SMOKING in non-smoking home

[Yeri1]

Hello,

I recently had a guest and the guest smoked in the guestroom which was non-smoking. I specified that our place is NOT allowed smoking inside of our place on the hardcopy of paper rules in the guestroom, and we also told him about this in person (He also said he won't smoke inside). We didn't catch the moment he was smoking, however, we are pretty sure that he smoked in our place because we found cigarette butts in the garbage bin in the room after he left. Also, he tried to remove the odor with our candle (but it didn't work at all and made the odor worse). We have been struggling to remove that odor in the room since he left and we are not able to get another guest.

I am not sure if there is any penalty against those guests who are untrustworthy and do not follow the rules. It is important to give a clean, nice and credible place for guests using Airbnb, BUT I think it also important that all the hosts of Airbnb also have to be protected from these kinds of situation.

Does anyone know how to handle the situation?

[Helen3]

In your situation, I would have done as Airbnb suggests in the event of guest damage and contact your guest and asked them to pay for the cost of a professional cleaner to come in and cover the cost of a clean to get rid of the smoke. Hopefully you took pictures of the cigarette butts in their room as evidence.

If they didn't pay I would pursue a claim through the Resolution Centre.

I would also leave an honest review, mark them down to three stars and say 'do not recommend' so they can't IB with future hosts.

[Yeri1]

Thanks, Helen! I would do that going forward. 

[Quincy]

Hi @Yeri1,

Welcome to the Community Center. 

I am sorry to hear that this has happened in your home. Would you mind keeping us updated on this as it could be helpful for other hosts experiencing similar issues? 

[Yeri1]

Hi Quincy,

Actually, that was the my first hosting ever since I started hosting. So I didn’t know what to do such as keeping the cigarette ends or taking a picture for the record/claim to the customer.

I had thought on how to handle this situatuin and decided not to claim/contact to the guest who smoked for this time. But I will either set a security deposit or keeping evidence going forward.

I hope my experience would be helpful for other hosts!

[Nika20]

Hi, I had a guest smoking marijuana in the room for 10 days so you can imagine the smell after they left. I have submitted the claim to airbnb with evidence( empty boxes of marijuana and cigaret butts)and a list of items that had to be dry cleaned due to the smell. We also lost 2 nights of income as the room had to be aired and properly cleaned. Airbnb rep asked me to provide pictures of the items damaged. Like i can take a picture of a smell, duh, and the original receipts, which i did. After that the rep wrote that there is no direct damage to the accomodation and claim is declined and advised me to talk to the guest. It was clearly obvious through the message that the guest lied about it and denied to pay.

[Gordon0]

@Yeri1 I've successfully claimed against a guest who smoked in my house and I don't hold a deposit. If memory serves it was the cost of dry-cleaning soft furnishings. They got quite hissy about it but did pay up. 

[Yeri1]

@Gordon0 Hi Gordon, thanks for your advice. I should’ve kept the cigarette butts..that’s my bad 😞

So did you just send the receipt of the cost directly to the guest by ourselves? Or do we have to process it under control of airbnb?

[Gordon0]

Airbnb helped. I put a claim through and the host (who were nightmares in other ways) accepted it (eventually). The fact that they admitted to smoking (because I had pics of ciggies stubbed out in a saucer!) helped. 

[Nika20]

Hi Gordon, please advice. I had a guest smoking marijuana in the room for 10 days so you can imagine the smell after they left. I have submitted the claim to airbnb with evidence( empty boxes of marijuana and cigaret butts). Airbnb rep asked me to provide pictures of the items damaged. Like i can take a picture of a smell, duh!! and original receipts, which i did. After that the rep wrote that there is no direct damage to the accomodation and claim will be declined and advised me to talk to the guest. It was clearly obvious through the message that the guest lied about it and denied to pay.  What did you do in your case please?