Novotel St Kilda becomes first international hotel in Australia to ban smoking completely

Novotel St Kilda in Melbourne (Australia) will ban smoking from all its rooms and all its public areas from 1 June 2004. It will be the first major international hotel in Australia to implement a complete ban.

Currently, the hotel has one floor of rooms available for smokers, but with occupancy rates averaging 90%, the demand for non-smoking rooms has been such that the hotel's General Manager, Llewellyn Wyeth, has decided that a complete smoking ban would better meet the needs of the guests.

"It will upset a few people, there's no doubt about that, but so far the guest feed-back has been almost unanimously positive - even from many of our guests who are smokers," said Wyeth.

"Most smokers these days do not smoke in their rooms, preferring to smoke outside. They want a fresh, clean aroma for sleeping, and most have told me that they support the move.

"With our occupancies being so high, we sometimes have to put non-smokers on the smoking floor and even if there has been no smoking in the room for a few days, it is almost impossible to eradicate the smell of smoke.

"There is also a serious health issue and given that we are committed to the well-being of our guests, the smoking ban will further encourage good health.

"There is a general movement towards restrictions on smoking, with all airlines enforcing smoking bans, and I believe it is right for the hotel industry to move in the same direction."

Mr Wyeth said that the hotel had communicated with all its regular guests about the smoking ban, giving companies over two months notice about the new measures.