Booked a stay with them for a condo on Airbnb.... listed as a nonsmoking property but recent reviews complained of terrible cigarette smoke in unit. cancelled reservation and will not refund deposit. false advertising and hazardous to their guests.

Six months ago, the property owner was silly enough to let a cigarette store move in next door.

So you had lots of vacancies in the weekdays and then people having parties on the weekends.Lots of locals smoking weed on the front porch / blasting music on front porch, plus worse, that I wasn’t fully privvy too.Airbnb is making it harder and harder to screen Airbnb tenants (a quick Google / FB stalk is impossible without last names / photos being shown).A party starting to kick up at 2 am that you’re watching from your outdoor cams hundreds of miles away and your 450k home on the line is a terrible feeling.Anyone who’s been doing Airbnb long enough has horror stories, big items stolen, thousands of dollars of damage, or worse.

I like that one had not heard that before .. that will smoke them out.. 

We had one bad experience where the guest was smoking cigarettes in the home which was flagged immediately by the maid. 

So, does it mean that American Modern is better, or is it just smoke and mirrors?

Go over it slowly, highlight the really important parts  and be very clear with expectations and possible consequences.Second-  Do  a walk through video  (3-5 mins) clearly showing the condition of the house at the date you acquired it, open blinds, show smoke detectors, show any damages-- anything good or bad.   

They just smoke weed inside and have kids... so their window is to air it out.

They'll make sure all the windows work, and that the smoke alarms are installed correctly, that any stairway with more than 2 steps has a railing, etc. 

They can send you a standard CT lease and then you can cruise forums for landlords to see which things you may want to add (pet fees, no smoking, etc.)The fact that a lot of work has been done will help you in a C-/D, but choosing tenants is going to be the thing that either makes or breaks you and it's going to be hard.