Better host protection after guests breaking house rule SMOKING

[Andrea9]

I'm not talking about one or two cigarettes, but of the guests leaving the place reeking of smoke.

Too many posts in CC are about this and the extra work they had getting the stink out before new guests.

Airbnb does not have hosts' backs by not taking a portion out of the security deposit. 

Why? Smoking in a non smoking hotel room is punished by a hefty fine. Why do hosts get the  slap on the wrist?!  

There needs to be a better solution for this.

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Response from Airbnb

Thank you for elaborating on the issues hosts face when dealing with smoke damage. We are just getting started on an initiative to identify how we can better support hosts that file claims for damage or for an inability to host that is not covered by the extenuating circumstance. There will be particular focus given to the claims process for damage that cannot be documented easily, like cigarette smells.

[John-and-Heather0]

Lisa & Mark are dead on with additional protections for those who rent entire homes (and aren't in the guest's space, etc.).  Real damage deposits would be helpful--and trust the hosts--we're not making that "one bad guest" up. You can monitor and tell when a host has a clear track record of never claiming damage deposits.  For high-end whole homes and furnishings, there is much more risk to the owner than to the guest.  We offer lower rates to our guests on sites that use a "real" deposit (we decide if, when, and amount to withhold) because we don't have the hassle of AirBNB having a knee jerk response of protect the guest. Our worst guest this summer consumed hours of our time with AirBNB ignoring/mismanaging the issues.

Our bad guest admitted all damage she caused and the cost of the items, and realized our 4 different trades working because she overstayed could verify her damage and her crazy lies (new complaints and threats to try to reduce the cost of her damage). But the Air BNB staffer never read my messages, and when other good AirBNB employees finally got her to read the support and guest threads, she did give us the whole deposit but only after defensive, nasty accusations that we were being unfair to the guest (most expensive item in the home ruined by a huge puddle of human urine and had to be replaced).

We feel strongly that good guests should get lower prices--and real cash deposits for damage are better for good guests than forcing hosts to raise prices for EVERYONE to cover losses from bad guests.

[Airbnb]

Thank you for elaborating on the issues hosts face when dealing with smoke damage. We are just getting started on an initiative to identify how we can better support hosts that file claims for damage or for an inability to host that is not covered by the extenuating circumstance. There will be particular focus given to the claims process for damage that cannot be documented easily, like cigarette smells.

[David-and-Fiona0]

This is a MUST!

[Marie-Claire3]

I had a guest who smoked electronic cigarettes, and stayed for two months.  There was no smell, but an incredible amount of paraphernelia was left behind for me to clean up.  Now I specify in my rules that absolutely no smoking will be tolerated, whether regular or electronic.

[Emma215]

I hope this is given special attention by Airbnb. We need a way to be able to cover our losses from smoking guests. It is not fair to other guests who rent a non-smoking apartment. Airbnb never responds in a positive way when we try to keep the damage deposit. When will we know when the new feature is rolled out?

[Seattle-Oasis0]

This is an issue for sure.  We had pictures of cigarette butts in the property but were told by Customer Service unless we literally had a picture of the guest smoking a cigarette in the property there was nothing we could do.  We had to deploy an O-Zone and move a guest to another property because of it.  Then we got a poor review from that guest as it wasn't the place we booked.  Seriously Airbnb?  Put yourself in your hosts' shoes more often!

[Cynthia178]

I agree with hosts, this needs to be resolved. I get mostly South Koreans stay at our guest house and their excuse is that they don't speak English well enough to understand the House Rules. Most will not even take a look at our Descriptions, they just book. So, when we smelled the smoke from the guest house bathroom after the guest left, and mind you I charged them for extra cleaning, etc.. Sometimes its not enough.

I made sure that when another South Korean guests book or thinks of booking, my first response after the greeting is, "Please make sure to read our guest house description carefully. This is a NO - Smoking guest house." Then, I was able to get some Korean friends to get us "No - Smoking" signs in Korean, and we've put them in the guest house.

This helped a lot. But, doesn't resolve the issue. More needs to be done.

[Dawn171]

I agree Air bnb needs to set stricter standards on guests it just seems like guests are allowed to break house rules in all different ways and then threaten to leave a bad review .

air bnb needs to set rules in place that if s guest breaks a house rule or brings additional guests more than they reserved for or more than the home accommodates that the guest is nit allowed to book or utilize air bnb for a period of time or allowed to leave a bad review if they break the rules they should be penalized but no just the Host is currently penalized by getting a bad review or by having to spend money to right whatever the guest did to break the house rules