(June 29, 2022) — JNR Management owns and operates Best Western, Marriott, and other branded hotels across New England. Robins Patel, principal owner at JNR, identifies reputation, quality, and consistently outstanding service as the driving factors that keep rooms occupied with satisfied guests. In line with JNR’s goals to emphasize a comfortable and enjoyable guest experience, Patel decided to install FreshAir’s smoking detection devices in his guest rooms to combat unauthorized smoking.
FreshAir’s patented PolySens® technology and smart devices continuously monitor each guest room for tobacco and marijuana smoking. When guests smoke in their rooms, FreshAir sends the hotels’ staff alerts with the room numbers and incident timestamps, allowing the staff to quickly tell the guests to stop smoking. The smoking reports serve as scientific proof of the incidents and ensure the staff’s confidence to enforce the no-smoking policies.
When identifying JNR’s day-to-day operational challenges with smoking, Patel highlights the delay in discovering smoking incidents prior to using FreshAir. “Usually we’d find out the next morning, after-the-fact, when housekeeping went into the room.” Additionally, guests could be quite creative in their attempts to mask and deny smoking. Before FreshAir, these attempts made smoking difficult to identify and prove, causing fire and safety concerns. With JNR’s emphasis on guest experience, Patel was also keenly aware of the negative impact smoking odors had on other guests during and after smoking. The negative impact was worsened by guests getting away with extended smoking throughout their stays without effective identification or proof to enforce the policy.
The check-in registration card indicates a $250 cleaning fee for smoking at JNR hotels, which guests must acknowledge when booking their stays and during check-in. The use of FreshAir’s monitoring service to detect and prove unauthorized smoking allows each property to regain control of its smoking fee collection. FreshAir Sensor’s timestamped chart proving smoking for each incident prevents guests from attempting and winning chargebacks with the credit card issuers. By successfully collecting these fees, Robins notes an increase in monthly revenue.
The JNR hotels that use FreshAir’s devices have also seen a reduction in cleaning and maintenance costs with the added smoking deterrent. FreshAir has decreased the hotels’ needs for remediation procedures and improved staff’s task management and efficiency following up with smoking violations. And most importantly, the use of FreshAir’s service enables the hotels’ staff to provide a more positive guest experience, keeping with the core values and standards of JNR Management.