A few months after California legalized recreational use of marijuana, the Desert Hot Springs Inn in the Coachella Valley began advertising itself as cannabis friendly — a place where guests can smoke by the pool or heat up a vaporizer in the rooms.

What surprised innkeeper John Thatcher was not only that business improved by as much as 50% but that most of his pot-smoking guests were upper-income baby boomers.

“It was not your basement stoner crowd,” he said.

Like the rest of California, the hospitality industry in the state has moved slowly and tentatively to embrace the use of cannabis on a widespread basis. Desert Hot Springs Inn is one of only a handful of hotels in the Golden State to openly welcome smoking, vaping and otherwise enjoying pot on their properties.