Stinky food....

[Laura2592]

We had great guests stay recently and follow all of our rules. The day they checked out, we went behind our cleaners to turn over and re-disinfect as we do. These guests had obviously grilled or cooked some kind of fish. It STUNK to high heaven. They had disposed of it per our instructions but we need to replace a trash can and had to air the cottage out with windows open and candles burning for several hours in addition to the airing out and cleaning that we usually do. It wasn't a long stay so the guests may not have borne the full brunt of the stink if it was a meal the night before check out. or they could just be used to it.

Is this private feedback or something you would put in a review? Thinking about what to say in our house rule re: fragrant food and new disposal protocols. 

[Anonymous]

@Laura2592  I've seen many attempts by hosts to set rules about smelly food or "heavy" cooking, but none that seemed clear and unequivocal  enough to be worth putting in. These things can be particularly loaded when they seem to imply a cultural bias against smells associated with foreign cuisines. You never really know which odors are going to trigger a negative reaction and where to draw the line, and since the guests aren't sharing the living space with others, it seems excessive to micromanage their menus.  If it's not an option to install an extractor fan, the best you can do here is add an instruction for how to ventilate the room during and after cooking.

In terms of feedback, I wouldn't mention it in a critical way since the lingering food smell was not a result of any apparent negligence. If anything, I'd be inclined to apologize to the guest for the shortcomings in the ventilation that might have impacted their enjoyment of the room after dinner.

[Huma0]

@Anonymous 

I totally get your points but I do have an extractor fan but guests rarely use it. If they are used to cuisine that smells a certain way, it doesn't bother them enough to try to minimise it.

It's almost impossible to say what is and what isn't acceptable in terms of cooking smells. I always know when my next door neighbours start cooking their dinner because there is a strong smell of garlic in my house. Not that I mind garlic, but how much are they using that it travels out of their house, over the wall, through my garden and into my house?!  I have never said anything to them about it though. It's just something you deal with.

However, I have had one or two guests who constantly set off the smoke alarms (and cannot seem to turn them off themselves so it becomes a major issue) due to smoky cooking. What can you do other than to tell them to please use the extractor fan and maybe open the kitchen doors if it becomes smoky in the room?

[John2406]

Hi @Anonymous Just wondering whether any of your extract fans are fitted with a humidistat (which, if the stat is set to a lowish RH (Relative Humidity) setting, should start up the fan when a certain amount of moist air is in the room.

Usually for use in Bathrooms, to combat condensation when users of the room and it's facilities don't bother to switch the fan on BEFORE they use the bath and/or Shower, the "humidistat" part of the fan does not usually have any cord or switch to either switch on or switch off the unit, this meaning that once the (set by you) RH is reached, the fan will automatically switch on, and it won't switch off until the RH has returned to its normal setting.

Whilst something such as the above might be beneficial (for all concerned) except that once a low RH is set, that would mean that the fan would switch on whenever the RH met the amount - which when Guests' are staying, the fan coming on may well be judged to be a nuisance as far as they're concerned!

So what other "automatic" methods could you use to switch on an extract fan?

Probably one of three other methods might be better, the cheapest of which (assuming you have a Cooker Hood over your Cooker or Hob) is to affix a polite  notice next to the Cooker/Hob with aHa request to "Before starting to use this Cooker/Job Please switch on the cooker hood, and after you have finished cooking, please let the fan run for another 30minutes".

Another possibility is to (dependant upon the Kw and Amps of your Extract Fan and/or your Cooker Hood) is to have a word with your friendly Electrician to find out whether either a Personnel Sensor (often used in places to switch on/off lighting - they usually keep lights switched on for a period after the person has vacated the area) but whether there is a version that is suitable for vuse with extract fans, I do not know, or there again it might be possible (hopefully your friendly Electrician won't mind you asking a few questions, especially if he gets a job out of it!) to install a type of "proximity switch" that could switch on the fan/hood when the user comes within say 1foot/30cm of it, but will have an overrun facility to remain running (operational) for a further 30 minutes.

Most Electric Extract Fans these days have a wide range of switching and run-on (timer) options available, rather than the old cord-only on/off switch, the only "problem" with them being that they are not usually anywhere close to the seat of the "aroma", in which case, the best and most preferable option is to have a Cooker Hood in place.

At that point, one then has to decide whether it would be best to have one that ventilates to the outside of the building, or to have one that has "washable" or "renewable" filters to reduce the amount of fat and smell from the cooking (the main negative to the latter being that one will either have to wash the 'washable' filters on a regular basis, or to change the 'renewable", ditto.

Oh yes, and there is another possibility, but that will depend upon how much time you have between Guests' leaving and the next Guests' arriving, and that (here in the UK) is a Candle in a small glass jar specifically designed to remove odours of cooking and most noxious smells! Made by (I think) Price's Candles, the product, perhaps understandably, is called a "Cook's Candle' (and they do work!)

Hope one of the above might do the job for you?!

