Smokers who light up in a non-smoking hotel room in Hawai'i may may find themselves paying several hundred dollars more for the room cleanup.

Travel Hawaii, a Hawai'i-based Internet retailer, has set up a database — www.travel-Hawaii.com/smoking.html — that details the smoking policies of hotels throughout the state.

Travel Hawaii owner John Lindelow said his company updates the information as policies shift. "This is a rapidly changing area of hotel policy, so we make a lot of phone calls to stay on top of what the hotels are doing," he said.

So far, the top charge goes to Aqua Palms & Spa in Waikiki, with a $500 fee to clean a smoke-free room there.

Guy Underkoffler, senior vice president of Aqua Hotels & Resorts, said the Aqua Palms is a non-smoking hotel, and is dealing with one or two smoking violations a week.

"We find that most travelers are non-smoking and they prefer non-smoking hotels," Underkoffler said. Aqua has 12 hotels, one closed for renovations. The majority of the rooms are non-smoking.

He said most of the hotels charge a smoke cleanup fee of $150 to $300 to pay for the cleaning of the room and compensate for the day or two that the room is out of service.

But the Aqua Palms stiffened the penalty to $500 to discourage violations about a month ago.

The result? Since then, there's been only one violation, he said — "$500 seems to be the magic number to make them think twice."

He said the trend is for more visitors who are non-smokers and expect smoke-free rooms. Sometimes, smokers think it's worthwhile to pay the extra money and smoke where they stay.

"We've been fairly successful about getting them to pay it," Underkoffler said.

Many of the hotels increased smoking restrictions after a tighter state law went into effect in November 2006, banning smoking in bars and most other public buildings.

Underkoffler said hotel officials were concerned that both Asian and European visitors would be discouraged by the limitations. But they have found that there are few complaints as long as the rules are clear.

A number of hotel chains have designated all their properties smoke-free. As of 2006, Marriott lodging properties in the U.S. and Canada become 100 percent smoke-free, according to the company's Web site.

Hawai'i-based Outrigger Hotels and Resorts and its Ohana properties have all been smoke-free since 2006. The chain charges a $250 smoke cleaning fee, said Barry Wallace, executive vice president of hospitality services for Outrigger Enterprises Group.

He said the hotels stopped taking any smoking reservations several months before the law went into effect. "Over the last few years, we have noticed a decreasing demand from guests for smoking rooms and an increasing sensitivity to any odor or exposure to cigarette smoke by our guests and employees," he said.

Wallace said the cleaning fee pays to shampoo carpets, clean drapes and bedspreads and to otherwise get the smoke smell out of the room.

Over all, he said the adjustment has gone smoothly, even among Japanese travelers, who have as a group smoked more than Americans.

In the 3,000 to 4,000 rooms the chain has in Waikiki, he said there are usually two incidents of smoking violations a week, if that. "It has not been a big deal and I'm happy to say that," Wallace said.

Travel Hawaii's Lindelow said the site's information has proven popular with visitors in more than one language. "Our Japanese clients — more of whom are smokers — have shown a keen interest in our smoking database, so we've translated the entire database into Japanese on our Japanese site," he said.