What to do if someone smokes in your Airbnb? Check out this guide for some helpful tips. You’ve gone the extra mile to convert your home into a perfect place for your guests. You’ve scrubbed every surface and disinfected every nook and corner with anti-microbial cleaning products. You’ve removed all obvious signs of smoking from your house, from ashtrays to cigarette odors. There can be an awkward situation when you check in with your guests and find out that one of them is a smoker.
Hopefully, they will respect your wishes and not smoke inside. But what if they don’t? What if they light up in spite of all the precautions you took? The thing is, as much as you want to avoid confrontation, there are bound to be some difficult moments when it comes to accommodating their needs as a host and balancing that with the needs of other guests who may have allergies or asthma.
Is Smoking Allowed in Airbnb?
The short answer is “no”. However, the Airbnb Hosting Agreement states that nobody can be discriminated against, including people with disabilities. This includes people with special needs, like medical conditions that require special attention, such as incontinence or allergies. This means that hosts need to accommodate their needs.
In practice, it means that hosts cannot say “no” to guests with allergies or those who need to refrain from certain activities, including smoking. This is because the host cannot check for those individuals’ needs during the booking process or ask them about them when they check-in.
As a result, guests with allergies or other conditions often don’t feel comfortable in Airbnb’s booking system because hosts have the option to refuse them. This means that in many cases, hosts will end up rejecting perfectly good guests based on the fact that they have special needs.
What is the Airbnb No-smoking Policy?
The Airbnb Hosting Agreement explicitly prohibits smoking on the premises of any Airbnb listing. This means that guests cannot smoke in your house and you cannot smoke in their house. The rules are similar to those of hotels. Guests need to follow the no-smoking policy because of health concerns. This includes people who are allergic to smoking. Hosts are obligated to enforce the no-smoking policy. The statement below is written in the Guest Reliability Standards of Airbnb:
No smoking: Guests should not smoke inside a listing unless they are otherwise authorized to by the host. This includes the use of tobacco, cannabis, e-cigarettes, etc.
While it’s understandable that guests are responsible for their own health, the smoke can linger in the fabric, furniture, and air ducts of a house long after the cigarette was extinguished. This is especially true for people with allergies. The Hosting Agreement provides hosts with a lot of leeways in terms of how to enforce the no-smoking policy in their house. You can ask your guest to smoke outside. Alternatively, you can ask them to smoke in another room where you don’t spend much time.
Someone Smoked in My Airbnb
This is one of the most unpleasant things that can happen when hosting Airbnb guests. Unfortunately, it can happen to anyone. The best thing to do is to open the discussion with a polite “this is not an appropriate place for smoking”.
In many cases, your guests can just not smoke in your house. There are also situations when you are obligated to do something about it. If the smoking is unintentional or happens in spite of your requests, you can let the guests know that you are not comfortable with it and ask them to stop. If smoking is intentional, you need to take more decisive action.
Airbnb Guest Smoking in House
If you find out that a guest is smoking in your house, you have a few options. You can let it slide and try to avoid the person as much as possible. You can report the guest and ask Airbnb to remove them from your property. Or you can try to address the situation directly. If you decide that the best course of action is to address the guest’s smoking directly, you will want to be firm but polite. You don’t want to get into an argument, but you do want to make your point and let the guest know that this is not okay.
Wrap up your confrontation with a request that the guest put out their cigarette. You can offer to open a window to let the smoke out or suggest that the guest step outside to finish their cigarette.
First, you have to inform the guests that smoking is not allowed. If they don’t stop, you have to remind them again. If this doesn’t work, you can ask the guests to leave.
What to Do If Someone Smokes in Your Airbnb?
If you find that a guest is smoking in your Airbnb, you need to decide how you will handle the situation. You can let it slide, if you’d prefer not to get involved, but you may find that other guests are offended by the smell of smoke, or they may have friends or family members who are sensitive to smoke. Unfortunately, there is no easy solution to this problem, but you can try to mitigate it.
1. Talk to your guests. The first thing you should do is talk to your guests. Let them know that smoking is not allowed in your house. Ask them to respect your wishes. Let them know that any smoking in the house will lead to the end of the booking.
2. Document the situation. While you are talking to your guests, keep a record of the conversation. This can help you enforce your rules in the future. It’s also a good idea to take pictures of the smoking events and find ways to prevent smoking in your house.
