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Recently, I had a couple in my ‘two person max’ apartment. The he has ten glowing reviews on Air and claims at the site to be a host. A less than lovely experience for me. All issues but one were minor.
stated, 'we will arrive three hours early, is that OK?" He’s a host, really?
slammed everything around, doors, drawers, whatever was available. I know this because I live in the same wooden structure and when cleaning, I noticed all the silver, utensils were at the rear of the drawers. Again, minor but an irritant.
House rules even state it, don’t drive your hulking big 4WD over the lawn/irrigation heads. Small blue flags are in place to alert drivers. He crushed the flag, rebent to resemble pretzel and put back in place. Twice.
I expect that some dirt and mess from whenever people stay, but this was significant. One large trash bag of leftover food, floors just plain filthy, mud inside of the apartment at the front door, food crumbs wherever. Oh, the she had lovely long hair. She had it everywhere, mostly the bath, vanity area and hallway between. (everywhere)
All which is somewhat expected. Typical. Not how I would leave a place. Ever more so that I now am a host. But that’s why I get paid ~minimum wage to scrub the floors, etc.
But the biggie. NO SMOKING is stated repeatedly and everywhere I can think of. In the house rules, the listing description, both pre-stay messages, the onsite guidebook… still, after check out I begin cleanup/prep and find that the trash can by the dryer (for lint) contains about 20 cigarette butts. To top it off, the smoker used the painted floor to put out their cigarettes.
Sounds like a guest you wouldn’t like to have again, for sure.
The surprise ask for early check-in and the smoking are the only points I’d mention in review.
But before you read them the riot act on smoking… Do your HR say no smoking indoors? Or tobacco-free property?
I ask because my OH smokes ( working on it). He only does so outdoors, so we don’t book “smoking” listings. Typically, he’d go for a walk (off property) and smoke outside, then dispose of butts in the trash on his return. I doubt a host would ever see his butts, since he’ll put them in another container to reduce the smell. I’d be irritated if a host accused us of “smoking” with no evidence other than trash.
It doesn’t sound like your place smelled of someone smoking indoors, so are you assuming they smoked indoors because of the butts? Or do you think that “no smokING” means the same thing as “no smokERS”? If you’d found chewing tobacco in the trash, that’s also evidence of a gross habit, but also not smoking.
I’m a “no smoking in the room” property. I hate it but I’ll let someone smoke on the front porch and give them an ashtray. I prefer to manage the butts myself if given the chance. I’ve had butts thrown in my rock yard, put in something and then put in the bathroom bin, put in something and then put in the large garbage bin on the side of the house.
You can’t prove a negative so I don’t know if I had smokers who disposed of butts on my property and didn’t leave smell or trash. But I do know I’ve had to smell reeking cig butts in multiple locations on my property. I hate the way they make my trash bins smell. I wish smokers could go off property and leave their butts elsewhere. That’s one reason I welcome the rise of vaping. It’s not the perfect solution but it solves more than one cig issue for me.
I have to admit, I wanted to clarify that. @Skai was this trashcan on a back porch or something or was it inside the unit? I know some people have dryers outside like that. If it was on a porch or other outdoor area, the guest would have likely assumed it was okay to smoke outdoors.
This annoys me so freaking much But I can’t imagine mentioning it in the review as, really, it’s merely a question and even annoying questions are better than guests not asking questions.
I noticed that, too. But it sounds like they tracked a lot of mud and dropped crumbs; I could see mistaking mud for ash. A burn mark is pretty damning evidence. Skai is the one looking at things, so she knows best.
AirBnB House Rules gives you a checkbox for SMOKING ALLOWED. It’s not checked.
Chewing tobacco? That’s a foul activity from the 1800s? Haha. Smoking is a gross habit. I want nothing to do with it and will not encourage it on my property. Do I appear to have opinions? lol
There’s not much to confirm. A cigarette had been snubbed out on the floor of my lanai and next to it was a small trash can with ~twenty cigarette butts. It’s not like someone snuck onto my private property and fired up a pack of Austrian cigarettes. (the guests were from Vienna)
To be clear, it’s a painted concrete floor. Not ultra elegant and no serious harm was done that a hard scrubbing and maybe touch-up wouldn’t fix.
Like their leftover food, I don’t want or need the stinky cigarette butts or marked floor.
The problem is that people interpret that differently. Some as “not indoors” some as “not on property”.
I’m fine with guests smoking outside, but there’s no category for that. I have to choose “No Smoking” so people don’t expect to smoke inside.
So we have two hosts with very different attitudes to smoking outdoors. If someone wants to smoke a J or cigar in the garden, fine by me, but Skai would be like “get out of here with your dirty habit”. However, we’re both categorized the same way: “No Smoking”.
This tells me Airbnb has some work to do in clarifying this section so the options are more like:
Tobacco-free property, No smoking indoors, Smoking allowed
One other big issue I’ve noticed with these smoking rules: If someone does allow smoking, the “NO SMOKING” rule disappears, but isn’t replaced with any kind of warning that prior guests may have smoked, or that the host may be actively smoking inside the listing or on the shared property. (at least on mobile). That would be an unpleasant surprise for a guest.
I didn’t realize this. So these listings don’t say “smoking allowed” down in the rules section? I agree with you that they should, so people can avoid staying there if they don’t like the smell of smoke.
For instance, I know mine says “Pets Allowed”. I think that is great to warn guests with allergies.
Actually, as stated in the listing and my house rules and both boilerplate messages, I’m ‘don’t book my place if you want to smoke in or on my property.’
Because he doesn’t smoke indoors. I assume smoking listings are for smoking indoors. If he wanted to do that, he’d have to travel solo.
I guess in my head it’s similar to the old smoking sections in restaurants. Knowing my partner had smoked hours before and that he won’t smoke during our meal, I would ask for the non-smoking section. Would you require we sat in the smoking section just because he at one point touched tobacco that day?
I also book places that don’t allow shoes inside. I’ve not yet been called out in review for wearing shoes outside the listing, much less on public sidewalks (where he’d be if he went for a walk to smoke)
There was a guy on another board who booked a private room in (unknown to him) a smoking listing. He asked the host about the smoking, host pointed out how he’d marked it “smoking” but there was nothing in the mobile version of the app to warn him. Bad UI.
working on it). He only does so outdoors, so we don’t book “smoking” listings. Typically, he’d go for a walk (off property) and smoke outside, then dispose of butts in the trash on his return. I doubt a host would ever see his butts, since he’ll put them in another container to reduce the smell. I’d be irritated if a host accused us of “smoking” with no evidence other than trash.
I hope this is an outside trash can. This can stink up not just a trash can but the entire house.
