More establishments across Grand Cayman are taking a step towards cleaner air and healthier lungs for staff and customers by going smoke-free.
The Grand Cayman Marriott Beach Resort is the latest Cayman hotel to go non-smoking. As of last Sunday, the hotel is smoke-free indoors, including all guest rooms.
And Bacchus Restaurant and Wine Bar will be the latest dining establishment and bar to go smoke-free starting Monday, 23 October.
Public demand is what Bacchus owner Keith Griffin cites as the reason for the establishment taking this step.
But smokers will still be able to enjoy a cigarette with a drink after a meal outside Bacchus on the seated patio area.
The Grand Cayman Marriott hotel has gone smoke-free in order to accommodate the preferences of the vast majority of guests.
The new policy for the hotel includes all areas inside the hotel building: guest rooms, restaurants, lounges, meeting rooms, public spaces, and employee work areas. There will be designated smoking areas outside.
The 30 guest rooms that had been smoking permitted are undergoing deep cleaning of all fabrics and surfaces, including re-painting, in order to be refreshed for their new beginning as smoke free rooms, explained Director of Marketing Carolina Voulliéme.
If anyone does light up in their bedroom they are subject to a $250 deep cleaning fee.
‘Grand Cayman’s Marriott Beach Resort is joining the transition to 100 per cent smoke-free that Marriott International started during September 2006 in North America,’ said a press release from the Grand Cayman Marriott Resort.
According to Mr. Griffin, adopting a no smoking policy is the right move for Bacchus to make. ‘We’ll gain more customers over this I believe,’ he said. ‘We may lose a couple also, but we should gain more.’
Last month the dining part of the restaurant was declared a no smoking area, but this compounded the smoke problem in the bar, said Mr. Griffin, so the progression to extending the policy in the bar was a natural one.
Although Bacchus has a very loyal following of island residents, it is also attracting tourists. ‘Tourists from the US very often seek out no smoking restaurants so it’s definitely the right step for us,’ he said.
Mr. Griffin noted that probably about 95 per cent of the people they have told about the new policy are for it. Even smokers accept it, bar one or two, he said.
Other smoke-free bars are Sapphire and District Six, where people have to step outside to smoke.
The Courtyard Marriott Hotel in Grand Cayman is currently evaluating its future smoking policy, said General Manager Steven Schwartz.
Currently the hotel has a mix of smoking and no smoking rooms and while smoking is not permitted inside the restaurant, it is permitted in the lobby bar.
Marriott International’s smoke-free move represents the industry’s largest move to a non-smoking environment, with more than 2,300 hotels and corporate apartments and nearly 400,000 guest rooms under the JW Marriott, Marriott, Renaissance, Courtyard, Residence Inn, Spring Hill Suites, Fairfield Inn, TownePlace Suites, Marriott ExecuStay and the Ritz-Carlton brands.
Early in the year Grand Cayman’s Westin Casuarina Resort went non-smoking in all buildings. This was part of a hotel chain brand-wide smoke-free policy in Westin Hotels and Resorts in the US, Canada and the Caribbean.
Other hotels on the island that do not permit smoking anywhere inside include the Reef Resort, Comfort Suites and the Ritz-Carlton, Grand Cayman.
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