3. Create a clean air zone. Some hosts create a clean air zone by moving their guests to another room. Others go even further and create a separate living space for guests who smoke. You can also use air purifiers or sprays made from essential oils.
You can start by cleaning your house thoroughly before your guests arrive, removing all obvious signs of smoking, including ashtrays and cigarette odor. You can open windows to get the smell of smoke out of your house as much as possible. You can also talk to your guests and let them know that while you understand that they may have certain needs, you also have other guests whose needs you need to consider.
How to Stop Guests From Smoking in Your House?
Let’s start from the basics. Hosts need to talk to their guests, inform them of the rules, and enforce them. This can be especially tricky when it comes to guests with allergies. In some cases, you can offer your guests a separate living space where they can smoke and still feel comfortable in your house.
Depending on how many guests you have and the layout of your house, you can create separate living quarters that do not affect other guests in the house. This can include creating a separate sleeping area, setting up a cot in a separate room, or setting up sleeping bags in a spare room or unfinished basement.
You can try to put up a sign that politely warns guests that you have sensitive neighbors and that smoking is not allowed inside the house. You can also talk to them directly and let them know about the sign that you posted. If you have a particularly stubborn guest who ignores your requests, you can contact Airbnb and let them know what is going on. You can ask them to speak with your guest or even ask the guest to leave.
If you receive a complaint from another guest about a smoking problem, you can report the guest and ask Airbnb to step in. You can also take the complaint to the guest and ask them to stop smoking.
How to Complain About a Guest Who Smokes in Your Airbnb?
The Airbnb Hosting Agreement obliges hosts to report any damage or uncleanliness. You can use this rule to address the smoking situation in your house. You can also report an incident as a “health problem”. You can do this if you have guests who smoke in your house and have allergies or asthma and suffer from the smoke. Click the “I need help” button on your dashboard and write a report.
You can also report a guest for “anti-social behavior”. This is when a guest misbehaves in any way. You can use this rule if a guest smokes in your house without your permission. When you report a guest, Airbnb’s customer service will investigate the incident and respond to you.
How Can You Tell if Someone Smokes in Your House?
If you find that a guest is smoking in your Airbnb and you don’t want to get into an argument with them, you can try to go about this in a polite manner. You can open a chat with the guest and politely let them know that you are bothered by the smell of smoke.
You can let Airbnb know about the issue as well. You can open a support ticket and let them know the situation. Let them know how the guest’s smoking has affected you and your other guests.
What Airbnb Does About Smoking?
Airbnb has policies in place to address smoking on its site. They have a no-smoking policy, as mentioned above, and they also have a complaint and response policy. If you report a guest who is smoking in your house, Airbnb will follow up with them. They may ask the guest to leave or they may ask the guest to refrain from smoking in your house.
They will follow up with you as well to ensure that you are comfortable and that they have resolved the situation. If you have a complaint, Airbnb will follow up with the host and try to find a solution that works for everyone.
If a guest is misbehaving, you can report them and they may get banned from Airbnb. The company takes the no-smoking policy seriously. It has many tools to help hosts address the situation. This includes an Incident Report Form, Host Help Center, and a 24/7 email support line. If smoking is making you uncomfortable, you can report it to Airbnb. As a host, you can report a smoking incident and ask Airbnb to end the booking. If smoking has a negative effect on other guests, you can also ask Airbnb to end the booking. In both cases, you are entitled to a full refund.
Create a “clean air zone”
While you cannot ask your guests not to smoke, you can ask them to respect the clean air zone. You can designate some parts of your house as clean air zones and make it clear that smoking is prohibited in those areas. All you need to do is put up signs to designate your living areas as a clean air zone. You can also ask your guests to restrict their smoking in their room if you have a smokers-only policy in your home.
Step 1: Have a discussion before check-in
If you know that your guests are smokers, discuss it with them before they check-in. Let them know that you are aware of the fact that smoking is part of their daily routine and that you are okay with it as long as they respect your house rules. That way, you have managed to assert your house rules without being confrontational. Most smokers, who are also considerate people, will be happy to oblige.
Step 2: Ask to be paid for the cleaning cost of your house
Asking for compensation for the cleaning cost of your house is one way to put a price on your time and effort. You have spent hours and hours scrubbing your house from top to bottom and removing all the obvious signs of smoking from your home. You can ask your guest to compensate you for the money you have spent on cleaning your house. The amount could be determined based on the amount of time you spent cleaning up, the cost of the cleaning products, or the amount an average cleaning company would charge you.
