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You need to be more specific in your listing. And also more considerate of your guests, because they are being disturbed by your smoking. If their windows can get your smoke, then you need to smoke away from their windows.
As a potential guest, I would also interpret âno smokingâ as a plus for a non smoker, thinking that there would not be smoking.
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Iâm sorry but if I were a guest I too would be upset if I smelled pot. Itâs an unpleasant smell. Do you have a vent in the bathroom? If so, when having guests in the space, it might be a good idea to smoke in the bathroom using the vent. Iâm asthmatic and that smell is a trigger. When renting a place I look for no smoking and I too assume that itâs the entire place not just the rental unit so I can understand your guestâs concern.
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I would agree with Rolf, you need to disclose your pot smoking in your listing, or go far enough away from the house that the guests canât smell it, or else advertise as 420 friendly, as long as the guests smoke or vape outside, so as not to stink up the unit. (and provide a comfortable place to sit outside for this)
If I read a listing that said No smoking, I would not expect the host, on a shared property, to be smoking.
I am both a cigarette and pot smoker, although I only smoke pot at night in my room- itâs my sleeping pill, so to speak. I have never had the type of guests who would or have objected to this,even if they could smell it. The way I handle my cigarette smoking is that I never smoke around guests, or leave dirty ashtrays around. Sometimes my guests see me going off to the far side of the yard to smoke, and say âYou donât have to do that- it doesnât bother me.â And a few,if we were chatting and I said, âIâll just go over to the far end of the yard to have a smokeâ, said Thank you, so I know it would bother them.
My listing says neither No smoking nor Smoking Allowed. There is a chair and table and ashtray on the balcony outside the guest room, and while the majority of my guests have been non-smokers, the ones who were used this and didnât smoke inside their room, at least as far as Iâm aware.
What I would do if I were you is put under the âOther Things to Noteâ section, something along the lines of âSmoking and vaping are not allowed inside the unit. You may smoke or vape outside, and I myself use marijuana for medical purposes, only partaking outside. But if the smell would bother you if it wafts in the window, it would be better to choose another listing.â
I do have to say I think itâs a bit much for guests to complain about the smell of marijuana or even cigarette smoke coming in an open window, unless you are smoking right under their window. Unless you live out in the boonies, anyone could walk by, or stand out on the street smoking- that isnât in a hostâs control.
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Whether a smell is unpleasant is a personal perception, not a fact.
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As you say you havenât had any issue with this in 9 years of hosting, you could also just consider it a one-off, like having a guest who takes issue with something no one has ever complained about before.
What I donât understand is this:
So what is the difference between you vaping or smoking weed outside and guests doing so? It makes no sense. Or do you mean they can vape weed outside, but not smoke it?
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This is interesting to me as someone with family members with extreme allergies and asthma. The guest wasnât addressing a HIPPA-covered issue. imo, it looks like she had environmental concerns. She was expressing an expectation (ââŚI just thoughtâŚâ) and probably should have not send you more messages (âsad and disappointedâ sounds like an expectation). As someone who is not a smoker and has sensitivities to fragrances myself, I might also have concerns that I was not an ideal guest for your place. But I would not have opened the windows, either, unless there was no other climate control. It sounds like the property description needs to mention something to mitigate similar situations in the future. You could also offer some climate control options so guests arenât opening windows and/or get an air purifier for your own living quarters to keep guests upstairs comfortable. I wonder if she was worried about her belongings taking on the scent of your marijuana (unsure without knowing about floorplan and air flow).
This of course is contradictory within the sentence. And HIPPA covers medical personnel sharing your medical information, it does not mean that the guest is now privy to a secret that cannot be shared - to âcover youâ when you tell a guest that you smoke weed and want into be confidential - since you already told the guest that you have some sort of medical license to smoke, you have forfeited whatever âprivacyâ you have with the guest regarding your smoking.
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We do our best to not expose our guest to second hand smoke by asking the guests of our two studios on our property to NOT smoke in the garden where the entrance doors and most of the windows are facing towards.
While smoking is naturally prohibited inside, we also want to make all guests as comfortable as possible by asking them to be respectful to others staying with us. We ask them to walk to the front of the house where there is a smoking area. That area is located so far away from the studios that itâs almost on the street where anyone has the right to smoke (France), which we cannot control.
Therefore, if I as a host would be smoking (for whatever reason) I would do my best to not expose our guests to that smoke.
As a guest who understands the no smoking policy and the fact that no cinnamon is to be used in your accommodation with additional information of your allergies and that you use fragrance free detergent leads me to believe that the on-site host is a non-smoker - but maybe Iâm the only one thinking like that.
Since you do have a license I wouldnât see why you shouldnât mention that in the listing to make sure no other guest might be disturbed or offended by the smell.
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I have a hut on my deck in the winter and a gazebo on my deck in the summer which is on the opposite side of where the guests stay. I just removed everything because Iâm getting ready to paint the deck so I was sitting next to the sliders but outside but the dogs did go inside at one point. (My bad).
