No Smoking Gites

[Viv]

Given that  (in my opinion) a huge proportion of French people smoke, is the No Smoking rule in many non French owned gites a legal insurance requirement or just because the owners prefer none smokers for whatever reasons?

[Clair]

I ask people not to smoke indoors but provide ashtrays outside for their use. It's not because I am concerned insurance-wise but simply because I prefer not to have a smell of cigarette smoke indoors.

No problems with anyone so far as they know they can indulge outside. In fact, I smile when I think of the 2 couples who stayed over last New Year, standing outside wrapped in their coats and scarfes puffing away in the fantastic fresh air!

[hardhat]

i would hope for myself and fellow smokers that gite owners who expect us to stand out side like lepers in in the cold ,that you very clearly state in your advertisments, that you dont want smokers.ash trays outside? no thanks i would take my trade to some one who wants it .none smokers who wish there places to be none smoking great, stand by your convictions, but for god sake be proper about it and state the fact before you take smokers money,ps i have three appartments in a nicely renovated barn and if the freezing cold couples from last new years eve are reading, all three have ashtrays inside

[Clair]

"i would hope for myself and fellow smokers that you very clearly state in your advertisments, that you dont want smokers.ash trays outside"

Absolutely, anything else would be misleading. Why so agressive??

By the same token, do you actively advertise your gîte as "smoking"? Fair question I think...

Although I would not want to stay in any "smoking" place, I am glad there's a choice for everyone. Let me have your apartment details and I can pass them on if I ever receive a "smoking gîte" request.

Cordialement

[alnmike]

I too advertise our cottage as 'non smoking'. We don't smoke and we received many bookings from others who don't. Also, with the increase in respiratory disease, no pets and no smoking does seem to be becoming a regular reason.

[Viv]

I don't smoke and hate the smell also, I just wondered to what extent, if indeed it does, detrimentally affected your bookings or are most of your clients British? May be stereotyping but I have a lot more French chums that smoke than British ones.

[Clair]

I really don't know if my "non-smoking" status affects potential renters as the place is very clearly shown as "outdoors smoking only". Anybody looking at the website or listings would immediately know.

My bookings are from GB as well as France, Belgium, Spain, Germany and Italy, but I have clearly noticed that adults booking with their children never use the ashtrays and but young childless couples do...

I know of previous visitors who would select a non-smoking option when searching listings but I have never heard of the opposite.

When I used to look for a rental, I would only select a non-smoking one.

If smoking is that important to a potential visitor, I'm sure that they would ensure any rental is smoking before parting with their money.

[hardhat]

clair apologiies if i came accross as aggressive,didnt mean to be but,;outdoors smoking only;,ive never seen that sign on any gite listings ,dosent that mean no smoking full stop.i wasnt aware that smokers needed permision from anyone to smoke outside.

viva,it will affect your bookings,nothing wrong in going the none smoking route but remember that one smoker in a group will decide were this group will book and its a nonsense to suggest otherwise,every smoker looks at the listings just as non smokers do even more so in my oppinion,

ive noticed that none smokers can be quite unfair people at times,not only do they want there own little world, they want every one else to join it aswell,we have doctors telling us we cant have opperations because we smoke,little matter that our tax as helped build health services accross europe,smokers more and more are demanding fair treatment and asking a gite owner to clearly state wether they are smoking or none smoking is not in my oppinion an unfair request

 

[Teamedup]

[:O] Unfair us none smokers?????????

 

I am 52 years old. That means that as a life long non smoker I had many many years of being surrounded by smokers. I would sit in the pub with friends, and they would have this knack of all lighting up together and didn't matter where I sat, all the smoke would home in on me.

I would see my mother in law re paint their living room every six months as it was dirty and yellowed with the smoke.

I would go home stinking after being out with friends.

And now we friends meet in non-smoking rooms as all the ex smokers cannot be doing with smokey atmospheres.

