Choice Hotels International will completely ban smoking in more than 1,700 Comfort Inn hotels across the US, in part because smokers also prefer smoke-free accommodations, the company said.

Comfort Inn will become the largest US hotel brand to go smoke-free when the ban comes into effect on 1 July, 2016, Choice Hotels said. The decision was made after reviewing feedback when the company’s Comfort Suites properties went smoke-free in 2007 and additional research done this year.
“We learned a lot about attitudes toward non-smoking policies at hotels and found that, not only have preferences for smoke-free environments continued to increase, but smokers themselves are more likely to choose 100-percent smoke-free accommodations,” said Anne Smith, vice president of brand strategy.