There is no greater disrespect than a guest smoking in your property when you’ve established beforehand that you do not allow it. In this post we’ll advise what to do when a guest smokes in your rental.
In fact, smoking without any mention of whether it’s allowed beforehand is incredibly discourteous and inconsiderate too. Whatever your view on it, there is no doubt that unauthorised smoking is quite literally two fingers held up at you by a rude and ill-mannered guest.
I personally am not opposed to smoking in general. My issue with smoking in a rental is that not every person find’s the smell of it pleasant. The result is that a guest’s poor manners will now impact your upcoming bookings and business. Particularly if you have back-to-back guests arriving immediately after one another.
Guests who don’t smoke will have hyper-senses to even a small amount of that lingering stale smoke smell and won’t be happy if this transfers to their possessions and clothing during their visit.
Frustratingly, the onus falls on the host to fix the problem quickly so this doesn’t happen.
The nightmare scenario
Picture this, you’ve entered your property at the end of your guests stay to collect the laundry and to begin cleaning. You’re greeted with a wall of stale musty smoke the moment you open the front door.
Annoyingly, your next booking is tomorrow or worse – in a few hours – and you need to get it as fresh as it was before in limited time.
Luckily, real smoke damage occurs from long term exposure. This means someone smoking during a short stay is unlikely to cause lasting damage.
Burn marks on fabrics or furniture however are another matter. I’ve had this happen to me several times with poorly behaved guests. I’ve found that tobacco smoke lasts longer in confined spaces than the lingering smell of burnt cannabis. However both are difficult to remove quickly.
To be fair, I have the same gripe with cooking smells that guests leave behind. These can be much easier to get rid of than stale smoke and guests are a lot more considerate when taking into account cooking smells than they are smoke.
If you’re lucky enough to have a few days between bookings and provide adequate attention, residual smoke smells tend to dissipate from the air and fabric surfaces within 48 hours.
This will be shorter if you have wooden or vinyl floors for example but longer if you have carpet or materials such as drapes/curtains, fabric sofas or cushions. It can take anything up to a week or two for smoking smells to fade naturally. Especially if there is reduced ventilation or limited action on your part.
Open the windows
Open every window or door as wide as they go to allow for a free flow of air. If you have any fans, turn them on and point them towards open windows. This will help push air out and keep the air moving.
Thank your stars if it’s a strong windy day! A strong gust can really force out stale air and replace it with fresh air quickly. By opening windows and doors opposite each other, you will help create a corridor. A draft can then flow through to push the stale air out.
Find any cigarette butts, ash trays or surfaces with ash on.
Cigarette butts, ash or items used as ashtrays will keep pumping out a smoky smell unless you remove and clean them thoroughly.
Cigarette ends can be dropped all over the place indoors and outdoors by accident. Making sure you find them all will help you to start eradicating the smell from the source.
If the guest has left cigarette butts outside in a disposal unit, move that unit away from open windows and doors. This will prevent any smell from being blown in.
Ash or bits of tobacco and cannabis can fall onto the floor or on furniture and make smells linger. Vacuum over the carpets fully as well as the sofa.
Use carpet powder
Sprinkle Baking Soda (Or better yet, a scented freshening powder) on fabric surfaces, rugs, or carpets. Baking soda is a natural deodorizer and most people have an old bag of baking soda in the kitchen cupboards. This will be a huge help in an emergency.
I always keep a spare container of carpet deodorizer in my cleaning supplies for this very occasion. You sprinkle the powder and leave it then vacuum it up after an hour or so – the longer the better.
I leave the powder scattered in hidden areas such as under the bed, behind the sofa and underneath furniture. This will keep the fresh scent around, particularly if I have a guest showing up that day.
I have used and can recommend Neutradol Fresh Vac carpet powder. I can vouch for it removing Cooking, tobacco, and pet odours.
Use the power of Carpet Foams
I also use products like 1001 Carpet Fresh (which is very cheap at under £2 a can). It’s a spray bottle of condensed foam that expands when you spray it onto carpet or rugs.
You spray and leave it and the foam disappears within twenty minutes or so whilst leaving the desired scent behind. I usually put on gloves and massage it into the carpet or rug. This helps the foam disintegrate faster and to get the smell into surfaces quicker.
I’ve also used it on the back of the sofa which is sat against a wall. This way the scent travels up from the back of the sofa around the head of sitting guests and it doesn’t stain or discolour the material.
When a guest has smoked or left strong odours behind, I will pretty much use the entire can to cover the entire apartment with this scent. Once I’ve vacuumed and cleaned the apartment, this is usually one of my last cleaning stages to help mask stale smoke.
Wash affected Fabrics or use Fabric Fresheners
Fabrics near areas in immediate proximity to where smoking occurred will trap the smoke more than areas affected by residual smoke in the air.
Cushions, throws or blankets close to where a plume of smoke had been can hold the smell significantly longer after the source of the smoke is removed.
If you are able to, wash these on a quick cycle before your next booking to freshen these up. This isn’t always possible due to time constraints or the nature of the item. For example, it’s not practical to dismantle, wash and dry heavy curtains. Because of this, fabric spray is a good solution until you have the time to do so.
