Anyone else having a problem with smoking

[Katie193]

I am looking for other people who might be interested in class action suit against Airbnb for allowing guests to break our rules and not support us in upholding agreements that were made on their site. Myself and a few other hosts I know have had people smoke in our Airbnb rooms and have gotten no support from the resolution centre.

We have it very clearly written in our rules that there is no smoking and there will be a fine if there is, yet the guest has broken the house rules and smoked anyway. I had a guest upstairs that texted me she smelled smoke and my cleaners texted me the room wreaked, and when I got home 4 hours later after the room had been cleaned and aired out, it still wreaked. I sent all documentation to the resolution centre, but Airbnb sided with the guest who lied about smoking.

Please let me know if you might be interested in a class action suit or media story. It is a dangerous precedent for Airbnb to set to allow guests to get away with breaking house rules. It is very disrespectful of Airbnb to disregard the house rules we set up as hosts to keep our homes safe and be able to keep offering our spaces.

[Barry-and-Lera0]

@Ben205: I'm sure Nest and Halo have, or will put something out with thier line of products that will alert your phone of cigarette smoke. I haven't looked into it enough to say for sure. We don't have any issue with smokers inside as we allow smoking on the property. We have ashtrays throughout the yard and all of guests who have been smokers use them just fine. No butts on the ground that I have found.

[Fred13]

Do lawyers tend to be smokers? 😉

[Fred13]

How slick. Like Ben said, they may disarm them, but perhaps not when they are so incognito. Great information.

[David126]

I am on site so somebody is very unlikely to try it, the only real solution otherwise is a security deposit.

[Katie193]

I too live on the property and was shocked that they did and and even more shocked about how they lied about it. Ruslana blatantly lied and because I didn’t have more proof (other than 3 witnesses to severe smoke smell) of cigarette butts, they took her word over mine, even though I am a superhost and she has no ratings at all. I tried to review her on the 14th day, but was unable to saying I had no days left. It is clearly written we have 14 days, however, that ended up not being true. If we are not in control of our security deposits, then Airbnb should be protecting us. If they are not protecting us, we should be in control of our security deposits. 

[Barry-and-Lera0]

@Fred13: We do not have one but they are on the market. Here is a link to some.

Stealth standalone cigarette smoke alarms

[Katie193]

Thanks

[Steve143 · Accepted solution]

Hello @Katie193,

You'd probably first have to challenge the class action waiver contained in the Airbnb terms of service that apply on using their services.

The link below is to their terms of service.

terms of service

19.11 No Class Actions or Representative Proceedings. You and Airbnb acknowledge and agree that we are each waiving the right to participate as a plaintiff or class member in any purported class action lawsuit, class-wide arbitration, private attorney-general action, or any other representative proceeding as to all Disputes. Further, unless you and Airbnb both otherwise agree in writing, the arbitrator may not consolidate more than one party’s claims and may not otherwise preside over any form of any class or representative proceeding. If this paragraph is held unenforceable with respect to any Dispute, then the entirety of the Arbitration Agreement will be deemed void with respect to such Dispute.

[David126]

@Steve143

I know you are in Ireland and sort of assumed that many of the ABB clauses would not stand up to scruting there, they might in the US, depends on the local jurisdiction.

As always competent legal advice need to be sought.

[Steve143]

Aye, the waiver may not stand up to scrutiny. Hence the suggestion that it would probably have to be challenged first.

[Sarah977]

I fully understand having a "no smoking anywhere on the premises" rule if it is an apartment or a place that only has a small balcony or porch, where the smell would just blow back into the house.  But hosts who have a yard could save themselves a lot of grief by providing a smoking area as far as possible from the house- a chair and small table with an ashtray and a small garbage can. You can still list your property as "no smoking" but this would mitigate the problems with guests who will smoke regardless of your rules. 

[Ben205]

And build a kennel, so they can bring their dogs even though you say 'no pets'. Why not knock up a crib (yes, you say not suitable for under 6s, but hey)? And a glitter ball in the garage to make sure the 'no parties' rule doesn't get broken in the house?

The only people who have disrespected my house rules are smokers!

[Sarah977]

@Ben205  That is because smoking is a physical addiction, unlike the other rule breaking behaviors you mention.  And it is the kind of addiction in which smokers tend to lie to THEMSELVES, thinking that they will go out on the street, or take a walk to have a smoke, when in fact, they are actually incapable of going to those lengths (especially if it's raining or cold out, or they are tired) when the nic fit rears its ugly head. Of course, smokers should never book a place that states No Smoking On Premises, but reading other hosts' posts on this, they do anyway.  

[Fred13]

Ben, when I was in the military (Vietnam), we had a lot of heroin addicts in SE Asia, the doctors would treat that ailment first, before asking their patience to quit smoking; that is how insane the addiction can be in some people. Yes, why in Heaven's name book a place that explicit states - No Smoking; that may fall under 'addiction to stupidity'. 😉

[Phil82]

So my take on it is that AirBnB have acknowledged already that smoking is an issue by having the option to tick a box as a host that basically says  (paraphrased) "I do not want smokers or smoking on my premises". So there is an acknowledgement already that this is an issue for hosts. AirBnB then have guests acknowledge the house rules. (They also do this for parties, pets, children, etc)

AirBnB's policies explicilty and implicitly support the rules acknowledged by guests going in to homes. 

The only thing that AirBnB doesn't do at the moment is to get Guests to check boxes to say that they are/aren't smokers, do/don't have pets travelling with them, do/don't have children under 2 travelling with them, etc.

All AirBnB need to do is to add check boxes for guests for these categories and then do a filtered match on search criteria that matches the guests requirements in these areas with hosts and vice versa.

And then back up with action if guests lie about the status of the check box they ticked.

Problem solved

🙂