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Nicotine addicts, be warned. Your hotel options are decreasing again.

First Westin went 100% nonsmoking worldwide in the US, Canada, the Caribbean, Scotland, Australia, and Fiji. Then Marriott went smoke-free across all its brands in North America. Now, Comfort Suites, part of the Choice Hotels group, is going smoke-free as well.

Already 10% of the chain’s hotels are non-smoking. The remainder of the properties will ban smoking by the end of April.

Comfort Suites will still offer a designated smoking area somewhere on the property, so smokers won’t be as shut out as they might be at other hotel chains.

It’s interesting that Choice Hotels is opting to go non-smoking in this particular brand alone. (Econolodge might have been an even bigger surprise…) Comfort isn’t their top tier, and it’s not a newly launched brand like Cambria, where they’d be starting from scratch.

Update 2/21/07: Reader Alex writes in to correct a small but important error in the description of Westin’s smoke-free policy. It’s not worldwide: “Westin did not go smoke-free worldwide. I know this is true since I’m currently in the Westin Bangkok and enjoying a quick puff in the bar. (sorry )” Heh. You’re right, Alex. I’ve corrected the post above to reflect the policy, as stated on Westin’s website: No smoking at hotels in the US, Canada, the Caribbean, Scotland (not even all of the UK!), Australia, and Fiji.

Related:
- Marriott hotels to eliminate smoking in all its North American brands
- Smoking prohibitions: Hurdles and tradeoffs
- The captain has turned on the smoke-’em-if-you-got-’em sign…
- Smoking chimpanzee can’t kick cigarette habit (CBS News)
- Comfort Suites (aff)