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Laura2592 I have sympathy as a colleague at work once heated up an asian fish stew in the canteen microwave - It went right through the buildings ancient ventilation system and hung around for a couple of days!

That said I fear a good review is fair as the guest didn't really do anything wrong.

[Sarah977]

@Laura2592  I don't think it's really acceptable to dictate what people can and can't cook. But I think it's fair to ask guests to please wash all the dishes and tie up the garbage in the garbage bag immediately after cooking a meal with strong odors, like fish or curry, so the smell doesn't have a chance to embed itself in everything and has a chance to air out.

I put things like fish scraps in a plastic bag in the freezer compartment until I am ready to take the garbage to the dump (no curbside pick-up where I live).

[Huma0]

I did have an Indian couple stay a few months ago and the lady was constantly cooking very fragrant food. The situation was that they were living in different countries and she had come to visit him. He missed her home cooking, so she was cooking up a storm three times a day.

Now, I don't find the smell of Indian food that objectionable as I am from Pakistan, the food is almost identical, so I grew up on it. But the whole house (four storeys) stank of it and I do have other guests to consider. Even though I don't usually mind the smell of that cuisine, I found it a bit hard to stomach first thing in the morning when I got out of bed. 

However, I didn't really know what I could say about it. I just apologised to the other guests and assured them these guests would be gone soon...

[Laura2592]

Just to clarify to everyone-- this was not a cultural issue as far as I can tell. The guests seemed to have been cooking "healthy" fish. Grilled then disposed of in a trash can. I personally love seafood but this was overripe and was likely not entirely fresh to begin with. In fact, the guest responded to a message a few days after check out saying she was sorry for being a bit late but had been under the weather with "a stomach bug," One can't help but think she had gotten hold of some fish that was a bit past its expiration date. 

It seems difficult to believe that the smell would not be obvious or at least off putting. But as I say, maybe they did it right before they left.

[Sarah977]

@Laura2592  I'd say disposing of the remnants of a fish dinner by simply throwing it in the garbage can is pretty clueless. And yeah, you'd think it would smell disgusting to them, as well. At the least, those remnants should be put in a small plastic bag, tied up tight, before just chucking in the trash. Or, like I do,  put them in a plastic bag and put the bag in the freezer until I do a garbage run. No smell at all.

[Emilia42]

@Laura2592 

My guess is that this is a one-off and the fish was definitely bad. I've cooked bad shellfish before. I noticed immediately when it hit the hot water and stop cooking and put it outside but the smell lingered all night. I have sympathy for the guest. They probably didn't know better and they still ate it. Eww. W

[Brianna277]

This question was obviously posted years ago but I actually wondered what you ended up doing? I actually had the same issue and recently added to my house rules that “to avoid overly fragrant and lasting odors, please do not cook or reheat fish in the home”. We had a guest for 19 days who must have constantly been eating fish. We had to air the house out for a week and the odor was even in the fridge and freezer fans. It was horrible and made the unit unrentable for 2 weeks. I could honestly care less if someone doesn’t like the house rule. They can stay somewhere else. I would have felt terrible having a new guest walk into smell & it’s simply not a sustainable rule to allow guests to fill

the home with such odors!

[Trevor243]

You are renting rooms / property for people to stay in. What they do in there is generally their business, not yours. Yes, it's your property, but you have let them use it, in return for money. If they want to cook something aromatic, that's their choice. If they want to walk around naked, it's their choice. They have paid you to use your property. Let them use it.

Your job is to clean up when they leave and prepare for the next person to arrive. If there are smells when a guest leaves, it is your job to clean and freshen up. If strong cooking smells are a problem, find ways to mitigate the problem with better ventilation, better extraction and better cleaning.

If you start putting things in reviews about guests, people will see you as fussy and restrictive and likely to complain.

[Laura2592]

@Trevor243  thanks for the feedback. I am sure that when you spend some more time hosting, you will understand how the "let guests do whatever they want! They paid for the space" attitude will come back to haunt you. We would not even have this fora were there not copious numbers of hosts who realize that allowing a guest to behave in any manner they see fit for a few dollars is not the way to sustain their income, property integrity or insurance.  Giving a factual review does not make one appear "fussy" but it does warn other hosts. In this particular case,  I chose not to mention the odor. In another, I might. It all depends on what I want my fellow hosts to be warned about. If that scares off a few people who had plans to behave the same way...so be it! Hopefully you are reviewing your guests accurately and not just giving a pass so that people will continue to book your place. 

[Trevor243]

@Laura2592When I spend more time hosting???? I run a holiday lettings agency. We manage a lot of properties. We have thousands of guests stay with us every year - and yes, thousands .....

[Emily487]

@Laura2592 

This might not be up your alley but a small ozone machine will neutralize any bad odors. You MUST be careful about following the directions, though. The guy who detailed my car uses one to get rid of any baby/pet/smoke odors for his customers. They are a little pricey (and very dangerous if not used property) and might not be worth the cost unless you anticipate future....odors.