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Hello! I just had my first group of guests who smoked pot inside our airbnb unit. They checked out 2 hours ago, and I’m letting the dust and microbes settle before I start sniffing rugs and upholstery to see how badly the odors are. Questions for this marvelous mind hive are:
How far do I go with cleaning, and how do I calculate an additional cleaning fee that AirBnB will get behind? We do the cleaning ourselves. In this circumstance, do you automatically do a deep clean on all surfaces (including walls and upholstery) or wait a couple hours to see how bad it is? My next guests come in 4 days so I have some time, but I was hoping to be ready for a last-minute booking before the next guests come. So there’s a question of potential lost income if the upholstery needs work.
How do you get the pot smoke smell out of upholstery? My rugs are ruggables so I can thrown them in the wash if needed.
The Review: Otherwise they left the house pretty tidy. They broke the house rules by smoking anywhere on the property. How much of a ding do you give on the house rules part of the review?
My experience is that pot smoke isn’t particularly lingering. It isn’t like cigarette smoke that clings to everything. You could try just opening the windows and setting up a fan so that it sucks air out of the room rather than blows it in.
You could also get an ozone generator, which isn’t a bad idea to have around anyway. You just can’t be in the space while it’s running.
I don’t know if you have outdoor space, but even hosts who don’t allow smoking will find they have far less rule breaking in this regard if you set up a comfortable outdoor space for smokers. A couple of outdoor chairs, some cover from the elements, a little table and a bucket of sand for butts.
Thanks! Good to hear you think it’s not much of a big hit in terms of cleanup. We have a really strict no smoking anywhere on the property rule because we live in the same house and don’t want to deal with the smoke at all. We’ve now only had two issues in 2.5 years of hosting, which is pretty great!
I also don’t think the smell will be bad compared to cigarettes. I’m not around it much here but I do have a friend who sometimes smokes weed inside and blows it out a window or door (in Portland where it’s legal) and I’ve never noticed her house smelling. I’m pretty sensitive to smells.
If it’s a point of emphasis and you are 100% sure they smoked inside, then I’d ding them hard. I think smoking inside is a no brainer, hard no in society now and this is widely understood that people don’t approve.
I’d give a one star on rules, mention it in the public review (please) and wouldn’t host again.
Thank you for this! Yeah, it’s clear as day in our house rules and the pot smell seeped into my unit (so I had to open my windows on a cold rainy night) and was still lingering in the airbnb unit when I checked the place after they left. Will review accordingly. Really appreciate your input!
I actually had more rule-breaking when I allowed smoking outdoors. If the weather was bad, they cracked a door or window and smoked near it. Or they smoked on the toilet under the exhaust fan, left the toilet full of ashes. Left the sink full of ashes. Or they did smoke outside but despite a receptacle left butts everywhere.
So now it’s “No smoking anywhere on the property.” So I’m likely to get fewer smokers in the first place.
@mtecca I just had this happen about 2-3 weeks ago. They were vaping. It was sooooo strong. I did address it myself. If you want the breakdown I’ll give it. And I do own an ozone machine, but that is the final step & you’ll need 2 days for treatment and reoxygenation.
Also, PLEASE…
report it to Air so they can flag the guest account. If you cannot get the smell out yourself, please let us know if you use the new AirCover where they specifically are saying they will cover this AND lost wages if you can’t get it fixed before you next stay (i.e. you have to cancel). I’m skeptical.
I was too lenient on my rule breaking guest because they left things clean. I charged them a paltry fee (was super nice about it) for a few items (had to throw out containers they stored their product in & other stuff they ruined) to help me feel better. They gave me a 5 star and I THOUGHT I hammered them but as discussed on a different thread this week, the rating math for guests is different.
Wait until just before the review window is to expire (search threads for details) and tell the truth “Will not host again! Smoked in our listing explicitly against house rules.” And 1 star everywhere you can justify it. Some would say 1’s across the board and I don’t disagree! And answer no to “Would host again?” to help the rest of us, please.
Like others, I find that the smell isn’t anything like as bad as smoking cigarettes (or cigars) or vaping. It will disappear pretty quickly. And especially since you have such a long gap until your next guests, everything should be okay.
I certainly wouldn’t use any commercial air fresheners, or those dreadful plug-in things, but you might try a simmer pot with spices and essential oils.
Lightly boil vinegar. Avoid trying to cover the smell until the very end if you have to, and essential oils are great as @jaquo notes…I use peppermint as it lingers…,plus it’s the holidays so no one will raise an eyebrow (prefer lavender put some people don’t like it so I avoid it).
Get rid of the sources of the odor if you cannot wash/deodorize them to your satisfaction. They contaminated misc. items in our listing and it took a minute to identify them all. Plasticware, throws…I could even tell exactly where they sat when they did it. I had to re-vacuum and deodorize that same couch over and over (clean your vac filter each time).
And change the air filter immediately - highest MERV rating you can get (we put in a 13) and run it. It’s cooler now so you should be able to get away with just running the fan 24x7 rather than the A/C…bad idea in hot weather as it increases indoor humidity. Weed residue is sticky. After you’ve done the ozone, put another new one in.
I had a LTR where they smoked and vaped weed for a year, almost daily & the used nasty air freshener everywhere to try to cover it up. It was almost worse than the weed. That took a week to get right and even then I could smell it. Again, did it ourselves.
Wow, that’s an epic odor adventure. Thank you for all of the tips. Luckily, they only had one smoking session, and I was able to air the place out for 5 hours straight, so I think I’m good. Was worried about the couch, but it seems fine.
That ozone thingamajig sounds like a crazy force of nature!
I did call air, and the agent I spoke with kept using the “resolution center” language instead of the AirCover policy. And then I got a follow up message that had the old resolution center language too. But there is an option to use the AirCover policy, but I don’t need to go down that road at the moment, so that’s all I can report on that front.
Guess I’ll include language about vaping in the no smoking house rule - just to be ridiculously clear. Our house rules specifically states no smoking of any kind anywhere on the property, and that “If this is too much of a hardship, please do not book with us.” What more does a person have to say?
Well, it really isn’t a ridiculous distinction. Vaping isn’t smoking- there is no smoke involved, it’s just water vapor mixed with whatever is being vaped. So “no smoking of any kind” does not apply to vaping anymore than the guests consuming pot edibles is “smoking”.
Yeah, we’ve had really good luck with a really strict no smoking policy. And thankfully (?) I can catch on pretty quickly because odors spread really fast up to our unit because of the ductwork passing through the first to the second floor. If I’m home, I can nip it in the bud by sending a diplomatic yet firm message.
Leave citrus based air freshener in the rental. Lemon-Mate is now apparently gone, and my local health food store can’t get me the lemon based spray I want, so right now my deodorizer is lime based.
Lemon oil based air fresheners will clear cooking grease (and smoke), curry smells, smoke of various kinds, even baby diapers or rotten fish.
You should tell them that, and that any attempt to block vents will be grounds for immediate termination with no refund, because it messes up the heating/cooling system.
In your House Rules:
“This apartment and the owner’s unit above share a heating/cooling system. Blocking vents can cause damage to the HVAC system, and will result in immediate termination of the rental with no refund.”