 

But the thing that always got me and I mean always got me was the 'right' claimed by every smoker I worked with to stop working and have a fag. Like I could just down tools and have a few minute break just breathing, for some strange reason that was never allowed.

 

Being unfair, I don't think so and I hate it when we are given a 'smoking' room in a hotel these days, which does happen sometimes. They always stink.

Health probs, well, that is a choice. You chose to inhale poisons then it seems likely that there could be health problems associated with doing that, sad thing is that you inflict that on the rest of us too. I actually don't care about any taxes paid, they are not directly paid into the health service and never have been and could just as easily be going to finance that war in Iraq.

[Marie]

We state very clearly on our website that our gite is non-smoking,and this is repeated on the first page of our information folder in the gite.  I wouldn't want to take money from anyone, smoker or not, on false pretenses, but |I did object to the one group of smokers who deliberately ignored our policy and smoked in the house - even in the bedrooms. What gives them the right to force their habit on other people in someone else's house? I'd rather not have their money than have to try and get rid of the smell before the next guests arrive.  It's fine by me if people want to smoke, but not in my house.  They are welcome to take their business elsewhere if they feel it's that much of an issue - my priority is looking after my house.

Health issues aside, if a smoker wants to smoke it's their choice, but it does not give them a right to force it on other people, and that's the problem.  If they could invent a cigarette where the smoke only went inside the smoker and didn't spread all around then we'd all be able to forget about this issue!  In the mean time, I'm quite happy to risk losing a few bookings from smokers and pick up others from people who specifically want a smoke free house. 

 

Marie

[Clair]

"i wasnt aware that smokers needed permision from anyone to smoke outside."

Hardhat: thanks for the reply, but now I think you're nit-picking!

I never ever have to "allow" or "give permission" to smoke outdoors. I just make it clear that smokers can indulge all they want, provided they do it outdoors and use the ashtrays we kindly provide them with.

All smoking visitors to the gîte (so far) have obliged very kindly and also emptied their ashtrays before leaving. I have never had to pick up a cigarette butt in the garden or elsewhere on the property, so I do not think my request is seen as any kind of persecution.

I am a reformed smoker and I know it is an addiction which cannot easily be abandoned even for a short period of time, so I offer a compromise which suits me (first) and any visitors who feels he or she cannot live without a smoke...

[Pangur]

I've just returned from a christmas break in Dublin and the training of smokers to go outside has been astoundingly quick.  As you may know smoking has been banned from public places so Irish smokers are now used to braving the weather and popping outside restaurants, pubs, hotels etc.  But what surprised me this year was that lots of private homes have followed through choice.  I did a bit of socialising with friends and family and not once did I see anyone light up indoors and this included homes of smokers and people of all ages.  Us smokers were to be found huddled out the back doors of family homes, and although it was a bit miserable, most Irish smokers I know accept it - and even try to ban it from their own homes now. 

With the number of countries at least thinking of introducing a similar ban, I am sure that it comes as no shock to most smokers to be asked to step outside to indulge.

 

 

[hardhat]

clair im not nit picking at all,if you state in your advertising that you are a none smoking establishment then all well and good,you are entitled to make your own rules im just asking owners to be clear on the issue  , i see you have again swerved round the issue,direct question .do you advertise your place as none smoking or are you one of the many establishments  that leave it till guests arrive before telling them the rules,i my self know what a none smoking sign looks like and abide by peoples rules ,but if i get invited to dinner at a persons house that as been in my company when i have smoked and they then say no smoking in my house,i have to question why on earth they have invited me

 

my rules are  i dont get on none smoking buses ,dont mind them being none smoking but definatly object when do gooders encourage governments to make laws that stop people from starting a more profitabe bus company that allows smoking

 

dont go in none smoking pubs or resturants for the same reasons, to many laws rules regulations ,i abide like i said with rules,but avoide them when i can

[Russethouse]

The news in the Uk today is that something like 80% of the British public want to bring forward legislation banning smoking in public places, so I really do doubt if those non smoking gites suffer much through their policy.

