Past guest that left a terrible odor in home that was from drugs.

Past guest that left a terrible odor in home that was from drugs.

I need help! it was the very first time we opened this home up for guests, first of all they wouldn't leaved at the check out time, I had to go over and try and get them to leave, my housekeeper was waiting to clean it. After they left and hour later, it smelled horrible of weed, I actually had to pay for an ozone machine, nothing would work. Airbnb informed me we couldn't collect lost rent, since I had to block it off until the odor was gone, a week later! I even have a refundable deposit so what is the deposit really for??, they said the guest has to agree to it, well of course he wouldn't agree to it!! It doesn't seem fair! am I able to file a police report? I have no idea where to go from here on this.

1 Reply 1

@Melissa666  Unfortunately you've learned the hard way, Airbnb's "deposit" is a misnomer; they do not actually hold or collect any deposit at the time of booking, nor are you automatically eligible to make a claim. 

 

If your rules prohibit indoor smoking, there is a small amount that Airbnb might grant for odor removal (hosts report something in the $50 range), but there's no coverage for lost income if you choose to block dates or cancel bookings. You'd need a separate insurance policy with STR coverage for this.

 

I can't tell from your post what channels you went through, but generally the way to request payment from guests is via the Resolutions tool at airbnb.com/resolutions -  there's not much the help desk can do for you, since the workers Airbnb outsources this function to know far less about the site than you do.

 

The only scenario in which a police report would be useful here is one in which a) cannabis smoking is illegal in your jurisdiction and taken seriously by law enforcement and b) you intend to sue the guest in small-claims court for your expenses.  It's hard to imagine that you could recover an amount from the guest to be worth this degree of hassle. Is the ozone machine returnable?