Step 3: Ask for compensation based on the loss of value of your property
If your house has gone through a complete makeover for the sake of accommodating your guests, you can ask them to compensate you for the loss in value of your property. The average cost of a home in the U.S. is around $300,000. If your guests have smoked in your home, they may have polluted your house and caused damage to your property. This could result in a decrease in the value of your property and could be grounds to ask for compensation.
If your guests have caused damage to your furniture or walls and stained your fabrics, you can ask them to pay for the repairs. You can also ask them to compensate you for the decrease in the value of your house if they have stained your walls and carpets with tobacco smoke.
Step 4: Evict the guest and ban them from Airbnb
If none of the above works and your guests simply refuse to respect your house rules, you can evict them from your home. If you have given them ample time, chances are good that they have made a mistake and will apologize for their actions.
However, there are bound to be some guests who simply ignore your wishes and refuse to follow house rules, even after you have given them ample time to comply. Your guests could be destructive to your property, disrespectful to your loved ones, or pose a threat to the safety of your house guests. In these scenarios, eviction is the only way out.
Airbnb Smoking Violation Fee
If a host reports that a guest is smoking in their home, the Airbnb community team will review the details and remove the guest from the host’s listing and cancel any upcoming reservations. The host is also entitled to a smoking violation fee that they can use towards cleaning fees or towards covering the cost of getting rid of the smoke smell in their home.
Hosts can select the “no smoking” option when they set up their listing. If a guest books a “no-smoking” listing, they agree that they won’t smoke in that listing. If the host later finds evidence of smoking in their home, they can send a request to the guest, asking them to pay a smoking violation fee. Hosts can select a smoking violation fee amount from $50 to $150.
Why You Should Report Smoking on Airbnb?
You may be hesitant to report a guest for smoking in your home, especially if the guest is a repeat customer or a friend of a friend. You may worry that they may snitch on you, put a negative review on Airbnb or even report you to Airbnb. You may be afraid that they may sue you or that they may spread rumors about you in the Airbnb community.
However, you must keep in mind that Airbnb is a community first and foremost. And, as a member of this community, you are responsible for maintaining its reputation. When you report a guest for smoking in your home, it goes against the Airbnb Community Commitment. It also goes against the Airbnb Terms and Conditions.
When you report a guest for smoking in your home, Airbnb investigates the matter and takes the appropriate action. If a guest is reported for smoking in their listing, they are removed from the Airbnb community and are banned from using the app in the future.
How To Deal With Bad Airbnb Guests?
There are two ways to avoid this. The first one is to be a very careful host. During the booking process, you must be very attentive. Take the time to read the guest’s profile and make sure that the person has all the necessary requirements. It’s very important to have a detailed description with all the necessary rules. You must have a very detailed policy with everything that your guests must respect.
The second way is to be a very attentive guest. You must also be attentive during the booking process. Take the time to read the host’s profile and make sure that the person has all the necessary requirements. It’s mandatory to respect the rules of the host. If you want to avoid bad guests, you must be a good guest.
How to Get Rid of the Smell of Smoke in Your Airbnb?
Keep in mind that the easiest way to avoid confrontation with a guest who smokes in your house is to declare your home a non-smoking zone. You can also make it clear in your listing that you don’t allow smoking in your house. If you have guests who smoke, you can suggest they smoke outside and offer them a designated smoking area. If a guest smokes in your home and the smell lingers, you can follow these steps to clean your house:
1. Wipe down surfaces with a disinfecting wipe.
2. Sprinkle baking soda on carpets and furniture.
3. Seal off the room with plastic sheets.
4. Open the windows and doors to get as much fresh air into the room as possible.
5. Open the curtains to let the sunlight in.
6. Air out the house for a few hours or even a few days if the smell is really strong.
7. Remove any contaminated fabric or upholstery with a wet vacuum.
8. Wash down walls and ceilings with a disinfectant spray.
Conclusion
If you run an Airbnb, it’s important to know your rights and responsibilities as a host. One of the most controversial issues you might have to face is when someone smokes in your home. It’s important to know that while you can’t prevent guests from smoking in your home, you can ask them not to smoke in certain areas, such as bedrooms, shared living spaces, and other parts of the home where guests may be present.
If a guest continues to smoke in your home despite your best efforts to politely ask them to stop, you can report them to Airbnb. Airbnb has policies in place to protect hosts, and they will take action against smoking guests. You can also try following the cleaning tips outlined above to get the smell of smoke out of your home.