How to deal with guest vaping/smoking marijuana - in California

[G-C-R-M0]

California legalized marijuana a couple of years ago.

Although we put signs up clearly stating no smoking, no vaping, no drugs including marijuana on the premises, but still some guests would do this.

Some are smart enough to hide the smell and the remains, but some are pretty blatant.

We don't really care as long as they don't damage anything or leave the house smelling like a pot bar (if they do, then I'll claim damage with airbnb).

However, we have neighbors, and they have kids/teenagers. I don't want my guests to be smoking in the balcony, cause my neighbor may not like this as an example to their teenage kids.

Thoughts?

[Kaylee18]

@G-C-R-M0 

 I think you need to decide if you care or not about the smoking. You state you don't really care. So you could always change your rule to allow smoking outside in a certain area on the property where it won't bother the neighbours. 

Or you can stick with the no smoking but actually enforce it and be strict about it. 

You just need to decide how you want to go about it. Guests will take advantage of you if you set a rule and don't enforce it. They will just keep doing it if you don't message them or talk to them about breaking the house rule.

Best of luck! 🙂 

[G-C-R-M0]

@Kaylee18  OK, what I meant by "We don't really care" is: we don't personally have anything against people smoking, BUT we do have strict rules against it because of how we cannot monitor or see our guests (this is a whole-house situation and we may not be around to check and what not), and we want to be proactive because we do have neighbors who are pretty closely located (this is not in some rural/large yard situation).
As you can see, it is tricky to even enforce this because you can only find circumstantial evidence after the fact. 

When we had the issue, brought it up to airbnb, they couldn't do anything because there is no proof. And unless there is a damage, they won't do much.

We had to actually hire special carpet cleaner to get the smell out, and I think that's really a damage.

[Kaylee18]

@G-C-R-M0     Ya it's definitely tricky to monitor it if you don't live on the property. I live in our upstairs unit so I know if someone is smoking. Do you have outdoor cameras? Those always help for monitoring the property for many things 🙂

[G-C-R-M0]

@Kaylee18 - No, I don't have exterior camera (yet). I am planning to install them for other reasons (guests bringing extra people, more than booked, one time double the number booked).

But again, the neighbor factor is a small part of this. I really don't want them to smoke inside the house, and some may take it outside, which is fine for the house, but may not be for neighbors (this is really just me thinking about them because of CA law).

California law for designated smoking area is pretty strict and it has a certain number of distance from common areas, and I just don't think we have enough set back to provide that.

[Sarah977]

@G-C-R-M0  Since it's totally legal where you live, I wouldn't worry myself about the neighbors- what if you lived there yourself and were a pot-smoker? Wouldn't you be inclined to smoke on the balcony, rather than hide yourself away somewhere the neighbors couldn't see, even though it's legal? If the neighbors were opposed to drinking, would you be worried about their reaction if the guests were enjoying a cocktail out on the balcony?

And I can assure you that seeing or smelling your guests smoking on the balcony isn't going to be some shock to the teenagers- they come in contact with such things all the time, they're not babies under their parents' supervision 24/7.

But I don't think it's something that can't be mentioned to your guests if it's really a concern, like "Oh, and by the way, it's fine with us if you smoke whatever as long as you do it outside, but since neighbors sometimes try to find any excuse to get a host's Airbnb shut down, maybe you could do it over here (Pointing out a smoking area you've set up), rather than in full view of the neighbors out on the balcony."

[G-C-R-M0]

@Sarah977 I would say that neighbor is not the biggest factor. I only mentioned it as an additional factor (and later responded to Kaylee).

We just don't want guests to be smoking period, inside the house especially, and of course outside because of the neighbor factor, but that's less important than inside the house.

There are just many factors in play here. I don't know if you are familiar with California, but FYI tobacco is really almost banned everywhere in California, including in bars, and now of course vaping becomes a big deal too. I want to make sure we follow this so that future guests won't be bothered by smell and complain about second hand smoke.

Personally I agree smoking isn't healthy (though I used to smoke quite a bit), so I also don't want my house to be smelling like cigarette or pot or anything else resembling tobacco smoke.

[Sarah977]

@G-C-R-M0 I'm sorry, I failed to notice you said that you just don't allow smoking anywhere on the premises. I got thrown off by you saying that you really don't care if they smoke as long as they don't damage the property.

I'm not familiar with California, but as a Canadian it's much the same- no smoking at all in public places, restaurants or bars, but marijuana is in fact legal, although you can't necessarily smoke it everywhere, either.

I've just read so many posts over time here about hosts' issues with people smoking at a non-smoking listing, that my advice is always that smokers will sometimes book non-smoking properties, even if they shouldn't, so it can save a lot of hassle to provide a comfortable outdoor area where people can smoke or vape. Seems to me like a more practical approach than having to boot out someone you caught smoking, having to spend days cleaning ad airing the place out, or pick up butts stamped onto the ground because there wasn't anything to use as a ashtray.

In places like Canada, it's so frowned upon to smoke cigarettes now, that even hard-core smokers are accustommed to having to smoke outside and the majority will be respectful of not doing it indoors.