Wisconsin innkeepers trying again to allow smoking in some hotel rooms

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Wisconsin’s public indoor smoking ban does not take effect until next July 5, and at least one group hopes politicians will reconsider an exception before then.

The Innkeepers Association wants smoking allowed in up to 25 percent of hotel and motel rooms.

Lawmakers had considered the exception until it was removed in a final compromise between the bill’s supporters and anti-smoking groups.

A last-minute effort to include the hotel exception failed, and there’s a new bill in the Assembly to bring it back.

Innkeepers’ president Trisha Pugal says Wisconsin is the only Midwest state that does not exempt hotels from their smoking bans.

And she says travelers who smoke will choose lodging out-of-state when they stay close to the Wisconsin border.

After allowing smoking for years, Pugal says hotels will face major costs in cleaning up their rooms to make them truly smoke-free.

Also, Matt Drusch of Brookfield Suites says some people will smoke in their rooms anyway leaving doubts as to whether a certain room can ever really be smoke-free.

Tags: hotel rooms, smoke free, wisconsin, innkeepers