The fight against smoking and smokers began a long time ago, therefore in a lot of parts of the world, smoking in private places is no longer allowed, but never before a hotel has taken the decision to forbid smoking in the entire hotel area.

Westin Hotels & Resorts decided to ban smoking indoors at every property they own in United States, Canada and the Caribbean, and also in Westin Resort on Hilton Head Island. Starting January, every customer that desires to smoke will have to go in special designated smoking areas.

Enica Thompson, the spokeswoman for the American Hotel & Lodging Association says that forbidding the smoking in the entire hotel is a little bit too much. "We think other hotel chains will eventually follow suit, depending on the success of the Westin".

Even if by now a lot of institutions, restaurants, government buildings, workplaces have adopted the smoking free concept, for an entire hotel chain to subscribe to this is unheard of until now.

On the other hand, Kim Chappell, the general manager of Westin Resort Hilton Head Island, said that because the demand for non-smoking rooms came from more than 90% of the guests, the ban of smoking was a logical thing to do. He adds: "I think it's long overdue that the entire hotel environments go smoke-free. This is an exceptional step for us to take as a company".

According to a report from the American Hotel & Lodging Association in 1998, the percent of the non-smoking hotel guest rooms was 61, and in 2004 the percent rose to 73.

To all the hotels that are part of the chain, smoking will be banned in all indoors areas of the hotels, like guest rooms, banquet halls, restaurants and bars and even pool area and private balconies.

For the guests that have already booked their rooms for the beginning of the 2006 year the manager of the hotel says that they will have the option to cancel the reservation without having to pay any charges.