Cigar Shacks!

Here's a great idea that one hotel company in the UK is doing to thwart the smoking ban due to take effect in England next month.....perhaps we can convince them to do the same here in the U.S. where smoking bans are prominent? Courtesy of Cigar Insider:

With England’s smoking ban going into effect July 1,
one upscale hotel chain in the United Kingdom has
begun to provide smoking asylums for England’s disenfranchised
cigar enthusiasts. Many Hotel du Vin locations
are building outdoor Cigar Shacks to accommodate their
smoking clientele. The initiative is a collaboration between
CEO Robert Cook and John Harris of Bothy Lodge Co.,
a Scotland-based company contracted to build the shacks.
“I had to do something to combat the smoking ban and
uphold the values of the Hotel du Vin, so we created
an exclusive space for our guests to enjoy their cigars,”
said Cook.

The hexagonal structures measure 8 by 4 meters and are
constructed primarily of larch wood. Most of the construction
is done at the Bothy Lodge factory before the
large pieces are brought to the hotels, thus reducing installation
time to only a few days. Each shack costs £40,000
(about $79,000) to build and includes amenities such as a
whiskey and Armagnac cabinet, a well-stocked humidor
and a wall-mounted plasma gas fire. The humidors and
liquor cabinets are locked, but the ring of a buzzer will
promptly summon service. Although 50 percent of the
structure is open to the elements, the under-floor heating
and warm-air curtains will ensure that guests stay cozy during
colder weather. The interior is designed and furnished
to exude a luxury lounge feeling, giving smokers the
impression that the Cigar Shack is an extension of the hotel
rather than simply an auxiliary space.
The decision to install the shacks was not purely a hospitality
move, but also economically motivated. According
to Cook, Hotels du Vin bring in $600,000 a year from
cigar sales, making the chain one of the largest, if not the
largest, hotel purveyor and customer of Havana cigars.
One Cigar Shack is up and running in the Hotel du Vin
in Glasgow, Scotland. Other Cigar Shacks are scheduled to
open in the outdoor gardens of the Hotel du Vin
Winchester, Tunbridge Wells, Henley-on-Thames and
Cheltenham this summer. Other locations will have them
later in the year and into 2008. For those Hotels du Vin
that do not have outdoor gardens, Cook plans on designing
interior smoking sanctums in compliance with the law.
“We have always nurtured the Havana culture in the
U.K. Cigars are in our blood, in the Hotel du Vin’s DNA,”
he said.