Vietnam's health authorities are making it clear that a hotel's smoke-free badge isn't just for show. At the launch of the second round of the 'Exemplary Smoke-Free Hotels' ranking, held on September 22, Tran Thanh Tung, Deputy Director of the Disease Prevention Fund under the Ministry of Health, warned that tobacco use is holding back the country's health targets and wider development goals — and that hotels play a frontline role in the fight.
The legal framework already requires it. Under the Law on Prevention and Control of Tobacco Harms, hotels and other tourist lodging must ban smoking indoors. Properties that want to allow smoking can only do so in segregated, purpose-built areas: isolated rooms with dedicated ventilation, ashtrays, clear signage and working fire safety equipment. The law also encourages hotels to go further and make their entire indoor space 100% smoke-free.
There's evidence the push is working. Secondhand smoke exposure in Vietnamese hotels fell by 14.6% in 2024 compared with 2020 levels, though hotels and restaurants still score worse than most other smoke-free public venues. The first national Exemplary Smoke-Free Hotels ranking launched in 2025 to nudge the hospitality sector into visible compliance.
The 2026 edition, organised with input from Nguyen Anh Vu, Editor-in-Chief of Van Hoa (Culture) Newspaper, will focus on properties that don't just display a certificate but enforce real, day-to-day operating procedures. And the stakes are real: if inspectors find falsified declarations or a hotel that has let its standards slide, the property can be disqualified on the spot or formally stripped of its smoke-free title.
Enforcement is already happening. In early August, organisers made unannounced visits to ten certified hotels in Ho Chi Minh City that won recognition in the 2025 cycle — and all ten passed, maintaining clean-air standards and proper smoke-free procedures.
For travellers, this matters more than it might first appear. Vietnam is one of the world's larger tobacco markets, and drifting smoke in lobbies, corridors or rooms has long been a complaint among visitors booking Chinese- and Vietnamese-style city hotels. A nationally recognised, independently inspected smoke-free label gives non-smoking guests — including families — a reliable filter when choosing where to stay, and gives hotels a commercial reason to keep air clean rather than quietly tolerating rule-breaking guests. If you're sensitive to smoke, it's worth looking for the Exemplary Smoke-Free Hotels recognition when booking in Vietnam, and not hesitating to report violations: the system now explicitly punishes properties that fail to uphold the standard.
