Lay My Hat

Just off the top of my head i wonder if you could word in your contract that they would be responsible for lose of business if the following guest refused to stay in smoke smelling accommodation & demanded a refund/discount.
I may reread this later & delete it as ive done on a few occasions

Bassman wrote:Just off the top of my head i wonder if you could word in your contract that they would be responsible for lose of business if the following guest refused to stay in smoke smelling accommodation & demanded a refund/discount.
I may reread this later & delete it as ive done on a few occasions

Love that idea - whether on not we could actually make it stick is another question. Will have to look into that!

Have you ever wondered how that sort of house regulation would stand up in the Spanish justice system?

Unfortunately we have had smoking in our property several times over the last few years despite it being advertised as non smoking. Last couple of times was when we were with “Holiday Cottages” agency and they said it was MY fault for not having NO SMOKING signs 🙁🙁. No longer use any agency and all bookings are direct.

We have a clause in our T & C’s that guests will pay for all bedding, curtains etc to be professionally laundered if they smoke in the property and I have estimated the cost to be at least £150 after getting a quote from a local company. I have a severe allergy to cigarette smoke and a very kind neighbour did the washing for me. So far this has deterred smoking. If it happens again I will be charging the guilty party for the full cleaning cost as they have agreed to our T & C’s when booking.

We have found several packets of cigarettes in the bins in our strictly no-smoking flat in the Alps following its occupation last week by five Italians (according to my neighbours they were 40-somethings rather than 20-somethings). It is clearly stated in the contract that this is a no-smoking flat and as it's too cold to go and stand outside on the balcony to smoke, they clearly were smoking indoors. How much is reasonable to withhold from their €550 deposit given that I'm already withholding €160 charged by the cleaning company to tidy up the filthy mess the flat was left in (food left out, dirty tissues on the floor, washing-up not done, medicine and personal belongings left in the bathroom, fridge dirty etc.)?
By the way, they told me that they'd never rented through Homelidays before and so didn't realise they were meant to tidy up. "We usually rent through Airbnb and we never tidy up!!!"

These sound like awful guests, so sorry for you!
You need to consider what the extra costs to you have been as a result of any lingering smoke. Did you need to have extra washing done? If so how much did this cost? Curtains cleaned? How many hours extra did you pay your cleaner?

SandraJ’s suggestion of stating in her TCs that she will charge for the cost of professionally cleaning bedding and curtains is a good one, and she gives a starting point to focus attention, so perhaps review your TCs as a result of this experience.

If you are able to give a breakdown of your costs, you will be protected if they challenge your decisions.

They sound awful! But was there evidence of smoking in the flat other than the packets in the bins? Smell etc? We're in the Alps and even in the coldest weather, people smoke outside. If there was any smell or cigarette ends in the house, I'd deduct according to the cleaning needed to remove it.

Also might be worth a quick run-down of what's expected on leaving in an email. I started doing this (just a sentence or two) and I think people find it useful to know what's expected.

My T & Cs say that any evidence of smoking inside will result in forfeiture of the entire deposit - a wooden chalet absorbs odours like crazy quite aside from the fire risk. I make it really clear at the welcome meeting to everyone as it's amazing how many families say 'oh no, no-one smokes' but have secret faggers when the rest have gone out!

I provide nice looking covered ashtrays outside. I've only once had people smoke inside and that was when they had a death in the family (not here) so I cut them some slack on that occasion.

Because they left the flat in such a mess, we decided to drive 650km from our main home just south of Paris to do a thorough inventory and ensure they hadn't broken anything into the bargain. So, that's the return cost of petrol, motorway charges and the fact that we got stuck for 14 hours behind an avalanche just 2kms from the house
Unfortunately, we are not here to welcome people because we live so far away but the inventory that is handed out by the agency that provides the conciergerie service clearly states on the top that this is a no-smoking accommodation. The agency understandably does not have the time to do an overall inventory so if we wanted it done we had to come and do it ourselves.
The flat does not actually smell of smoke but given their overall rudeness I'm just mad at them.
The contract they signed also clearly states that this is a non-smoking accommodation. They told me they'd signed it but didn't speak French so didn't understand. I told them they could have asked me for an English version rather than signing something blind!

joddle wrote:
So far we have resisted having no smoking signs in the villa but think maybe we should put up something saying no smoking and add that's its for the sake of those following who could be affected by smoke.

In the UK, all public spaces have to have no smoking signs and there is some debate about whether holiday cottages are public spaces but given that members of the public use them and cleaners etc, everywhere I've stayed have put them up and it doesn't make it any less homely than various other guest information that also is displayed.

How frustrating - You're in Tignes I guess? I saw the video of that avalanche, scary.

I'm glad to hear it doesn't smell of smoke. They may well have not smoked inside, then. Is smoking on the balcony permitted?

I'll bet there's a massive pile of fag ends under the balcony when the snow melts. I always find loads in spring, so many people just throw them into the snow, disgusting!

I think you can probably add a certain amount for personal inspection due to the extremely bad state of the place but not enough to cover your long trip :/