This is a good post Hvr! AFF High-5 ;)
This, however, is an incredibly rude post.

Exactly which federal or state laws are violated by the non-smoking rules?

Non-smoking rooms are a good idea, non-smoking floors even better. Non-smoking inside public areas is also not a problem, or even outdoors if it's an enclosed area. A total non-smoking hotel is not a problem either, but when all hotels jump on the same politically correct bandwagon then we do have a problem - not least for the non-smokers. 'Cause when smoking is forbidden everywhere, chances are you as a non-smoker will encounter second hand smoke. But if there are designated floors, rooms and areas for smokers, everybody is happy.

Apart from the non-smoking nazis of course, collectively the most miserable people around.

Man, I just love these smoking threads. http://www.freesmileys.org/smileys/s...ic/popcorn.gif

So what happens if a guest check into a non-smoking room, go out to a cigar lounge, and come back to the hotel.

Would that guest be required to fumigate himself before being allowed in the room?

It's a virtual certainty that the room would end up picking up some faint odors from the guest's clothing.

I won't smoke on a balcony unless there is an ashtray out there provided by the hotel. I am so inured to going outside the building and some distance away from the entrance that I even do this in China (to the amusement of countess hotel doormen, who always indicate that I am welcome to smoke inside). Even as a smoker, I find smoking rooms in hotels too unpleasant to stay in, and rental cars in which people have smoked very unpleasant to drive. If, however, I am outside, in public, in a place where smoking is permitted, all by my lonesome, don't come over and give me grief about smoking. If you don't want people to smoke, ban the sale of cigarettes -- don't hassle the addicts. I've seen people who, evidently, train their children to tell strangers, "Don't you know smoking is bad for your health?" My response is always, "Don't YOU know that annoying strangers is bad for YOURS?

Flying in the US I had a connecting flight cancelled with a mech issue and the rebooked flight then got hit with an overnight weather delay-leading to an overnight stay in DEN. UA booked me into the Renaisance but they failed to notice the hotel's shuttle ended at midnight and I finally got to the hotel after 3am. I checked in and asked for a smoking room -and the receptionist told me the hotel was non-smoking but he'd move me to a balcony room so I could smoke there. I didn't made a fuss or argue -I was too tired to even be capable of either by this point.The offer came unprompted from the hotel. So *some* smoke free hotels aren't that fussed about balcony smoking <shrug>

As for some of the ruder comments on this thread-Zealotry of any persuasion is always unattractive and it's even sadder when parent s teach their children to be rude to strangers but ultimately it usually comes back to bite the parents in the bum later on.

IANAL but im 99% sure that it has to be explicitly prohibited...

thats not what they said - they said "a clause"

Thanks for reinforcing it with the following comment:
Most federal and state statutes contain many subsections or clauses.

As a smoker, I will no longer stay in a 100% nonsmoking hotel (I said goodbye to Marriott years ago when they went totally nonsmoking), and always book a smoking room with my reservation. If, because of glitch or circumstance I am given a nonsmoking room at checkin, I will request a room with a balcony where I can smoke. I've never been told I can't smoke on a balcony in a nonsmoking room in a hotel that otherwise accomodates smokers with available smoking rooms; it is only the 100% nonsmoking hotels that have a problem with outdoor patio or balcony smoking.

Recently I spent an overnight at an LAX airport hotel that had just become totally nonsmoking (in spite of having booked my smoking room reservation a month prior), and the bellman who accompanied me to the room advised me that he knew of a place to smoke on the open-air stairway landing at the end of the hallway, a few doors from my room. So even at the nonsmoking hotels, sometimes there is a way to do it without bothering others...

I always carry a tiny portable ashtray with a lid that snaps closed (an Altoid tin would work for this), as well as a small ziploc bag into which I place the cold ashes and butts from the balcony before re-entering a nonsmoking room. I dispose of the ziploc bag after I leave the hotel, usually in an outdoor trash can. The next occupant of my room would not know a smoker had been there before them, unless they were SO sensitive that they picked up odor from my clothes, and so far, thank goodness, one is not prohibited ANYWHERE from wearing clothes with smoke residue on them! (Actually now I even bring a small travel-size Febreze with me, out of paranoia that someone will actually complain about sitting next to a smoker on a plane!)

Some folks don't understand that second hand smoke dissipates very rapidly, even in a closed room, and the "smell" that is left (sometimes called "third-hand smoke"), is merely smoke residue, which while perhaps unpleasant to some (just as farts and perfume are unpleasant to me), is not harmful to others. In an outdoor setting, second hand smoke dissipates even more rapidly, and should not be a concern to a nonsmoker unless they are breathing less than a few feet from the cigarette. If you are SO sensitive to the smell of tobacco smoke, even outside, perhaps you should make sure you are booked in a 100% nonsmoking hotel that does not ever make accomodations for smokers. These are now becoming more common than hotels that have smoking rooms.

It's still a legal activity, and it's now prohibited in most public places everywhere. Please don't deny us smokers our habit in the privacy of a rented space that has no express prohibition against it.

:rolleyes:

again misquoting IMHO

to me this suggests being incorrectly worded, being too long and including other things, etc.

my disagreement is with your emphasis on "non smoking"

Exactly which clause of which contract between which two parties are you talking about?

I am sorry you are getting tangled in your own confusion. We are talking about clause(s) of a hypothetical contract signed between two entities.

deleted due to duplication

referring to how the contract is worded, and whether the contract includes anything that is not allowed by say consumer protection laws ?

So...anyone who prefers to not breathe second (or third) hand cigarette smoke, AND prefers to not have their expensive hotel room and/or clothes reek of smoke is a "smoking zealot" or "smoking Nazi"? :rolleyes:

Despite the coments to the contrary, the smokers have made it clear that they are the out of touch extremists in this thread.

Exactly. I smoked for 10 years, part of which was when I was a teen still living at my parents house. I remember coming inside after smoking with the sliding glass door closed and my mother getting angry because she insisted I had been smoking inside. I rolled my eyes at her because I couldn't imagine (being the bratty teenager I was) that my smoking outside could smell that bad once I came inside. In other words, it takes an ignorant teen to not know reality. Any adult that claims that their smoking on a balcony doesn't completely taint the room they've entered is a complete ignoramouus or just totally disingenuous.

What smokers don't seem to realize is.....no one cares if you smoke. It's your right to get yellow teeth, have your clothes and hair reek, and die of lung cancer. Your next door hotel neighbors simply don't care. The only time we care is when your habit forces us to inhale your smoke simlpy because our sliding glass door is open on our balcony.

A good hypocrisy test would be this: if the hotel decided to dump an extremely large steaming pile of feces within smelling distance of your room, would you have a problem with it?

Yeah, that's what I thought. ;)