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How Do Hotels Remove Cigarette Smoke?

With hundreds of occupants passing through hotel rooms yearly, hotels must be vigorous and thorough in removing cigarette smoke and its odor from rooms. Almost all hotels have designated smoking rooms, so the task of removing cigarette smoke is restricted to those rooms, although often a smoker will wander into nonsmoking rooms as well. Tobacco smoke is particulate matter and warrants air-cleaning methods designed to remove or neutralize odorous particulate matter.

  1. Problems of Cigarette Smoke

    • Removing the smoke itself is only the tip of the iceberg. Cigarette smoke infiltrates all aspects of the hotel room including furniture, towels, walls and carpets and leaves behind its odor. Plus, extended exposure to cigarette smoke discolors paint and wallpaper. Once the smoke itself is removed, there remains the task of removing the odor and traces of smoke that may cause discoloration.

    The Smoke

    • Most hotels use heavy-duty fans and filtration systems to remove smoke. Smoke also flows out of windows before the cleaning crew comes on site, but if smoke is still present, cleaning crews will open windows and use portable fans to rid the room of smoke. If the room is windowless, such fans and the venting system shoulder the work.

    Ozone Generators

    • Ozone generators remove odors by producing and dispersing ozone throughout the room. Ozone is composed of three oxygen molecules bound together. The ozone reacts with certain odor-causing compounds to neutralize them. Ozone generators should be used in unoccupied rooms because ozone poses certain health risks. The Environmental Protection Agency reports that ozone generators are not the most effective way to remove odors, and they cause health risks even when used appropriately.

    Enzyme Odor Removal

    • Enzyme odor removal uses enzymes and high-activity bacteria to digest organic odors. High-activity bacteria used for odor removal are USDA accepted and nontoxic. These odor-removal products can be used alone or added to any cleaning product.

    UV Radiation

    • Another method of cigarette smoke odor removal is UV radiation. UV radiation is used to supplement filtration systems and vents, not replace them. These cleaners are called ultraviolet germicidal irradiation devices; they work by directing UV radiation at an affected area to destroy the biological pollutants. These may help remove the pollutants in cigarette smoke that cause odor.

    Ions

    • Electronic air cleaners utilize ion generation technology to remove smoke particulates from the air. Air passes through a chamber where particles receive an electrical charge; the charged particles are caught on flat plates in a separate chamber. Alternatively, an ion generator distributes charged ions throughout a hotel room, and the ions attach to cigarette smoke particles in the air; these now-charged smoke particles attach to surfaces. The latter method is not the preferred technique in hotels because it requires the cleaning crew to clean surfaces of smoke particles that have settled from the air.

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