very very bad smell from a guest, what can i do ?

Answered!
Dee8
Level 3
Belfast, United Kingdom

very very bad smell from a guest, what can i do ?

my guest arrived yesterday ,  he was on a trek , the whole room and apartment has been unbelievably smelly of stale sweet sweat. i cannot get the smell away and i have a new guy coming today in a few hours.  the windows have been opened but smell is still there on mattress it seems.  

 

thing is i want a cleaning fee but it is too late now that he has checked out allready and there was no cleaning fee in my listing. 

 

also if i raise a concern with airbnb then he would almost certainly five me a very bad revenge review which no host can afford to have .

 

off course someone will need a shower after trekking ,but this is absolutely smelly !!  even after a shower last night . 

 

the pitfalls of being a host !!

1 Best Answer
Janice1
Level 6
Tamaterau, New Zealand

 

 

A smelly guest is certainly a difficult situation.  Just a couple things to add. 

 

The airbnb community is based on honest feedback.  Due to this premise I would not hesitate to raise a body odour problem in a review.  For example, " X's personal hygiene is of concern".   

 

I've been lucky so far,  and haven't had to deal with body odour from an Airbnb guest.  However, you have got me thinking of ways I could raise the subject with said guest with the aim of rectifying the problem.

 

Regards

 

Janice

 

 

 

 

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23 Replies 23

This is really uncalled-for. Isn't life brutal enough without hurling cheap pot shots at one another?

That's not necessary. Come on!

 

Dee, I just had a similar problem and feel your pain. In my case the guests stayed for 7 nights! I have also washed the bedding twice, the mattress pad, sprayed essential oils, and burned candles. Each time they left the apartment I had to spray essential oils in the hallways becuase their body odor lingered. I had no problem whatsoever mentioning it in their review. I wasn't mean about it, just very factual. These are facts that we need to share with one another as hosts. Hosts that have never had to experience this, just don't get how truly awful it is. 

Dee, clearly you should charge a cleaning fee; this happened over a year ago but I hope you started to do any and all of these suggestions. 

 

Sara455
Level 4
Providence, RI

baking soda rubbed into all fabrics including matress and pillows, carpets - and leave it there for a day or more if you can, a dish of vinegar and an onion sliced in half , left in the room overnight.

so many people leave smelly pillows, I guess they don't realize how bad scalp oil smells on pillows and it seeps through the pillow case and covering and stinks up the pillow...  

Im facing the same problem right now and it got to a point i had to talk to airbnb about it and they were super awsome and found my guests a new place to stay. 

So thanks a lot airbnb 

Good job 

Sara455
Level 4
Providence, RI

offer extra towels, he should get the hint

Fiona243
Level 10
Birkenhead, United Kingdom

I just had a very smelly guest stay with me for 5 nights, during which time he did not use the shower. He reeked of unwashed clothing and body odour, as well as a strong smell of cigarettes and weed. After he checked out, the bedroom stank and it has taken 48 hours to get rid of the smell from the rugs and curtains. On the bed I have 3 mattress protectors. I have an anti-bed bug protector closest to the mattress, then a water-proof  protector and then an  anti-allergy one (Protect-a-bed which is used in UK by retirement homes etc. where they have to deal with incontinence). I had to wash not only the bed linen but also wash the upper-most mattress protector and the middle layer of mattress protector as they were smelly and had sweat stains. However, my innermost mattress protector was fine, no odour, no stains. So although it might seem excessive, at least now I know my multi-layer mattress protection system works! What I may do is swap the layers so I have the water-proof protector on the top layer, directly under the sheet.

I used only 2 layers of protection on the pillows (no waterproof layer), and I had to wash the pillows as they smelled of B.O. I will be upgrading my pillow protection to 3 layers, including a water-proof layer.

Ravenna-M0
Level 2
Cherbourg, France

I had the same issue. I have asked the guests to open the windows and even set-up incense outside of their room! I provide shampoo, soap, nice towels ( 1 bath sheet and 1 towel + a shower mitt), but I can't force people to bath or shower. The other issue is men Cologne that reeks. I had 2 male guests who seemed to use it by the gallon daily. It was a problem for the next guests. They complained that I did not wash the linens, but I did, it's just the smell lingered. It was an embarrassment.

I will invest in a second mattress cover to add a protective layer and pillow covers as suggested by @Fiona243