TRAVERSE CITY -- The ban will start May 1st making it illegal to smoke in restaurants, bars, hotels and any place that serves food and drinks.  Governor Granholm signed the bill into law Friday at a Lansing brew pub.

Lawmakers finished passing the ban last week.  Detroit casinos, cigar bars, tobacco specialty stores, home offices and motor vehicles are exempt.  Michigan is now the 38th state to limit smoking in public places.

7&4 News spoke with several hotels in Traverse City on Friday to get their reaction on the smoking ban and if they think it will hurt business.  Although most of the hotels favor the new law, a tobacco store in town has a different opinion on the ban.

Ron Robinson is the director of hotel operations here at Cambria Suites in Traverse City as well as the Best Western next door.  He says the new smoking ban that goes into effect May 1st, is not necessarily a bad thing for hotel business.

"I think as a rule it's not going to affect business at all...Smokers have requested non-smoking rooms so the public has really changed it themselves.  If they're a smoker they'll go to to a designated smoking spot and smoke," says Robinson.

Although Cambria Suites is already 100% smoke-free, the Best Western does have some rooms designated for smoking.  Still, Robinson says he doesn't see the ban having a negative impact on his customers.

"We have designated smoking areas outside the hotel that people can go to and smoke....I know there's been a lot of publicity on it but I think it's really a non issue," says Robinson.

On the other hand, some people think the smoking ban is completely unnecessary in places like hotels.

"I think people should be able to smoke wherever they want to. I understand that some people might not appreciate that but people have been smoking for years," says Miles Lenane who disagrees with the ban.

Although the ban does not apply to tobacco specialty stores, Admiral Discount Tobacco in Traverse City still disagrees with its purpose.

"I think it's definitely infringing on people's rights," says manager of Admiral Discount Tobacco, Steve Haselton.

Haselton says he thinks making it illegal to smoke in public places around the state also brings up other issues.

"The United State Has increasingly come down on us state after state doing these cigarette bans, but the funny this that they want us to pay exuberant taxes on cigarettes, roll your own but they don't want us to smoke anywhere.  That just gets me," says Haselton.