Best Western Rewards - Can't guarantee non-smoking rooms??? (A bit of a rant...)

Although I am a GCC member I must confess it's two or three years since I last stayed at a Best Western Hotel.

Earlier this week I made a reservation at www.bestwestern.com for a property in Viareggio, Italy.

To my surprise the site did not give me the option of specifying a non-smoking room - there were other options I was able to tick (high floor/low floor and such like) but nowhere was I able to state that I need a non-smoking room - and it is a case of NEED, not just "want" or "prefer" with me.

I put a note in the "remarks" column stating that it is an absolute condition of my booking that I stay in a non-smoking room, and also sent an email to BW customer care explaining that I need a non-smoking room, and why. This approach has usually worked on the very rare occasions that other hotel chains did not offer a non-smoking option on their booking form, and I assumed it would work with BW... but not so.

Just had an email telling me this:

If you want to book a non-smoking room, you must select a room type
offered through bestwestern.com as NSMK or No Smoking. If the room
description does not specifically state this you are not selecting a
guaranteed non smoking room type.

If you select a room type that does not read as NSMK or No Smoking, then
you would have to request a non smoking room. Please be advised that a
request is not a guarantee. Requests are subject to the availability of
these services offered at time of check-in and you will not be contacted
prior to arrival is the request cannot be honored.

I simply cannot believe that BW, supposedly one of the largest hotel chains in the world, cannot guarantee a non-smoking room - especially in a country like Italy which has non-smoking legislation in force.

I have just been on the phone to BW Customer Care, and they've basically told me that there is nothing they can do and that I just have to take pot luck - there may be a non-smoking room for me, there may not be, I just have to hope for the best.

I am... staggered! My past dealings with BW (both the company, and individual hotels) have always been entirely positive; this attitude to non-smoking rooms seems quite extraordinary.

So... what do I do? Hope for the best, as they suggested? Cancel my reservation? Contact the hotel direct? I'm at a bit of a loss...

Hi!
Yes, you schould contact the hotel directly. Because they're the only one who can help at this time.
Have had similar experiences in the past. Non smoking seems sometimes to be really difficult. No clue why.

My impression is that many hotels in Europe (though it may vary country by country in addition to brand and individual hotel) don't have non-smoking vs smoking rooms at all.

Keep in mind that unlike the US, European hotels are fulll of people who don't speak the language. Therefore I bet a lot of people who got non-smoking rooms didn't realize/understand that, and smoked anyway. The hotels may have found therefore that in the multi-lingual (and smoker-heavy) European enivornment it's more trouble maintaining non-smoking rooms as truly non-smoking than it's worth.

In the US, you often see things in hotels like "you'l be charged $250 for smoking" in a non-smoking room. But perhaps it's not legal to have such a charge in Europe, especially again if you don't explain the charge upfront in the native language of whichever European country your guest is from?

My impression is that many hotels in Europe (though it may vary country by country in addition to brand and individual hotel) don't have non-smoking vs smoking rooms at all.

Don't know what your impression is based on, but that's not my impression - and I live in Europe, and travel extensively.

I actually remember when I last stayed in a high-end hotel which did not have designated non-smoking rooms. It was in September 2001, in Slovenia. And I remember being surprised.

Even in Greece - where smoking is still the norm rather than the exception - I had no problems booking a non-smoking room earlier this year.

Keep in mind that unlike the US, European hotels are fulll of people who don't speak the language. Therefore I bet a lot of people who got non-smoking rooms didn't realize/understand that, and smoked anyway.

You don't need to speak any language to know that a round sign with a cigarette and a line through it means "no smoking". Those who smoke in non-smoking rooms generally do so deliberately, not out of ignorance.

In the US, you often see things in hotels like "you'l be charged $250 for smoking" in a non-smoking room. But perhaps it's not legal to have such a charge in Europe, especially again if you don't explain the charge upfront in the native language of whichever European country your guest is from?

I've seen these signs in European hotels, and they are usually in the native language, plus English, and often German and French as well.

But all that is not the real issue. The real issue is that the hotel mentions the availability of non-smoking rooms on its web site, but bestwestern.com won't let you prebook them. Which is crazy!

The real issue is that the hotel mentions the availability of non-smoking rooms on its web site, but bestwestern.com won't let you prebook them. Which is crazy!
Best Western touts its itself as "every hotel is independently owned & independently operated".

Nice translation: They're not all cookie cutter.

Honest translation: More inconsistency than any other hotel brand (of brands with a major US presence, at least). Poorer integration of the chain program's policies (earning points/miles, and apparently room preferences requests) than any other hotel brand.

While other hotel chains may have some non-smoking rooms, they can be fleeting nevertheless. For example, I just did a search on hotels in Paris, Napoli, and Salisbury UK at Priority Club (IHG family of hotels: Holiday Inn, etc), and while each showed at least one type of room with non-smoking confirmable, in most cases it wasn't the cheapest room (in one case it was only a very expensive suite!), and it wasn't available if you were booking close in when the hotel was heavily booked already, and by that time they only have the nebulous "standard room" and "deluxe room" available ("type of room decided at check-in").

So even if it's not as common to have hotels with no non-smoking rooms as I thought, it still seems to me that the percentage of rooms designated as non-smoking (especially in the southern half of Europe) seem to be way smaller than in the US (or in Scandinavia, where for example the Choice Hotels Scandivnia chain mostly operates 100% non-smoking hotels, yaay!).

Meanwhile, to bring it back to Best Western, as I said, poorer integration of such things as reservation systems. Since BW central has such loose control over the hotels that are affiliated with it, they can't "push" a new reservation system (that could track non-smoking rooms better) down their throats the way other major chains can. Given that they still sometimes handle earning points/;miles through ridiculous paper "tracking forms", I wouldn't be surprised if some of these hotels are keeping track of non-smoking rooms with pencil and paper, and thus can't deal with doing it prior to the day of arrival!

Just to say... thank you for all the help. Got my non-smoking room without any problems in the end. Somewhat faded, VERY early-20th century... but at least it smells nice and clean! ^

Keep in mind that unlike the US, European hotels are fulll of people who don't speak the language. Therefore I bet a lot of people who got non-smoking rooms didn't realize/understand that, and smoked anyway.



For Real? Really? Can you please tell me which language wouldn't understand this:
http://www.ci.sweeny.tx.us/images/no_smoking.gif

I think it is pretty straight forward

http://www.ci.sweeny.tx.us/images/no_smoking.gif

For Real? Really? Can you please tell me which language wouldn't understand this:
http://www.ci.sweeny.tx.us/images/no_smoking.gif

I think it is pretty straight forward

http://www.ci.sweeny.tx.us/images/no_smoking.gif
Sorry, I realize my post you replied to was confusingly worded.

I didn't mean to say that you can't easily explain "no smoking" to people who don't speak your language. As you say, the international symbol does that.

What I was asking is how do you explain a policy like "if you smoke in your room, you will be charged $250" internationally?

My experience with central/southern Europe is that people are too used to completely ignoring no-smoking signs (say, in train stations) because they're used to no one enforcing them. So how do you make an international sign that says not only that there's no smoking, but that there will be a stiff penalty if you do smoke in this room?