Airbnb reeks of smoke

[Tyler454]

It’s 4am and I wake up to the fire alarm going off downstairs in the building I’m staying in, and my room smells like smoke. The room is self lock( you need a key to lock yourself into the room), so I panicked trying to find where I had left the key. I thought I was trapped in this burning building. I found the key, calmed down and realized the smoke was definitely cigarette smoke, the downstairs neighbor had been smoking in his apartment the previous night and I could smell it in my bathroom. Now the smell is in my entire apartment. It’s disgusting and unacceptable.

 I’m allergic to cigarette smoke, my eyes are already watering, im sneezing and my nose is starting to run. My Airbnb has 0 refund policy and I’ll be here for another two nights.

 Does anyone have any opinions or options? As far as I can tell Airbnb doesn’t care at all if the host doesn’t care. Double checked the listing and the only house rule was no loud music…..

[Sarah977]

@Tyler454  Is the downstairs neighbor another of the host's guests? If not, and it's just an apartment with a tenant, that isn't anything your host has control over. It's like blaming the host because there's traffic noise.

If it is one of your host's other guests, but the host doesn't have a no smoking policy, that's something you should have looked for in the house rules when you booked, not after the fact.

I'm sorry you're suffering, but when a guest has allergies or other special considerations, it's incumbent on them to make sure it won't pose a problem before they commit to a booking. If I was seriously bothered by cigarette smoke, I wouldn't book an apartment without first ascertaining whether it was a no smoking building or not.

If you can't open the windows and air the place out, about all you can do is decide whether to stay, or cancel the rest of the stay and leave.

Or go downstairs and talk to the tenant, explain politely that the cigarette smoke is really strong upstairs, that you are allergic, have two more days on your booking, and see if he would be amenable to smoking outside, or out the window, or at least not in a room where it comes up in your bathroom.

It's actually a big problem for a lot of hosts, even ones who have no smoking policies and very much do care. Because some guests will ignore that and smoke anyway, and the host has hours of work to try to get the smell out of everything before the next guest shows up. 

[Brian2036]

@Tyler454 

I hate those locks that require a key on the inside. I leave the key in the lock if possible.

If you approach the host politely they might agree to a partial refund. Only you can decide whether it’s worth suffering for two more nights.