hotel news

Interesting report that Westin hotels will soon ban all indoor smoking. If they smell cigarette smoke in you're room, they'll charge you $200 for "cleaning". The hotels will have designated outdoors smoking areas. The hotel said 92% of its guests were already requesting non-smoking rooms.

Interesting concept. Clearly Westin thinks at least 92% of its guests won't have a problem with this new policy, and heck, I know smokers who prefer non-smoking rooms and have their cigarettes elsewhere. Wonder if it'll catch on with other hotel chains. But I must admit pangs of sympathy for smokers -- their legal habit is growing more inconvenient by the day, and it ain't getting any cheaper.

Also a "news" report in today's Washington Post about people who, impressed by the decor in hotel rooms, are buying hotel supplies for home. One Maryland woman even went as far as to equip her guest bedroom entirely in the style of a hotel where she recently stayed.

This is kind of pathetic. Hey, I've stayed in plenty of hotels, many of them pretty nice and pretty expensive, but I have NEVER felt the urge to recreate a hotel room's decore at home! As interior designs go, they are more safe than interesting, imho. People are strange.