First time having a guest booted!

[GutHend]

@Bunny

I don’t think normal applies. It is a law.

Laws are often strange, ridiculous, badly made, flawed. So yes my question remains the same.
Do you think it’s normal to have dry counties?

[yecatsr]

@KKC

I try really hard to not try to control things I can’t control. I don’t want them opening the bathroom window, blowing it out the window and tossing the butts in the toilet and flushing them for example.

I think accomodating them is the prudent strategy, not trying to prohibit them.

I agree with this 100%. Better to bend your rules a bit than having them sneak around, and tossing butts for later cleanup. God forbid they flush! I have sensitive plumbing-Yikes!

[Bunny]

@KKC

I’m not sure what point you are trying to make about dry counties. Dry county refers to alcohol sales not alcohol consumption.

Sure you can drink in them but in some places it’s illegal to bring alcohol through a dry county so I’m thinking if you’re caught you’ll get a ticket. It was a silly example he brought up IMO so I wanted to know if he was aware that there are places in the US where alcohol is actually illegal.

People do not have an inalienable right to drink (or smoke).

@GutHend

@Bunny

I don’t think normal applies. It is a law.

Laws are often strange, ridiculous, badly made, flawed. So yes my question remains the same.
Do you think it’s normal to have dry counties?

I don’t really think about it. Alcohol causes a lot of grief in this world. It killed my best friend.

[Bunny]

@KKC

and no smoking photo in my listing.

what is this photo of which you speak?

[KKC]

@Bunny

this photo

Just the international no smoking sign.

[Bunny]

@KKC

@Bunny

this photo

Just the international no smoking sign.

Pretty!

I want to thank you (and everyone else) for hashing this out with me. Please don’t think that because we diverged on course of action that you haven’t been helpful. As I said before, this is my line. Dogs, ruined sheets, broken items pale in comparison for me.

[Barns]

Bunny, you keep creating straw men arguments (no pun intended regarding straw). Rather than converse and debate, you’ll pick a small hole in what someone says, and suddenly the subject of smoking and fire risk becomes a drawn out thread about dry counties, or ‘show me exactly where I said that’ (I’m not directly quoting you there), or whether LGBTQ can be subject to discrimination.
It’s nice that threads can change direction, but someone offers advice, and you’ll veer off onto something you find easier to talk about.

[Barns]

Ha, just as I was typing, you covered it all in your last post,
All the best

Nick

[Bunny]

@Barns

Bunny, you keep creating straw men arguments (no pun intended regarding straw). Rather than converse and debate, you’ll pick a small hole in what someone says, and suddenly the subject of smoking and fire risk becomes a drawn out thread about dry counties, or ‘show me exactly where I said that’ (I’m not directly quoting you there), or whether LGBTQ can be subject to discrimination.
It’s nice that threads can change direction, but someone offers advice, and you’ll veer off onto something you find easier to talk about.

Free association

I say “Marmalade” you say…

[LetsShareThoughts]

This is an interesting thread and again points to a contentious issue (for some): smoking.

The west coast of the United States has been experiencing catastrophic wildfires for over a year now, with billions of dollars in damages and a shockingly high death toll (even in a modern digital age).

It’s nothing to monkey around with and I fully support you asking the people to leave after discovering they had extinguished cigarette butts in a burn ban/forest fire, danger zone.

I also understand posters’ concerns on here that not everybody will know that they can’t smoke at a road or on a remote hilltop, etc. (if it is off of your property).

However, the OP here did state that they had a ~frank conversation with their guests about forest fire danger~ and informed them that they should go into town to smoke, if I understood correctly. It should have been at that time that the option to cancel was given, if no mention of prohibition against smoking off-property was on the listing. Yes, this could have been handled a lot of different ways, but…

had they-God forbid- started a forest fire, then you could have also been held liable for the damage and/or loss of life caused. There is a case (prosecuted just this year) of a teen held responsible for $36m in damages (!), for staring a forest fire in the Pacific Northwest that burned 50k acres, all from a single firecracker.

Yes, I agree that you need to add something more conspicuous on your listing about the dangers of smoking in your region (maybe a smokey the bear warning sign in the photos?), but also, myself knowing that these guests must be on a serious road trip in order to get to your location, they would literally have to have their heads in the sand to be completely unaware of the current fire dangers on the west coast, and in your area.