The guests have no access to an outdoor space. (I used to offer a lovely sitting area in my gardens on the opposite side of my house but the guests never used it.)
This is tricky. I understand the guestâs view. Iâd be surprised if there were a weed smell at a listing that was so explicit about smoking, vaping and cinnamon with the host mentioning their allergies. On the other hand, if you havenât had a problem all these years, maybe there is nothing to fix.
Iâd expect the guest to mention it in the review and Iâll just say in advance that your âHIPPA rightsâ arenât being violated and it would be a waste of time to try to have the review removed.
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I think this may be similar to our âblackout curtainâ situation.
We mention the blackout curtains in the bedroom BUT we did get the occasional guests who literally expected a black bedroom in the middle of the day.
In your case, this guest possibly had some severe sensitivity to or dis-enjoyment of smoke (and or fragrances) which you listed that you do not allow/use, therefore they noticed any unusual smell. While any building could be skunked or otherwise be suffering from smells, I think it is hard to please such guests while you have the right to smoke weed and use a fireplace. Others may find this unpleasant.
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I get that you havenât had a complaint in 9 years but now you do. So now you have to decide how you want to deal with it. You certainly can opt to make no changes and hope this is a once every 9 years complaint, or you can listen to the suggestions here. There are many good ones. As a host and a guest, AND a pretty heavy weed smoker, I may have been surprised and confused to smell weed coming from outside and may have asked about it too (I would have been asking in order to join you though, lol). My listing states âno smoking inside the house, smoking is allowed outside only and with all doors and windows closedâ. I feel like thatâs all you have to say to make it clear to future guests.
Being someone who can sleep in direct sunlight any given time of the day, I wasnât even aware a thing such as âroom darkening curtainsâ even existed. But since the guests we had who could (according to them!) only sleep well if they close their external shutters, close the blackout curtains and putting on their sleeping masks, Iâm not too concerned about our setup.
I did remove the mention of blackout curtains.
Iâm confused. You admitted you were smoking weed and said it made its way inside thru the deck doors and the guest messaged you at that point about it. But now a few days later youâre convinced it was a skunk? And youâre allowed to smoke weed outside but guests are not? Then you get annoyed and give the guest attitude when she is confused and asks you about it? You seem to have a lot of emotion built up over this. Take the emotion out of it and take a step back and try to view this situation from an outside perspective. This is a business. You have all kinds of allergies including cigarette smoke but weed smoke and vape is no problem for you. Even if thatâs true, its hypocritical to make all of those statements about allergies and medical conditions then cop an attitude when a guest asks you about the weed smell after you admitted you were smoking weed.
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I smoked at around 2 am (after she said she complained) two floors below on the side of my house that isnât part of the suite and I used a smoke diffuser. The second night I know I did not smoke in the house but then when went outside the next morning I smelled skunk and realized what had happened.
And I never copped an attitude toward her.
If I had been the guest I would have left an overall three-star with even less for communication. If the suite was advertised as âno smokingâ I would assume, since smoke travels in and out of windows and permeates buildings, that the host is not smoking anything in an internally-adjacent living space. Without a clarification saying âI can smoke in the building, but you canâtâ I would view the actual arrangements as bait-and-switch â and that would cost ONE star.
The second lost star would be the hostâs response when I told them the smoking double-standard doesnât make sense to me, and the host got all prickly and snippy â belligerently claiming my questions were an attack on their HIPPA rights. HIPPA rights protect patients from medical providers sharing confidential medical files. They donât apply at all to confused Airbnb guests asking their host reasonable questions about apparent inconsistencies in smoking rules in the building. âPricklyâ costs the SECOND STAR
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The suite is as NOT advertised as smoke free nor pet free, nor fragrance fee. It just said the suite there is no smoking in the suite, and that you have severe pet allergies this was not the place for you and that I was my linens in fragrance free products. I tell all this. in my description.
The smell came from a skunk. I donât smoke inside and if I do, itâs in a location that is not on the same side of the house as the guest suite, itâs down 2 floors in a closet. I just vape and use an air diffuser. I only due that due to my medical reason for when I canât sleep. There is no way she smelled that.
I didnât put it together until the third day when I went outside and smelled skunk. And the second day I know I did not smoke in the house.
Also, the next guest that checked in I mentioned about the skunk and she confirmed that when she arrived late one night she met the skunk. Skunks are really harmless unless they feel threatened. If the skunk got any spray on my outside porch it would definitely cause a burning skunk smell in the hallway and maybe up the stairs. I sometimes smell it in my bedroom too. Animals are coming out of their hibernation and starting to look for food. I live right below 225 acres of conservation land. (And I do mention this in my listing.)
If there is no smoking in the suite I would take this to mean âsmoke free,â and would be very disappointed to find otherwise â lawyer-like arguments to the contrary notwithstanding
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