Rockville, Maryland – 06 January 2016
Choice Hotels International’s Comfort Inn brand has joined Comfort Suites in offering guests 100 percent smoke-free rooms at its more than 1,800 franchised hotels across the United States and Canada.
Comfort claims now to be the largest hotel brand to allow travellers a smoke-free stay.
“The Comfort brand has staying power because we always keep the wants and needs of travellers to top of mind,” says Anne Smith, vice president of brand strategy for Choice Hotels.
“We continue to take a series of bold steps to make the Comfort guest experience better than ever, and becoming the largest hotel brand across the United States and Canada to commit to being smoke-free is yet another example,”
The Comfort brand strategy team dug deep into consumer research and guest insights to understand the changing attitudes toward smoking policies at hotels.
Findings revealed that preferences for smoke-free environments have increased and even smokers are more likely to choose smoke-free accommodations.
Rolling out the non-smoking initiative also offers Comfort brand franchisees operational advantages, including better room conditions and ease of maintenance, reduced customer complaints and less complicated inventory management, all of which help to create a better stay experience for guests.