@Gabe2, I am very much in favour of diplomatic responses to discussion points in this forum, and I declare myself to be a non-smoker. My listing is non-smoking as well.
But your discussion point Gabe, and your suggestion that you want support for enforcing such rules and huge fines for smoking in outdoor areas of your property and neighbourhood where you have no legal juristriction is extreme, unsustainable, and has no foundation for success even if it is in your house rules.
The focus seems to be a desire on your part to punish your guests and exact retribution, rather than prevent future guests smoking....
I would not expect Airbnb to support the enforcement of your fine for smoking outdoors or off-premises, even if it was a legal/local community no smoking zone. That would be up to the local authorities and not any individual such as ourselves. Nor would it be the right, or role of Airbnb to act in this manner.
You can write whatever rules you wish, but not all of them are going to be enforceable or legal. House rules need to be legally enforceable and certainly relevant to your private premises.
My question is; what's happening with the video filming that you have been taking and viewing? in many juristictions there needs to be direct notification to any persons who have the potential to be filmed. In other words you cannot secretly or otherwise film visitors or people on the premises.
Airbnb also have a section in your host user agreement which governs your contract with them. I suggest that you ensure that you are not acting in a way which is in breach of that agreement before you get too carried away with filming your guests, and using film as evidence in any matter. If you are in breach of your host terms and conditions you may not need to worry about smoking guests for very much longer.
I suspect that should you even attempt to enforce this particular matter, it would damage your reputation as a host and the reputation of Airbnb as a hosting and accommodation service. The financial damage to yourself and other hosts would be far greater than even your huge fines.
My advice is that in future you continue to try and work with your guests to anticipate their needs. If they are smokers who have booked your property then it's sensible to work with them and encourage their honesty, plus you still have some responsibility to find a way to accommodate their smoking outdoors once they are at the property if you knowingly accepted a booking from smokers. A collaborative response would in effect be a version of "harm minimisation". If you are taking money for having guests stay, then accept the challenge of accommodating a constant variety of individual needs without compromising key concerns of your own around safety and the preservation of your property and contents.
Thereafter, by reducing or eliminating bookings from smokers you will then meet the preferred neighbourhood conditions that you are describing. As another commentator mentioned, what is the actual damage to your property? It's unlikely the fines would be enforceable, and your security deposit is in place to recompense for damage-not punish guests.
In the Airbnb review system you are certainly entitled to mention that your guests broke the anti-smoking house rule if they were in a no-smoking area which you owned and had rights over. If you also wish to mention that your street and footpath area is a preferred no-smoking zone then mentioning putting this in a review will alert future guests to the strength of your convictions. This should discourage future smokers from booking to stay at your listing. This would give you the non-smoking outcome you desire.
Hosts punishing guests is not hospitable, and we are meant to be in the hospitality industry.
I hope my response is helpful to you as you contemplate how you might go forward with hosting via the Airbnb platform.
Sincere regards, Christine.
