I refer to the letter from Jonathan Conway headlined 'Voluntary smoking ban laughable' (South China Morning Post, May 19), regarding the unavailability of non-smoking area in one of our restaurants, Nomads. First of all, on behalf of Igor's Group, I would like to apologise for the inconvenience caused and the delayed response to Mr Conway. He said we did not reply to his letter of complaint, however, we did not receive his letter. Running a group of restaurants in both Hong Kong and Singapore, we do understand and respect customer choice. Normally Nomads restaurant is separated into smoking and non-smoking sections even though according to the law, a restaurant of 100 seats does not require a non-smoking area. However, on a slow night, we will try to improve the atmosphere by arranging tables so that all the guests are seated in the main dining area where our live band plays. We do this to try and ensure a more enjoyable evening for our guests. Unfortunately in this case our good intentions backfired. We have already changed our procedures, so guests will not experience the problems encountered by Mr Conway. CHRISTOPHER LENZ Managing Director Igor's Group