More hotels go completely smoke-free

— -- Amid growing public concern about the dangers of secondhand smoke, the number of lodgings prohibiting smoking indoors has tripled in three years, according to a USA TODAY analysis of American Automobile Association data.

There are more than 8,300 smoke-free lodgings in the USA — nearly 6,000 more than in 2005, AAA's figures show.

More than 7,000 of the smoke-free lodgings are hotels, motels, inns and B&Bs, while the rest are condos, cottages and other rentals.

AAA has the most extensive list of smoke-free lodgings, but the total is undoubtedly higher. AAA inspectors do not evaluate every lodging, and a growing number of state and local governments have passed laws restricting smoking in hotels and other public places.

"Making a hotel smoke-free is the right thing to do because it protects guests and employees from secondhand smoke," says Joe McInerney, president of the American Hotel & Lodging Association.

Two years ago, Westin Hotels & Resorts said it was responding to guests' demands for a healthy environment. It became the first chain to go smoke-free at its 90 U.S. hotels.

Marriott, the nation's largest hotel company, made nearly all its more than 2,500 U.S. hotels smoke-free several months later. Marriott subsidiary The Ritz-Carlton, Walt Disney, Gaylord, Comfort Suites and Cambria Suites are other chains with all smoke-free U.S. hotels.

All U.S. hotels of Sheraton and Four Points will be smoke-free by the end of next month, says Nadeen Ayala, a spokeswoman for Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, which has nine hotel brands. Sheraton and Four Points have 264 U.S. hotels.

California has more smoke-free lodgings — 1,040 — than any state, according to AAA data. Florida follows with 444 and Texas with 408.

Force of law

The growth of smoke-free hotels goes hand-in-hand with an increasing number of laws restricting smoking in hotels and other public places.

Twenty-three states have laws that specify how many non-smoking rooms must be in hotels, and 534 cities and counties restrict smoking in hotels in their jurisdictions, according to Americans for Nonsmokers' Rights, a non-profit organization.