It is not easy to get to rural eastern Washington. You will likely pass at least one warning sign about the dangers of forest fires on your way. They didn’t just pop off the runway and hop into a cab to get to you. Their blatant disregard for the safety of everybody in your area (even after you specifically discussed forest fires as the reason for the need to get out of the area to smoke), is enough cause to give them the boot.

You did well by asking them to leave. Forest fires are no joke. As someone stated, they are either caused by humans being careless with some type of incendiary materials/devices, or lightning.

Currently there are five western states with forests on fire, California, Montana, Oregon, Washington & Wyoming…and twenty two active fires in California alone.

44 people died in the Northern California fires alone last year. This is not a subject on which to to be glib or callously disregard the safety of thousands.

[Jane_Graham]

@GutHend

@KKC

However, smokers are not a protected class under US law or Airbnb policy. Smokers don’t have a right to smoke so to speak. Accomodating their addiction is not up to society or hosts, it’s up to the addict. Airbnb allows hosts to “discriminate” against smokers.

I understand that hosts can say “no smoking allowed on my property”, but can they say “no smokers allowed”? Could you please confirm this?

@KKC

This issue for her is one of respect for her property and wishes.

That seems a dangerous path to follow.

You could say property not suitable for smokers, then explain why.

[Jane_Graham]

@Bunny

You don’t buy a pair of size 8 pants when you wear a 12

I can’t be the only woman who has been guilty of this.

[Annet3176]

@GutHend

Do you think it’s normal to have dry counties?

In my part if the USA dry counties are not uncommon. No rules about drinking other than the usual d u i laws. Alcohol can’t be sold in stores or restaurants. My county was revenue smart and built an ABC store at the county line with a dry county. (In North Carolina hard liquor is only available at state owned stores & restaurants/bars. Beer & wine can be purchased at grocers, minute markets etc

[Chris]

@Yana

I myself do not allow smoking on my property. We are not talking here about property. We are talking here about them not smoking NOT on a property. ÀT ALL !
Nowhere around property , not across the road from property , not across the road from neighbors houses, not 2 ,5,10 minutes walk from.property. They were suggested to drive 10 minutes away from property to smoke. This is as unreasonable as it gets.

This is not unreasonable.
Guests are supposed to inform themselves about local rules and situation. It is not up to the host to inform them.

I have a similar situation in my house. I do not allow a Niqab or Burka in the shared spaces in or on my property. But I do not have to inform my guests that they are also not allow to wear them in public outside my property and the police will fine them.

If in the OP’s case the guests are in such need that that they need to smoke, they have to drive 10 minutes. This is not the hosts problem, and they do not have to inform them about this.

[Emily]

@gypsy

My listing will be no smoking or vaping. I will have to make clear that includes the surrounding neighborhood

I don’t think you can tell a free citizen that they cannot smoke in public space in an entire neighborhood, just because they rented your Airbnb

[Emily]

@Bunny

Would you expect a movie theater usher to come running with a bucket of water for a moviegoer who just had to smoke so they could be accommodated rather than follow their rules? No. they would be escorted out and probably not allowed to come back in.

My vote for most ridiculous, nonsensical analogy on this thread

[Yana]

Mine too​:grin:

[Yana]

It’s not the same.
For example: I have a rule on a property no smoking. So potential guest has to research how big my property is and if there are wild fires there or is there By government regulations? That looks like way too much work to even rent Airbnb. This is only hosts responsibility to inform of such nuisances for smoking person as it clearly a big issue for the area.
Just to say about this “burka situation” . I am very much repulsed by this highest form of discrimination against human right to practice this tradition. When will we learn…

[Chris]

@Yana

So potential guest has to research how big my property is and if there are wild fires there or is there By government regulations?

Yes, as a traveler you are supposed to inform yourself about the situation and regulations for the destination you are traveling to. I know the virtues of common sense and research have been lost to some cultures, but it is not up to the host to cover this.

When you are a smoker, when do you book a non smoking listing? Because you asumed you can smoke outside?
This is the same thing as booking a place with explicit no kitchen use and asume you can make coffee.

Poeple should stop asuming things, and inform them selves upfront. And it is not up to the host to cover for all the guests wrong assumptions.

[Yana]

Do not refer to my previous posts. Concentrate on this one. Noone will ever do research this wide when it comes to renting Airbnb. It’s not about assumptions. There is nothing here to assume : no smoking on property means just that . Property.
And for a smoker to find himself on a property half mile size and realize that not only they can’t smoke in half a mile radius but also not even out of this range.

Did you seriously have a rule against Burka’s in your house? Why dont you just put " no Muslims alowed