Can You Smoke in a Hotel Room or Short-Term Rental?

It depends on the province and, above all, on the hotel. As of 27 October 2026, Ontario, Alberta and Manitoba allow a hotel to set aside fully enclosed guest rooms for smoking or vaping, but none of them requires it. The lobby, hallways and restaurant are smoke-free and vape-free.

Where are smoking rooms allowed?

Province	Guest-room rule
Ontario	Smoking and vaping are allowed only in fully enclosed guest rooms that management has designated, and only for registered guests and the guests they invite.
Alberta	A registered guest, and a person the guest invites, may smoke or vape in a room designed primarily as sleeping accommodation that the manager has designated. It needs floor-to-ceiling walls, a ceiling and doors separating it from areas where smoking is banned, and must meet any prescribed requirements.
Manitoba	A hotel, motel, inn or bed-and-breakfast proprietor may designate a room for smoking, e-cigarette use or both. It must be designed primarily for sleeping and fully enclosed, and a smoking room needs a separate ventilation system. Rooms built or substantially renovated on or before 1 October 2004 are excused from the separate ventilation.
British Columbia	The province’s page does not address guest rooms. It covers common areas and outdoor buffers.

Vaping is covered along with smoking in all three provinces’ room rules. Alberta’s definition of a hotel includes an inn, a guesthouse and a bed-and-breakfast facility, and makes a hotel a public place.

What is banned in the rest of the hotel?

In British Columbia, smoking and vaping are not allowed indoors in common areas such as lobbies, hallways and restaurants. Outdoors, the line is six metres from doorways, open windows or air intakes around the hotel. The page adds that some local bylaws set larger buffer zones. Our guide to smoking distance from doors compares the numbers.

Alberta puts the duty on the manager. A manager of a place where smoking or vaping is prohibited must not permit it and must post signs, and a manager of a designated room must post signs saying smoking is permitted.

Does ventilation make a smoking room safe?

Health Canada says increased ventilation and segregated smoking areas do not eliminate exposure to second-hand smoke. A separate ventilation system is a legal condition for a designated room, not a guarantee of clean air. For what lingers on surfaces after a stay, and how little is known about it, see thirdhand smoke.

What about short-term rentals and tenancy law?

British Columbia’s government is clear on one point. The Residential Tenancy Act does not cover living accommodation used as vacation or travel accommodation, which includes hotel rooms and short-term rentals. It generally does apply if a vacation rental is rented under a tenancy agreement. The page lists four things that point towards a tenancy:

1. Whether the agreement is for a set term.
2. Whether the occupant has exclusive possession of the room.
3. Whether the room is the occupant’s primary and permanent residence.
4. How long the occupant stays.

Its example is a winter chalet rented for a fixed six-month term. If tenancy law applies, the landlord-and-tenant rules in our guide to smoke-free housing are the ones that matter. If it does not, the booking terms are the place to look for a no-smoking rule or a charge for smoke odour.

We found no provincial rule in the pages we read that sets a smoking cleaning fee, and no official statement on how smoke-free law treats a private home rented by the night. Alberta names bed-and-breakfasts; the other provinces’ pages do not say. For a dispute, ask the host or platform first and the provincial tenancy office second.

Before you book

Ask whether the property is smoke-free throughout, not only the room. Law lets a hotel permit designated rooms; it does not oblige it. Provincial summaries for the other provinces are in smoking and vaping laws by province and territory.

This page is general information, not legal advice.