No smoking at the Water Tower Inn

NEWS RELEASE

WATER TOWER INN

************************* Smoke-free 1st, May 1st

Algoma's Water Tower Inn is the first full-service hotel in Sault Ste. Marie to go totally smoke free as of Tuesday, May 1, 2007.

The 180-room inn will officially launch its "Smoke-free Inn", the first major hospitality property in the city to do so.

In 1974, when the inn was built, every hotel and motel lobby showcased a cigarette machine, and smoking rooms significantly overshadowed non-smoking.

However, the inn has always made air quality a huge priority, and owner, JJ Hilsinger, installed larger-than-recommended air circulation units in the original construction design.

Stringent cleaning programs were implemented from the get-go.

The turn-over to a smoke-free enterprise hasn't happened overnight.

Long-time employee Mike Freamon remembers Hilsinger placing a sign on the lobby's cigarette machine advising guests that proceeds from cigarette sales would go to the Cancer Society - an outrageous business move back in the smoking 80s.

A year later, he got rid of the machine entirely.

Incrementally, over its 33 years of operation, Algoma's Water Tower Inn has led the industry in initiating smoke-free spaces.

In 2004, the inn's general manager, Donna Hilsinger, was awarded the Cancer Society's "Heather Crow" award for a campaign she participated in to convince hospitality entrepreneurs that going low- or no-smoking wouldn't burn the bottom-line.

The inn's restaurant, bar and public spaces were designated non-smoking several years before municipal legislation, and the 2006 Smoke-Free Ontario Act made it mandatory.

This past March, inn staff took up the banner, creating a "buddy" support system to help their smoking co-workers quit the habit.

Two quit cold turkey; another three are in the weaning process.

"If you look at studies done in the industry in the past couple of years," notes JJ Hilsinger, "88 percent of general consumers have indicated that hotels should go smoke-free to create healthier environments."

"Requests for non-smoking rooms average 92 percent," says Hilsinger.

"We've always placed the well-being of our guests and staff above all else, and May 1st is the grand finale to a long journey to smoke-free status," Hilsinger says.

The remaining 20 smoking rooms at Algoma's Water Tower Inn have been undergoing a complete detoxification program, a costly process that Hilsinger says will pay for itself in two months through reduced guest complaints and smoking related repairs.

Guests will be asked to read and sign the non-smoking policy agreement when they check into the hotel.

Has there been resistance?

"Sure," says General Manager Donna Hilsinger.

"But the fact is, a significant majority of our regular smoking guests support the move," she says.

"I'm a smoker," admits frequent hotel guest, Stephen Kendall of Collingwood, Ontario.

"But I always ask for a non-smoking room," says Kendall. "They smell a lot better."

"If I want a cigarette, I'll go outside."

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