Just two months after FreshStay launched the www.freshstay.com online directory of hotels offering clean indoor air products and practices, 200 smokefree properties have joined the network.Five smokefree properties are added to the online directory every day, including national, regional and independent brands in most states and 100 cities.

Connecting millions of travelers and thousands of groups to hotels committed to providing clean indoor air, www.freshstay.com awards hotels guaranteeing non-smoking rooms at the point of reservation two pineapples, while 100-percent smokefree hotels automatically earn three pineapples. Beyond that, the more fresh indoor air products and practices a property has in place, the more pineapples it earns. In the near future, the Web site will list and rate hotels that offer enhanced accommodations including being cleaned with Green Seal-certified products, having walls covered with low-odor, low-VOC paints, and offering improved air and water filtration and allergen-barrier products.

“We went smokefree a year ago. I believe smokefree is fast becoming the standard instead of the exception,” said Denis Herron, Director of Sales & Marketing for the 245-room Hilton Palm Beach (Fla.) Airport, one of more than 200 smokefree hotels to join www.freshstay.com.

Herron said the area’s bars and restaurants went smokefree a while ago, so converting the 22-year-old property to smokefree in early 2005 made even more sense.

“Our occupancy jumped nine percentage points in 2005, from 78 percent to 87 percent, partly because of our decision to go smokefree,” Herron said. “Before, we had eight non-smoking floors and one smoking floor. Guests would complain their nonsmoking rooms had been smoked in by previous guests—and that’s a lingering smell you cannot deny, nevertheless try and eliminate.
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