkeeping...but I won't treat them like children and point them to their dog-house where they can smoke. Will I? I only do that if they stand on the porch near the front door and smoke)
poke.gif
 
If you are 100% smoke-free it should include the porch too. I don't want guests walking past a smokey smelling porch with people smoking out front. It's like going to a bar / restaurant and having to walk through the smoking section to get to the non-smoking section. It doesn't make sense. I also agree with the cleaning fee if you can prove it was them. They might blame it on the guest before and it's their word against yours with the credit card company..
"If you are 100% smoke-free it should include the porch too."
That's really a decision that's up to each 'keeper and their circumstances, don't you think? Our porch wraps around three sides of the house, so it's easy enough to put the buckets downwind of the front door, where smokers won't bother anyone else....and here, they don't. If you don't give them a spot to do it, they'll find one wherever they want to do it, and you will just end up with butts in the flower pots, on the lawn or driveway anyway.
And it's not like a bar, and it's ridiculous to say that just because you have some smokers in the house that "It's like going to a bar / restaurant and having to walk through the smoking section to get to the non-smoking section."
 
NO SMOKING HERE ANYWHERE! No butt bucket..no designated area...NO NOTHING!
We only had 2 people in 6 years abuse this policy. We asked them to leave. They promised they would not do it again...and did not...however because they reaked...so did the room:-( Total cleaning required.
Had some who walked the quarter mile down our driveway to smoke in our neighbors yard:) OR they sat inside their own car and smoked.
If they don't like our policy they can stay somewhere else. I for one would not bend an inch to accommodate a smoker..
catlady said:
NO SMOKING HERE ANYWHERE! No butt bucket..no nothing. We only had 2 people in 6 years abuse this policy. We asked them to leave. They promised they would not do it again...and did not...however because they reaked...so did the room:-( Total cleaning required.
Had some who walked the quarter mile down our driveway to smoke in our neighbors yard:) OR they sat inside their own car and smoked.
If they don't like our policy they can stay somewhere else. I for one would not bend an inch to accommodate a smoker.
YIKES!
CL some people I love with all my heart are smokers. They are addicts, nothing more to it, and I have to take them and their smoking, I hate it, but it is their life - has been for 60 years. Banning them to the car is worse for the stench. That was what I was saying, would rather have them smoke out in the gardens. They will smoke, no matter what, or I will never see them again.
You do not know a guest is a smoker until they check in. I would rather have them happy and allocate a smoking area for them. When they ask, I tell them near the pond there is an ashtray to use. I also have the policy about smoke in the room pay us $500.
When I had 13 Germans arrive a month ago - every last one smoked!!! EVERY ONE OF THEM.
 
I was in Venice several years ago and noticed that everyone smoked. I was having this conversation with a local who snorted at me and stated:
You Americans want to live forever! (didn't know that was a bad thing)
 
I can understand a no-tolerance stance from those with an allergy to smoke.
That said - tobacco is a legal substance and every form of government is sucking at the teat of tobacco taxes. I do not smoke - never have but my Daddy did until he was 69 years old. Many of my dearest friends smoked. I would not have passed up their friendship because of it. They were considerate but it was there. Murphy says the wind blows in the direction of the non-smoker - no matter where they move to.
THAT said - I am not about to lose business because someone is hooked on something that is legal. I have a crystal ashtray on the porch and in all my years in business I believe only one couple ever did me "wrong" but they must have had both windows open because I could not smell it - I found the butts in their pizza box. I will not tolerate illegal stuff, but I am not about to make anyone feel "second class" because they happen to smoke. I find that the smokers automatically go outside to smoke - most do not even smoke in their own home and do not in mine.
 
We say smoking is not allowed inside the building. However, state law now says smoking is not allowed within 20 feet of a 'work space' and this is my work space, so we'll be changing our policies to reflect that guests may no longer smoke on the porch or the patio. They will have to be out on the lawn or in their car. Which may lead to sneaking of cigs in the house. Which may lead to having a stated policy of charges incurred for smoking in the house.
 
We state we are a non smoking property. We have 13 acres of forest and vineyard and I don't want cigarette butts around. We occasionally get a smoker who smokes outside, and since we are a non smoking property they so far have taken their butts with them - putting them in an empty soda can (we have wine fridges in the rooms with their sparkling wine, soda and water).
I'm guessing since we are non smoking and don't make a fuss about them smoking outside they are careful with their smoking garbage, but we are probably just lucky.
RIki
 
I do occassionally have a smoker. Haven't had a problem with them smoking in the room. I have a flower pot filled with sand on the porch about 20 feet from the door. It is with a wicker sitting arrangement, so they can be there and enjoy themselves and not bother anyone else. So far that has worked pretty well.
 
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