Hotel smoking areas cater for women who love a Havana

[El Presidente]

Hotel smoking areas cater for women who love a Havana

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-24027572-hotel-smoking-areas-cater-for-women-who-love-a-havana.do

Miranda Bryant

13 Jan 201

The cigar room of yesteryear, where gentlemen in hotels and clubs would retire for a smoke without disturbing the ladies, is making a comeback.

The smoking ban hit the tradition of the after-dinner cigar because there was nowhere warm and comfortable where guests could legally smoke.

But now London hotels are finding ways of creating cigar rooms outdoors, and some are designing them to be more appealing to women.

They include The Lanesborough, The Langham and now The May Fair, which said it would be opening one in May beause of the level of interest from guests. The Bulgari Hotel in Knightsbridge will also have a smoking shop when it opens in April.

The renewed popularity of cigar smoking, traditionally associated with older men, has been partly driven by younger enthusiasts and a growing number of women. In Marylebone, 10 Manchester Street Hotel now hosts women-only cigar evenings where hand-rolled Havanas are sampled with cocktails.

Smoking was banned in all enclosed public spaces in 2007. But the new cigar rooms - also called a "cosa", cosy outdoor smoking area - use a variety of materials to ensure they are within the law by being at least 50 per cent open.

Anthony Lee, general manager at The May Fair, said its new cigar room -which will seat 30 people - would use interesting materials such as chain mail, glass and chipped tiles to appeal to women. He said: "There is no question that cigars are having a resurgence in London. When the smoking laws came in, that went down like a lead balloon in London hotels.

"But now the indoor smoking room's gone we are replacing it with something else instead. And now that we've come up with a cosa, more and more people are going back to cigars. It's more fashionable than it was, it's a younger crowd and we're taking a more female approach to the whole environment to appeal to women as well as male aficionados."

However, he said that cigarettes and cigars were "like chalk and cheese", as cigars are smoked less frequently, and the hotel would not allow cigarette smoking in the area.

[Ryan]

I can understand people not liking the smell of cigarette smoke but for the hotel to ban cigarettes in the smoking area, is that anything other than elitist?

Cigars produce much more smoke.

It means that two smokers, one cigarettes, the other cigars, are not allowed smoke in the same area.

The hotel in this case is not so much trying to cater to clientele as it is trying to cultivate a certain image for itself, given its location.

[Guest rob]

back in the days when smoking indoors was allowed, I remember going to a club and there were plenty of people smoking cigarettes - I lit my cigar and after about 5 mins I had a lot of nasty looks from other patrons. The shift manager came and asked me to go outside or put my cigar out because so many people found the volume of smoke overwhelming.

[Fuzz AI]

Hold the phone, "... use interesting materials such as chain mail, glass and chipped tiles to appeal to women.".... Women like chain mail?!

Woohoo! Time to break out the chain mail suit!!

[Drguano]

I too recall being asked to extinguish my cigar in certain bars when cigarette smoking was allowed.