Thank you @Lizzie for inviting me to share my experience with hosting. It is Day 27 of our celebration month. Reading from the previous posts of other hosts who participated, I have learnt a lot from the experiences and pieces of advice shared in this forum that I wouldn’t have known otherwise.
To start with, I am a new host, barely started this October 2019 and have so far hosted 14 stays with one of the stays being long-term (over a month). At first, I was excited that I have finally started a project I had stalled for 3 years plus. As bookings started coming in, I would respond joyfully and then comes in the stress of making sure guests are checked in. All is going on well so far, but I have encountered a serious problem that I wanted to share here for others to be aware as well.
Often, we indicate that rooms are non-smoking, but I am realising that Guests don’t pay attention to those desired restrictions. I had one guest who was staying for 2 nights and smoked marijuana in the room. I woke up in the morning and passing in the corridor and there was this unusual smell until I went closer to the guest room and the young lad was smoking. I got lost between courtesy and my morning rush of going to work and missed the chance to advise the guest immediately and even if I would do, the guest was leaving the next day. Now for those reading, cannabis use is legal in Canada, since 17 October 2019 and some lads just smoke having in mind that the law is on their side.
Since then not only I have updated the information to read strictly that no – smoking, I have also bought non-smoking stickers and placed in the rooms. What I wanted to share with other hosts dealing with same scenarios though is to be careful in the way you treat/interact with marijuana users for there can be a thin line of discrimination when addressing this with guests. Most of the marijuana users are sensitive to being discriminated. While enforcing non-smoking rules, it good to know that under the law a housing provider would still have a duty to accommodate a person who smokes or vapes this being understood to be able to provide alternative places for smoking such as balconies or terraces.
It will be nice to hear from other hosts how they deal with this.