Subborn Odors

[Lola536]

I'm hoping for some advice from hosts who have successfully dealt with stubborn odors.

An Airbnb guest stayed in a room rental in my shared home for 93 days. At checkout, the room was in terrible condition: a soaked and heavily soiled mattress, broken bed frame, stained linens, thick sticky sauce spilled and left on the floor, sticky sauce residue covering much of the floor, fingerprints with the same residue on the walls, rotten lemon wedges, a tray of rotten eggs, eggshells on the floor and inside the floor vent, ants and other bugs, and other food debris.

The mattress, bed frame, and linens were discarded. The remaining furniture (except the wardrobe) was removed, and the room was professionally cleaned twice, plus cleaned several more times by me and a friend.

Once everything was removed, we noticed a very strong sweet, spicy food smell. Over the past month we have:

• Scrubbed every surface (walls, baseboards, trim, floor, doors, inside the closet, etc. - everything except the ceiling)

• Used multiple all-purpose cleaners

• Used an enzyme-based pet stain and odor remover

• Run an air purifier continuously for the past month

• Kept the windows open for the past month

• Washed the curtains (they don't smell)

• Left vinegar and baking soda in the room to help absorb odors

The smell has improved dramatically, but there is still a lingering sweet odor. The biggest challenge is that I can't determine where the smell is coming from. It no longer seems to be coming from one specific area, and I can't pinpoint the source.

Has anyone dealt with something similar? What finally worked for you? Is there a product that completely eliminated the smell? Did you end up repainting, sealing the walls with a primer like Kilz or BIN, replacing baseboards, using an ozone machine, or was there another solution?

I'd really appreciate any suggestions. Thank you!

[Greystone0]

Hi @Lola536  - yikes!

Lots of discussions around here about getting rid of odors. It seems you have deployed many of the recommendations.

Here's some additional ideas:

- run an ozone machine - as you noted this is an idea and I have seen it recommended around here. We have not had direct experience with this but understand that it is effective. 

- we have a heavy duty air purifier - and has worked for us, generally speaking.

- we use a product called "Zero Odor" - it's a spray that helps eliminate odors. Given your situation it might not work but it is worth having in your supply closet. We have never had as serious a situation as you mention. But we have had bad odors: cooking smells, REALLY strong cologne,  smoke smell from an indoor fire that was made improperly and thus very smokey smelly. Stuff like that.

-  another product that I really, really like is: biokleen bac-out, stain and odor remover. Another all natural product. It says "carpet' on it but I use it as a general purpose type cleaner and I really like using it. It cleans well and my hands are not all dry/weird after using it. It is hard to find (for me) and sometimes whole foods has it. I think buying it from Amazon can get you a fake product so not sure how I would go about this. (And I am aware that amazon owns whole foods). I would 'wash/mop' all your surfaces again with this product. We use this product for all surfaces and it helps keep odors from lingering.

Good luck!

[Lola536]

Thank you I will try these ideas. Appreciate you. 

[Lorna170]

@Lola536   Did you open the floor vent and wash out the framing and ducting that you could reach?  If your guest poured something down or next to the vent, that may be your odor source.  

We use an Ozone machine (less than $100 on Amazon) to eradicate odors that persist after thorough cleaning from guests who smoked or used cloying perfumes in the property.  While other hosts are uncomfortable with the machine usage warnings, I find this machine to be a lifesaver when dealing with guest odors.

[Lola536]

I vacuumed and wiped the vent area that I was able to reach as there were egg shells, leaves, flowers, etc in there. But the smell doesn’t seem to be coming from the vent. There was an empty essential oil bottle from my bathroom that was in the room. I suspect that the guest may have splashed it around the room on the plywood to mask the odors in the room. Do you think the ozone machine will get rid of this smell and the remaining food smells? I didn’t realize it was so affordable to buy an ozone machine. I was expecting to pay much more to rent one. Do you mind sharing the name of the one you use? Appreciate your help. Thank you so much. 

[Lorna170]

Enerzen Ozone Generator 60,000mg Industrial O3 Air Purifier Deodorizer (60,000mg - Black)
$59.95 with 20 percent savings

[Shelley159]

@Lola536 I once found the source of a food smell to be the fridge's external drip tray (which, at the time, I didn't even know existed).

It's at the back of the fridge and solved the issue for me when I cleaned it.

[Lola536]

Hi Shelley. Luckily the smell is contained in that bedroom (no fridge) and not the rest of the house. But I’ll keep that in mind if I have fridge odors in the future. Thank you for the tip!