Can a hotel in Lisbon have a smoking room?

Only if it was set up as a compliant, ventilated smoking area before the relevant legal deadlines and continues to meet the technical standards in Portaria 154/2022 — this is now rare.

Does the smoking ban include heated tobacco and vapes?

Yes. Since the 2017 amendment to Law 37/2007, the legal concept of smoking covers devices that produce inhalable aerosols, vapours, gases or particles, not just combustion.

Is it legal to smoke on a hotel balcony?

The national ban targets enclosed spaces, so a private balcony is not automatically covered, but the hotel's own house rules may still prohibit it. Ask the property directly.

Guide

Smoking in hotels and guest accommodation in Lisbon

Portuguese law treats hotels and other tourist accommodation as places where smoking is banned by default, with only narrow, technically regulated exceptions. Here is what that means in practice for a guest in Lisbon.

Last checked: September 2026

In short

Under Law 37/2007 (as amended, most recently by Law 5/2024), smoking is prohibited in establishments providing accommodation services, including hotels and other tourist developments; an establishment may only set aside a smoking area if it meets strict installation and ventilation requirements set out in Portaria 154/2022, and no new smoking rooms could be created after the transitional deadlines in the law. In practice this is why the large majority of hotel rooms in Lisbon are designated non-smoking, and why smoking indoors typically breaches the establishment's own house rules as well as the law itself; any cleaning charge for smoking in a non-smoking room is a matter of the guest's contract with that specific property, not of tobacco law.

Key points

Accommodation establishments are on the legal list of places where smoking is banned by default.
A compliant smoking area needs specific ventilation and separation standards, and new ones stopped being permitted after a legal moratorium.
That is why most Lisbon hotel rooms are non-smoking rather than because of any single-city rule.
Any cleaning fee for smoking indoors comes from the property's own terms, not from tobacco law.
Balcony rules are set by the individual property; always check at booking or check-in.

What the law actually requires

Article 4 of Law 37/2007 lists accommodation establishments among the places where smoking is prohibited, alongside workplaces, healthcare premises and venues open to the public. The prohibition covers heated tobacco and other new tobacco products as well as conventional cigarettes, following the 2017 amendment that widened the legal definition of "smoking" to include devices producing aerosols, vapours or gases.

Exceptions exist, but they are conditional: a hotel may set aside a designated smoking area only if it is physically separated, ventilated to the standard set by Portaria 154/2022, and signposted. The 2015 reform (Law 109/2015) also set a moratorium after which no further new smoking spaces of this kind could be created, which is one reason the exception is now uncommon.

Why almost every room is non-smoking

Because the ventilated smoking-room exception is expensive to build and maintain, and because the moratorium closed off new spaces after 2020, most Lisbon hotels simply run entirely non-smoking properties rather than maintain a compliant exception. That is a commercial and practical response to a strict legal default, not a separate rule in itself.

A guest should not assume a room is a smoking room just because it has a balcony or a window that opens; the house rules given at check-in are the definitive statement of what that specific property allows.

Cleaning fees are contractual, not statutory

Tobacco law does not set a cleaning fee for smoking in a non-smoking room — that charge, if any, comes from the accommodation's own terms of service, which the guest normally accepts at booking or check-in. Amounts and conditions vary by property, so this is something to check directly with the specific hotel or host rather than assume.

Balconies and terraces

The general smoking ban targets enclosed indoor spaces; a private balcony attached to a room is not automatically covered by Law 37/2007 in the same way an indoor common area is. Even so, many hotels extend their non-smoking policy to balconies for fire-safety or neighbour-comfort reasons, and building-wide rules in denser parts of Lisbon can add further restrictions. The only reliable way to know is to ask the property directly, since this is set by house rules rather than by a single national standard.

Common questions

Can a hotel in Lisbon have a smoking room?: Only if it was set up as a compliant, ventilated smoking area before the relevant legal deadlines and continues to meet the technical standards in Portaria 154/2022 — this is now rare.
Does the smoking ban include heated tobacco and vapes?: Yes. Since the 2017 amendment to Law 37/2007, the legal concept of smoking covers devices that produce inhalable aerosols, vapours, gases or particles, not just combustion.
Is it legal to smoke on a hotel balcony?: The national ban targets enclosed spaces, so a private balcony is not automatically covered, but the hotel's own house rules may still prohibit it. Ask the property directly.

Sources

This page is general information about Portuguese rules and Lisbon practice, not legal advice. Rules change; check the sources for the current text. Tobacco is for adults 18 and over.