Licensee of the Hope Inn, Hythe, John Garrod, introduced the new rule on Tuesday 1 April.
Previously, the food-led pub had a designated smoking area in its 120 cover garden, but Garrod noticed cigarette smoke was impacting the dining experience for customers.
He told The Morning Advertiser (The MA): “You only need one smoker in a garden and their smoke is then wafting over [everyone].
“We have a very busy garden and most of our customers eat; to have cigarette smoke wafting over your food is not the nicest thing in the world.
“It’s my job to give people as many reasons as possible to like it here.
Overwhelming agreement
“The majority of people are non-smokers, and we have to appeal to the majority.”
The operator requested guests wishing to smoke or vape do so elsewhere, either by walking up the road alongside the pub or going through a gate leading off the back of the premises.
The rule is enforced at the Hope Inn through polite requests from Garrod and his staff as well as clear signage throughout the pub, which serves around 1,000 guests per week.
Most customers, the operator explained, were “overwhelmingly” in agreement with the ban. However, the Hope Inn has lost some regular customers due to the new regulation.
Changing landscape
In addition, the operator, who has been in the hospitality industry for more than 25 years, told The MA he does not employ smokers.
He said: “We don’t employ smokers because I don’t want to pay people to smoke.
“When I’m paying people, they’re paid to work, not spending excessive time vaping or [smoking] to make up their nicotine requirements; that [would be] at my expense.”
Smoking was first outlawed in UK pubs in July 2007. Last year, the Government announced smoking would be banned in certain public outdoor areas, including hospitals, but not pub gardens.
Reportedly, Garrod, who is a non-smoker, is the first licensee in the country to ban smoking outdoors.
Though he felt more pubs would soon do the same due to the “drastically changing” landscape of the on-trade in the UK.
Garrod continued: “We may be the first, but we won’t be the last. Other people will follow. You’ve got to move with the times and be ahead of the game, not behind it.”
