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My mistake. I just thought there must have been a bit more to it than that. I’ve not had to test this so I rather assumed the breaking of basic house rules by guests was something that hosts could at least rely on CS support for. Interested to know what review the OP gave the guest in this case.
Sadly I doubt guests via booking are any higher calibre however, nor their host support any better than Airbnb, so investing in something to deal with smoke odours and similar might end up being worthwhile as that really is a deal breaker for many guests.
My experience with guests who smoke (and I am also a smoker) is that if they are provided with a comfortable place to smoke outside, they will not smoke indoors. Of course, there are always guests who are disrespectful and ignore rules they don’t want to follow, but I’ve luckily never had one.
I can imagine that ignoring the no smoking indoors rule might be ignored more often in places where it is cold outside, than in warm climates where it’s pleasant to sit outdoors, and also where hosts are hard-nosed and don’t allow smoking even outdoors, anywhere on the property, so I’m kind of surprised that the OP in Bali would have a guest who felt the need to ignore his rules and smoke indoors when it’s not like she had to sit out in a snow blizzard to smoke.
As far as guests via Booking, it’s actually more likely to draw bad guests, as guests don’t get reviewed on that platform. So they could have been booted off Airbnb for reports and bad reviews, and just book on BDC, and hosts would be none the wiser and I have no idea if BDC is any more supportive of hosts than Airbnb.
To be clear, I’m under no illusions that Booking.com is a perfect solution. Their host support is worse than Airbnb’s, and the guests can definitely be worse since there’s no guest review system to hold them accountable.
But here is the bottom line: on BDC, my 4.84 rating translates to roughly a 9.7. They treat that as a premium score. Airbnb takes that exact same 4.84 and slaps a garbage ‘Bottom 10%’ badge on it, killing my bookings. Plus, BDC at least gives me that country-specific pricing tool, which acts as a makeshift filter so I can control my guest pool a bit more.
Regarding the smoking—my villa is in Bali, immersed in the jungle. There are plenty of beautiful, comfortable outdoor spaces to sit and smoke. I’ve been hosting for years and have never had an issue with a guest doing this before. She didn’t lack a place to smoke; she just felt entitled to ignore the rules and do it indoors.
To answer the question about the review I left her: Yes, I left a review explicitly stating that she smoked inside and broke the house rules. The fundamental flaw with Airbnb’s system is that hosts can only see the written text of a guest’s past reviews, not the actual star ratings other hosts gave them. So, warning other hosts only goes so far
Certainly smoking is frowned upon much more now than it used to be and many more restrictions on where one can smoke. And most smokers are well aware of that and used to not being able to smoke indoors anywhere.
But to say smoking anywhere is considered offensive is just false. I certainly don’t find it offensive for people to smoke where it isn’t wafting to where others are affected by it, and I know many non-smokers who are not offended by it either.
Yes, just the fact that you went out of your way for her in other ways, then smoked inside, and she rewarded you with a 1 star across the board review, is an indication of her bad character.
I was never listed on any other platforms but after Airbnb allowed this woman to destroy my business abd cost me tebs of thousands of dollars I am trying some new AI platforms like directstaynow . I have been trying to redo my listings and change photos and was having problems getting changes to stick. Then found out airbnb was having a glitch wth. why wouldnt airbnb let us know that. Plus an FYI Airbnbwill continue to tell you that retailitory reviews can be removed but don’t tell you they gutted the host protections for this. Now any review stands no matter if guest outright lied. Which by the way is wire fraud in the US and a federal offense with jail time if it is prosecuted.
To say that “smoking is frowned upon much more now than it used to be” is the understatement of the year. The best thing that ever happened here in Mexico as well as the USA, Canada and numerous places in the world, including airplanes, is all the restrictions that they have regarding 2nd hand smoke and smoking in public places. I’m sure since you are a smoker, you’re also aware that smoke sticks to any clothing that the smoker is wearing. I can tell when a guest has been smoking, even on the beach, because they or their clothing, smells like smoke. I don’t know any non-smokers who wouldn’t be offended by someone smoking in their vicinity even if the smoke was not wafting toward them, it’s just plain rude, and I know many more non- smokers than smokers. In fact I only know 1 person, out of more than dozens, who smoke.
If I ever had a guest who clothes left a smoke smell ,(second hand smoke), in our Casita, even if they never smoked inside the Casita or on its porch, I would probably never host them again and I would a recommendation to other hosts to not host them, no matter how nice they are/were.
Our house rules ban smoking, vaping, etc, anywhere on the property, which consists of 3 acres. What guests do off property is totally their choice. We’ve never had any guest complain or even comment, about the no smoking anywhere on the property rule and considering our occupancy rate, I can’t see that the rule has affected our bookings.
I have nothing personal against smokers, to each his own, it’s their life and they can live it as they wish as we all do. It’s the smoke that I can’t stand. you could say I’m anti-smoke but not anti-smoker.
I’m a non-smoker, and I am not offended by someone smoking. But I don’t want to smell it, so I’d probably move away if the smoker was in an appropriate spot for smoking - or ask them to move if they were not.