You may also find that after using freshener sprays and giving the room some air and time, washing isn’t required in that instance.
Fabreeze or similar spray bottles with scented odour removers are good to lightly saturate cushions or to spray over the sofa or fabric headboard of the bed. Most won’t stain or damage fabrics but do test on an inconspicuous area before use just to be sure.
Use Odour remover sprays.
Similar to the above, you’ll be able to use brands such as ‘Oust’ or Fabreze which are sprayed into the air as an ultra-fine mist rather than as a liquid spray that settles on surfaces.
These help to hide and eliminate odour in the air. Supermarket own brands sadly don’t seem to work as well as branded products so I’d avoid cheaper sprays which don’t last as long or don’t have as nice of a scent.
Leave plug-in diffusers
You can purchase or leave diffusers for guests in general to keep your home smelling nice during their stay. However, as scents are quite personal, some guests may not like the scent you’ve chosen.
On the contrary, you may find that a plug in diffuser could be taken home. I’d refrain from using them unless it’s an emergency situation like this.
Keep the windows open for as long as possible.
With all the scents from cleaning products (which can be overwhelming) as well as the smoke still lingering, keep the windows of the property open for as long as possible before the guests arrival.
Depending on your situation, if it’s still very noticeable and you are greeting the guest in person it might be worth mentioning the previous guests behaviour.
If you do, be sure to reassure them that you are working on removing the lingering smell. You can offer to leave an odour removing spray for the guests room for them to use should they wish to.
Most guests are understanding and appreciate that the host is not at fault for poor previous guest behaviour. If you aren’t meeting the new guest in person, (for example if it’s a self-check in property) It might be better not to bring attention to the previous tenants smoking beforehand. This is just in case it acts as encouragement for an opportunistic guest to seek some sort of reimbursement.
It’s a different matter if they raise an issue regarding the smoke smell with you first however.
Leave an appropriate review.
If you’ve made it clear that your property is not to be smoked in and this rule was ignored, it’s important that you leave an appropriate review for other hosts to see.
Guests who intentionally disobey house rules are not suitable for the Airbnb platform. In fact any other short-term hosting platform in my opinion!
It can be frustrating, and you don’t need to leave a rude or snippy review so just make sure you stay professional. Something along the lines of the below will be more than suitable:
“I was happy to host this guest, but sadly they smoked inside the property when we requested that they didn’t. This meant significant additional cleaning was required. Our next booking was affected later that day and the property smelt of smoke.”
If your next guest mentions the smoke smell, be sure to include this in your review. You can explain the subsequent long-term issue this guests actions caused i.e.
“Sadly, this guest smoked in the property when we have a no-smoking policy. Our next guest arrived and complained about the strong odour of stale smoke. This guest smoking has caused further implications for us. Therefore regretfully I cannot recommend this guest.”
Or lastly, if you don’t want to word a lot of detail, even something short and sweet such as the below will give a heads up to other hosts:
“Sadly guest smoked in the property against our clear No Smoking policy.”
Put in a claim
Many hosts offer conflicting advice when it comes to putting in a claim for smoke damage.
If your property was damaged by burn marks, the damage or financial loss to you is substantial and you can prove it. There is no harm in attempting to claim with Airbnb.
I know for a fact I haven’t done this myself. I’m aware I’d be a hypocrite to recommend seeking compensation for smoking damage.
It can be difficult to prove, and I don’t myself see the point in doing it unless you faced significant losses. For example a cancelled booking. If you can, supply evidence such as burn marks or left over cigarette ends the guest has left behind without due care.
My experience
A previous guest once left a small burn mark on my sofa which I managed to rub off as best as I could. That very same guest used several of my cork coasters as an ash tray, which of course didn’t react to fire very well. The property stank and evidence of rolling tobacco and cannabis was everywhere.
I probably should have put in a claim, but I just wanted the booking to be over at that point. I left an honest review, cleaned it all up, replaced the cheap £3.50 cork coasters and moved on. I’m not you however, and if a guest has damaged something significantly important to you, I’d go ahead and submit a claim to Airbnb.
Some hosts will often submit claims for additional cleaning if they can provide enough proof. It’s absolutely true that there is an additional cost involved, whether that be purchasing extra cleaning supplies or just spending extra labour time working to remove the smell.
However, if I haven’t got any significant damage or loss to myself and if the only real evidence is in the air, I write it off as a lesson. Albeit a frustrating one. i’ll inwardly proclaim that the guest is a complete tool and move on. Sometimes the stress of an Airbnb claim just isn’t worth it.
Prepare for next time
Stocking up on items in advance like the ones mentioned above can help. Particularly when the clock is against you to get a property turned around for the next guest.
If you haven’t already, investing in simple ‘No Smoking’ or similar signage can help. This lightly reiterate the stance you have on smoking.
The bottom line is, if a guest is going to break the rules and smoke, no amount of signage will stop them. This is sadly the nature of the game. Just make sure you’re prepared to remedy your property or rental when the situation arises again.