That’s cool! This discrimination thing was getting out of hand!
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I would contact Air and ask to have him re-homed.
Then I would confront him, and tell him that since he lied to you about smoking he is no longer welcome there and that Air is going to re-home him.
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I would check your room he is staying in. You could mitigate damage by airing it asap.
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Just be straight up and direct. Don’t bother about subterfuge and booking dates to fake him out. When he comes in next, walk up to him and casually state " Oh Ed (or whatever)! I didn’t know you smoked! I just saw you light up and have noticed a smell emanating from your clothing. Unfortunately, it is my policy not to accept smokers (due to smell). Did you see that in my listing? I am afraid that another Airbnb will have to be more suitable. However, I can assist you with looking for something in the area".
If he asks for a refund, tell him you will give him one if you rebook.
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If I end the stay early, is he allowed to review me? I’m a new host with only 5 reviews so am concerned about the impact of one negative review.
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Yes, he absolutely can.
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That’s unfortunate. So guests can just break all the rules, get removed from the house by AirBnB and then retaliate against the host with a bad review.
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Sort of. First, Airbnb can’t really remove anyone from your house. They can ask, just like you can, but they have limited power to do so since they are just an online plaform.
Also when guests break the rules and their stay is ended early they often lose their money. They should not be able to leave a retaliatory review. Also you get to leave them a review so they might be wary of that.
I’ve hosted almost 500 people and haven’t had any major problems or retaliatory reviews. I understand your concern but maybe you are worried about something that won’t even happen.
If you go down that route it will not be straightforward. Airbnb will drag their heels. It seems that more often than not guests get refunded in these type of situations. It can also take days of barraging Airbnb with phone calls to get the cancellation.
Unless your guest agrees to moves out.
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Or my recent thread…
The ending of my story is that I did enforce the rules and charged the guest the extra person fee (which I don’t even think they paid; I think AirBnB covered it for them), and they retaliated by leaving me a 3-star review. Because I’m new and have few reviews, this really lowered my rating. Dropped me out of the running for super host and the family/work collections, etc. It will take me a few 5-stars to get my number back up. 
It is really frustrating that you have to weigh the decision on sticking up for yourself and your property vs getting a bad review that could potentially ruin your business.
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Think of it as an opportunity if he leaves a bad review to reply and point out “Mack had his stay cancelled as he ignored the clearly stated rule about smoking inside and out which I put there for a reason as I don’t want my other guests being subjected to smoke smells even from clothes. I ask future guests considering booking to note that I have to treat breaches of this rule very seriously and ask smokers not to book, even those who smoke away from the premises.”
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Not in the US. Not a protected class.
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I don’t know where you live, Fahed, but no place I am aware of has smokers as a protected class. In the US, it is only illegal to discriminate against people who belong to a protected class. Protected class status varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, but generally encompasses things like race, age, gender, familial status and so on.
In my LTRs i don’t rent to gun owners. Gun owners are not a protected class. Neither are pet owners or smokers.
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I had smoker removed with Airbnb’s blessing. They broke my house rules and created a potential dangerous situation in an extremely high fire danger area during a red flag warning.
As other’s have stated, smokers in the US are not a protected class. If they were we would not have non-smoking restaurants, hotels, public buildings etc. etc.
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Do you really not a gun owner who stores their guns off premises live there or are you really only not permitting the guns to be on the property?
Not permitting guns on property. If you own a rental, and are unfortunate enough that someone is killed on your property—accidentally or deliberately—you are required to disclose that to future purchasers and possibly future potential renters. It’s known that that causes a real and more or less permanent drop in the value of the property—aside from any liability you may have for renting to the person who did the killing.
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You can state that but it’s not enforceable. You just have to hope that gun owners respect your wishes. Two of my friends are concealed carry licensees and would respect your rule and book elsewhere but I know many others simply feel that the 2nd A is a law unto itself and they would not honor your policy.
This is a rule at my LTRs. I don’t have that rule for my AirBnBs. Sorry for the confusion.
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- Write to him via the Air platform before you confront him in person
- Once you’ve messaged him and it’s part of the Air system, you’re covered by the TOS and can move forward to either re-home him or get him to comply.
- It’s your home, your rules. Confronting people is hard - most people just want bad things to go away on their own, but they don’t
- Be professional and calm. Write down what you want to say and read from the paper if you have to. No shame in making sure you are in control and calm.
- Several folks here have given you excellent talking points (I love this group!), use them
- Be prepared to re-home him and lose part of the $$ reservation. Smokers are addicts, he won’t stop and even if he does it in the car, he’ll still reek. Impossible to air out after too long…
7. No matter what type of review he leaves, leave him an HONEST review about breaking house rules and smoking and the smell. This helps other hosts identify the problem and not book him. It’s often mentioned here that hosts aren’t honest because they’re afraid of retaliation - don’t fall for it. Take the hit and if you want a bad review removed, call Air. Because you messaged him through the platform and opened a case (get a case #), you have cause to get it removed.
I hope it all goes well.