Ancien Maestro

Some of the cigar smoke, are ten times stronger it seems than cigarettes.. so that'll definitely have me running back into the room and shutting the patio door.. hopefully, wind has a nice friendly direction to carry away from our room, but unfortunatley that's not always the case..

Plato90s

There's an inherently contradictory statement here.

If the entire property is non-smoking even in public areas, there's no need to specify a non-smoking room. That is implicit in the definition of a non-smoking property.

The reality is that while almost all hotels offer non-smoking rooms, very few hotels prohibit smoking completely in the sense of a non-smoking property.

A person who reserves a non-smoking room, as opposed to room in a non-smoking property, can not reasonably require that the air outside the room be smoke-free.

Yaatri

This is the problem with your reasoning that brings up the issue of entitlement. Where I have I said that smokers should have all the rights? And how do you know some smokers are not already compromising? Do you possess some sort of super secret sensor that allows you to collect data on how many smokers do not smoke on a balcony?

The problem is with your reasoning and your approach. If you are bothered by someone smoking on a balcony next to yours, or if a hotel does not provide you what you asked and paid for, smoke, by all means complain. Don't patronise that hotel. Ask the hotel for compensation. Sue them for breach of contract. Maybe even ask the smoker politely to not smoke while you are on the balcony. The smoker may or may not oblige you. But I am pretty sure, if you approach them with the attitude you have shown here, they will probably not comply. If smoking is not prohibited specifically on a balcony, and someone chooses to smoke there, the reality is that you are in a bind. You have lots of options, many of which I have mentioned in this post for the second time.
People make compromises all the time. Just because you are not aware of it doesn't mean they don't. How do you know a smoker is not smoking only half as much as he would smoke had you not been on the balcony?
A hypothetical smoker might reason, "hey, I don't fly, I take public transport or ride a bike. These guys who have flown half way across the the country to come and stay in this hotel have added some much carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, whose effects my children and grand children, as well as yours and the whole society will have to bear. I am only smoking a cigarette. "

What's wrong with the yard stick used by the smoker above? Your yard stick is centred about what you like or dislike. His yardstick is not personal!

I am not saying that your yardstic is inferior or that the hypothetical smoker's yardstick is superior, but he does have a point.

This is all about compromises and negotiating. You don't always get everything you want all the time. Can you stop the tenant next door from smoking on his balcony? If not, what's different with a hotel?

DavenM

Smoking on a balcony I think is doing a favor for the people that stay in the hotel rooms. Nothing worse then a smoke smelling room!

stut

Personally, as an ex-smoker, I'd have gone for the ashtray test - if there are ashtrays out, then clearly they're expecting people to smoke there. If not, well, it never hurts to ask.

In general, though, I say: live and let live. One of the outcomes of the smoking ban in this country is that outdoor areas at pubs and cafés are far smokier, which is annoying on the rare sunny days that we have But it's just a minor annoyance, of which there are many in life, and there are plenty other damaging pollutants when you're sat out next to a busy road.

pinworm

I would add that child noise is as annoying as cig smoke. Keep your kids away from the pool after hours!

dcpatti

But as a smoker if I would like to enjoy my morning coffee and a cigarette on the balcony (a common practice at hotels that provide ashtrays on balconies, and not an unreasonable thing for a smoker to want to do), my choices become either a) don't smoke (which decreases my enjoyment of my hotel balcony), b) fight with my theoretical neighbor or c) go downstairs to the front of the hotel and smoke on the street (where I am likely to be panhandled aggressively if I'm in certain cities. Seriously spend 10 minutes in front of the Hilton SFO on O'Donnell Street).

So is your "right" to enjoy your balcony more important than my "right" to enjoy my balcony?

If there is a No Smoking On Balconies rule, or a sign, or the hotel has advertised themselves as a smoke-free campus, that's one thing. I've got no problem following that rule. But since we still don't have a clear definition of how far the "no smoking room" extends, if there's no clear rule, then why does the smoker not have equal claim to use their balcony as they wish?

Kagehitokiri

it is binding until argued/ruled otherwise...

BarbiJKM

Just a data point... This website: http://www.smokers-united.com/index.php?ln=en#
defines "smoker-friendly hotels" as hotels with "smoker rooms" OR "rooms with a balcony/terrace" and lists the ratio as follows:

Hotels with smoking rooms: 24492
Total smoking-friendly hotels (Rooms with balcony/patio): 88178

Clearly, a great number of hotels allow balcony smoking in nonsmoking rooms.

BarbiJKM

Just another data point: I emailed the Holiday Inn Riverwalk in San Antonio to inquire if they offered smoking rooms (because the booking page on PC is vague), and received this response:

"We are a non-smoking hotel. However, most rooms have balconies that you are allowed to smoke on."

Your mileage may vary...

Mary2e

Since it appears most of us tell the hotel in some shape or form about smoking on the balcony, well, I can only surmise that it's perfectly ok with them. There are very few that specifically say you can't smoke on the balcony.

Yet the anti-smoking zealots continue, no matter how hard we try to appease them. It appears nothing will - even outdoors. Just because they don't like the smell - because outdoors that's all they're getting - the smell.

N965VJ

I quit smoking a six years ago, but if I found myself in a room with a balcony, I would use it. What would always amuse me is when I would end up in a non-smoking room even after requesting smoking. I'd call downstairs and tell the front desk I'll be there in a few moments to swap my key for a different room, and the response would be;

• "We'll send someone up with an ashtray."
  
  or
  
  
• "There should be an ashtray in the back of the desk drawer."

Okay...

I plan on breathing some second hand mesquite smoke tonight.

RacingJunkie

Sorry, but the smoke smell permeates everything. I can walk out a front door and around the corner and I can smell where the smokers congregate. I can also smell the stench on a person when they come back inside from smoking outside. It is on your skin, clothes, hair. It is on everything. It is not like it just disappears.

RacingJunkie

Guess, what? I don't like the smell of dog crap either. Or a rotting corpse.

Tizzette

Live and let live with the smokers. Getting a whiff from the balcony outdoors is hardly on the same level as being enclosed with a smoker in a room or a car or even having to occupy the left-behind stench of a smoking room.