Guest burnt 12 incense sticks, and lied about it...

[Andre12327]

I had a guest stay for 4 days in my 2-month old AirBnB studio I have been renovated for the last 12 months on weekends to my perfection.

The second day of her stay I smelled this strong sweet odor coming through the HVAC that also serves my separate living space and asked the guest about it - no response.

At check-out I asked again, and she said I was over sensitive and it is probably Febreze. Well, when I started to clean, I continue smelling this strong scent coming from the kitchen cabinet, and from under the kitchen cabinet! I decided to look through the trash and found 12 burnt incense sticks!

Now, this is a "super host" who brags about being a super host, and she treated my place with such disregard, and then lied about it in my face! I am now on Day 7 and still trying to get rid of the smell! 

What does AirBnB do with guests like these after you reported the guest  who refused a request for additional cleaning and repair fee?

(Next time I will surely ask the guest to leave immediately, but I did not recognise the smell of incense soon enough this time round.)

What is the right way to handle a guest who behaves like this?

I have to say it is a very deflating experience!

[Anonymous]

@Andre12327  You're entitled to ask guests not to burn incense as a rule, but it seems unlikely that Airbnb will consider it "damage" and grant you any compensation for cleaning when they don't comply. 

What is the odor situation in the home that guests might be trying to cover with Febreze (yuck) or incense? Do you have sufficient ventilation in the kitchen and bathroom, for example? Or do you suspect that the guest might have been smoking or sneaking in pets? 

[Andre12327]

@Anonymous the studio has been fully renovated - new cabinets, new kitchen and furniture, 100% tile with no carpets that can cause smell. I'm super clean (all my guests to date commented on that), and the kitchenette has only been used to prepare food by 1 guest early on - no smell left behind from that. 

Part of providing a clean and healthy space to guests is to provide clean air - free of oily fragrance sprays (plug-ins), free of smoke, and free of incense smoke! When you walked into the studio before this, it smelled "clean and fresh - i.e. no smell as even the cleaning materials I use are light on the environment and people.

I think the guest was just ignorant and inconsiderate - too many people forget that the air we breathe and smell is as important as the physical things we can see and feel.

I hope AirBnB sees Incense smoke int he same light as tobacco smoke - it is as bad in my view.

[Helen3]

sorry to hear this. please leave an honest review to warn future hosts. @Andre12327 

[Gwen386]

I agree with @Helen3  Please leave an honest review.

I’m so sorry that another host disrespected your place. Also, @Andre12327 if you have not already done so, add it to your house rules. I have no smoking, no vaping, no burning candles, no grilling. I will now add no incense. . 

[Helen744 · Accepted solution]

@Andre12327 a lot of people like incense as they like other perfumes and once the smoke part is gone the scent lingers . They also use it to "clear the vibrations from the air ' and to create an atmosphere for themselves to feel comfortable in .If you do not like or enjoy fragrances such as this then you must put it in your rules , not harangue your guests about it . Accept that the people who are going to choose to stay may have different ideas to you .also new furniture and fittings can 'off gas ' for a long time and some people may not like the scent that you consider 'new and clean'. We are all detectives and we all find out about things that our guests have done that may shock us but incense is very low on the list but I personally dont leave candles at the house. All the best . H

[Gwen386]

Really @Helen744?  Then the incense should be burned in one’s own home, not someone else’s home while vacationing. I would have been livid! This guest/super host treated @Andre12327 home very disrespectfully and knew she was doing so, otherwise why lie?

[Helen744]

@Gwen386 methinks the lady doth protest too much.Every guest 'smells ' as far as  I am concerned Gwen. I often come into the home to be assailed by strong perfumes from both male and female guests , also garlic and all types of cooking smells and takeaway food and smelly microwaves and stinky bins and stinky sheets . I open the windows , remove the sheets and linen and vacumn and remove the rubbish . then I reassess the ' smell issue ' . I use soap and water on surfaces and clean and clean until the air is fresh to my  nose. I certainly do not have a meltdown over it. I also have rules about smoking and vaping and illegal drug use but sometimes these things happen . Clean up and get on with it is my way to go Gwen and I am sure that is exactly what most hosts do . I once had a cooking smell that took three or four cleaning days to get rid of . I still do not know what it was and will never know, it smelled like someone had been cooking road kill, old road kill. H

[Helen744]

Personally I would be more concerned that someone was setting a flame inside the house rather than the smell and something that you may or may not know. sometimes a gas escapes from the toilet and people use cigarette lighters to dissipate it or in fact ,incense. H

[Andre12327]

@Helen744guests should not "stink" up another persons home because they "like" a certain smell. As I mentioned - it is about cleanliness, which includes air. If you can't take something with you when you leave, then don't bring or create it. That goes for ANY smoke, incense smoke, cigarette smoke etc. The rule is to leave the place as you find it, not pollute it with your trash or fragrances. The thing that really got to me is the guest lie about it - in my place and in her review. Integrity matters. 

I have traveled as consultant for the last 20 yeas of my life to hundreds if not over a thousand different hotels, AirBnB's etc. across the world. I know what a nice a clean place should smell like. I also understand very well if new furniture gave off a scent - mine did not. If the guest does not like the scent, they can leave, not destroy a hosts place because they feel entitled to do so. The guest burnt TWELVE incense sticks - you have no idea how thick the air was of this stuff, and how bad the cabinets smells now.... while this maybe low on your list, for many people, hosts and guests this is not.

[Andre12327]

@Helen744 One more note about the reason I am so against any plug-in air freshener, incense or smoke, this is from scientific studies:

"Some studies have found that burning incense indoors increases the levels of chemicals called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), which have been linked to cancer. This makes sense – burning any sort of organic material, whether tobacco leaves, coal or an incense stick – produces PAHs."

Healthy clean air when you travel is still the best! 🙂

[Gordon0]

Is this the same guest you reviewed with the words 'Thanks for staying', @Andre12327? 

[Andre12327]

@Gordon0 yes it is. Unfortunately I did the review before finding the incense sticks a couple of days later in the trash bag she left when the incense fumes/smell kept coming back. She sprayed a lot of Febreze bottle spray which somewhat suppressed the fumes, but as it dissipated, the incense fumes kept coming back.

I gave her the benefit of the doubt, my mistake as a new host!! It is a lesson learnt and advice for new hosts - if you suspect an issue, hold off on your review until you have a very good understanding of the situation, especially with something g that is "invisible" such as smells. I am now working with AirBnB support to determine how to remediate the issue, including the reviews (unlikely that anything will be done).

[Chris232]

Hi @Andre12327 

Have you tried an ioniser air purifier? From personal experience certainly helps to remove odours

[Andre12327]

Hi Chris, not yet, but I'll look into it, thank you. Since we have central air conditioning in Atlanta, I have installed a special filter that works on a similar basis tompull smells out of the air as it circulates.