The first apartment we were in had an extremely strong smell of smoking, even though it was a non-smoking room, with signs all over.
The previous tenant must have been smoking around 100 cigarettes per day for several days, without once opening a window for having this smell.
We've stayed there for a night after opening the windows for the whole day, and Victoria had tried to help in any way she could (even put several air fresheners), but the smell was just unbearable, and we were with a 1 year old baby.
The next day Victoria moved us to another room she had vacant which was very kind of her, although the elevator didn't reach the room's floor, which was was a hassle with the baby, but still it was way better than the ashtray smelling room :)
Carlos and Victoria were very good hosts. Other than the smelly room, which wasn't their fault, and they did all they could to remedy the situation, all was great.