[Clair]

Hardhat:

You write that I...

"have again swerved round the issue,direct question .do you advertise

your place as none smoking or are you one of the many establishments 

that leave it till guests arrive before telling them the rules"

Please refer to my previous answer to the same question: "the place is very clearly shown as "outdoors smoking only". Anybody looking at the website or listings would immediately know."

Specifically:

My leaflets and website say "No smoking indoors"

My listings come under "non-smoking" and the listing descriptions say "no smoking indoors"

I am not a member of the anti-smoking police (if it exists here!) which chases around outside snatching cigarettes from people's hands! I cannot imagine forbidding people from smoking but my request is clear and unambiguous: if you wish to smoke, please do so outdoors.

"are you one of the many establishments  that leave it till guests arrive before telling them the rules"

No and I cannot fathom why or how, these days, anyone who needs to smoke would hand over any money without first asking about the smoking policy.

As for inviting people over, they get asked because they're good company, not on the basis of their non-smoking status! Anyone new coming to my house is polite enough to ask if  he or she can light up (as I am sure you would too), in which case I will say yes and make sure a discreet sweet smelling candle is at hand. Those who know just pop outside or do without for a few hours.

I do agree with Viva that more French people than English seem to smoke.

A lot of smokers feel their "freedom to light up anywhere" is being eroded. By the same token, a lot of people who do not smoke and have felt put upon for a long time, now see their own freedom to breathe "clean air" at long last being recognised.

I remember reading some time ago a news article about some famous person in a restaurant who, finding that someone at a nearby table had lit up a cigarette, got up and deliberately farted next to that person. He explained to the offended party that the cigarette smoke he was being made to breathe was as repulsive to him as his fart had been to the smoker...!

[Penny29]

I'm (sort of) with Hardhat on this one (although can glady say I am now an ex-smoker of almost 10 months - by the way, please feel free to send "congratulations" and "well-done's"), but about 6/7 years ago we booked a luxury villa with pool in Florida & the total cost of the holiday came to thousands of £'s. Absolutely no mention in any of the literature - adverts, website, brochures, small print, booking forms etc etc etc to say the house was No Smoking - we did check - so we felt very misled when we arrived as we would NOT have booked that villa had we known it was non smoking.

I do think it's all about being honest in the rental terms and conditions - so many people think to mention pets/no pets, linen/towels, 6001 facilities and other rules but smoking is so often forgotten in a holiday home description (maybe simply because so many people DON'T smoke any more).

Likewise, if a gite (or even one's own private house) politely requests "No Smoking Indoors" & some people are thick and ignorant enough to ignore that rule then they should (IMHO) have to pay excess cleaning charges - it's no fun scrubbing yellow nicotine stains off of walls and ceilings, emptying and cleaning stinking ashtrays etc. That was all bad enough when it's was "fug" of your own creating but becomes particularly unbearable when it's someone else's filth.

I don't think it makes a vast difference to gite bookings these days - so many people have given up or have (at least(accepted) it's an outdoor-only "hobby".

 

[hardhat]

i think the person who started this thread was asking a question,rusethouse as a oppinion and states he dosnt think it will be detremental to bookings,i on the other hand disagree and have said so

one percent of hotels pubs and resturants in the uk are none smoking at present,the only possible way the anti smoking brigade can increase those figures is with a total ban

as for the person whoes just got back from the irish republic ,when a goverment start to command with harsh penalties,  tax paying publicans and other establishments do what we say or else, well the start of a dictatership as to start some were.

[hardhat]

sorry penny29 didnt see your post, good on you for stopping the habit wish you lots of luck and determination,my better half stella packed them in three years ago and i think its a great thing to do.

i will just point out that 29% of males still do smoke in the uk with wemen quickly playing catch up. most smokers aged between 16 and forty four ,these stats come from government statistics

and clair thanks for the answere,i think i got it, but not sure ,