Unfortunately, this was quite a negative experience. My friend and I decided to have a girls’ weekend in Austin with our children—an infant and a 6 year old.
We arrived at the house about 6:30 the first evening. Upon entering, the first thing we noticed was the overwhelming smell of cigarette smoke. There were multiple air fresheners plugged in, and all the fans were on as if to “air the place out”—a technique the hostess has used in the past according to previous reviews. The second thing we noticed was that the floors were sticky, everywhere. We messaged the hostess and asked where we could find some cleaning materials. She brought a Swiffer by for us to use. We used it to mop two different times, and each time, there was a fine, black grime on the pads, which we believed to be soot and smoke residue.
We also found the walls, the table top, and the stairwell handrail were all tacky and discolored to a yellow-y color with something. We believe it was build up of cigarette smoke. Several previous guests have left reviews stating that the house smelled like cigarette smoke, but each time the hostess replied stating that it must have been a previous guest as she did not smoke. She stated in the listing multiple times that this is a no-smoking house, and we therefore believed that there would be no smell of smoke in the house.
By the next morning, it was obvious we could not stay. It had started to irritate our eyes and sinuses and affected our sleep, and my baby was showing an increased reaction to it. I unfortunately did not know at the time the seriousness of this kind of smoke exposure—third hand smoke. Third hand smoke is known to significantly increase the risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) and continue to/cause many other health issues. Upon learning this, we made other arrangements and left the house as fast as we could.
We attempted to arrange a refund of our second night and a refund of the cleaning fee with the hostess, our reasons being that the floors were clearly not clean upon arrival and that the house had so much smoke build up as to constitute a serious health risk. After first agreeing to give us a refund, she later changed her mind, stating that we could have been the ones to make the floors dirty and that the smoke smell was not her fault. We do not know who left the smoke behind, but the degree of buildup throughout not just the ground floor but the entire 2-story house is indicative of chronic smoking.
Had the hostess been honest about the condition of house in her listing, we would not have had this issue. We appealed our denied claim through AirBnB’s claims resolution center. We spoke with a representative, submitted pictures of the residence, and our case was reviewed. We were ultimately refunded, which we are incredibly thankful for. The end result of this incident was that my trip to Austin and time with my best friend—who traveled over 500 miles—was cut by over half. That’s not something that can ever be replaced.