A Fishy Situation

[Priscilla150]

One of my current guests had groceries delivered and then baked some food.  The food containers were thrown in my under the sink garbage can.  Soon we noticed a terrible smell coming from the kitchen.  It turned out to be the food container under the sink.  My guest had eaten Fish Steak.  It took 4 hours of leaving our door open and using air freshener to get the smell mostly, but not completely out of our home.  There was still a slight smell that lingered for a couple days.  Then yesterday, my guest ate the leftovers.  The dishes were put in the dishwasher before my guest left for work.  When I went to put our dishes in the dishwasher it stunk just as bad as when the food containers were originally thrown away.   Although it was not full, we decided to run the dishwasher.  When it was time to take the dishes out, the dishwasher still stunk.  As did the "glass" dishes that held the food.  I took them out and soaked them in Clorex and then hand washed them.  Finally they are smell free.  My dishwasher also had Clorex ran through it, but it still smells bad.

How do I explain to this guest that I prefer no more Fish Steaks in our home without offending?  Because it is obvious that this guest is either immune to the smell or it is not offensive to this guest.

Thank you.

[Anonymous]

@Priscilla150   There's no way to directly tell someone that you're disgusted by the smell of their food without offending them. I suppose you could feign ignorance and apologize profusely for the fishy smell in the kitchen while elaborating on how much effort you put into expelling it.

But as long as the guest was following the correct procedures for trash disposal and dish washing, I don't think there's any good reason to confront them. You might want to reconsider whether offering use of the kitchen is really in your comfort zone, but it doesn't generally come with the right to micromanage which type of food guests can and can't eat.

[Priscilla150]

What you said is exactly what I thought.  Each person is so different, which makes for a wonderful and sometimes eye opening experiences as a Airbnb Host.  Afterall, I cook with lots of Garlic and Onion, but that might have the same affect on someone else as the Fish had on me.

Thank you for your input.  

[Sarah977]

@Priscilla150  One thing you could do without hopefully risking offense is just casually mention to the guest that as fish has a really strong odor, to please put any containers that contained fish in a small plastic bag, tied up, and deposit it in the outside garbage can, rather than under the sink.

[Priscilla150]

Thanks for that input.  I was actually thinking along those lines, but I thought I would be more watchful and if the guest puts it under the sink again, I will scoop it out myself and deposit it in the outside garbage can after tying the bag securely. LOL.  Hopefully the guest will not notice, I certainly do not want to offend anyone.

[Jessica-and-Henry0]

@Priscilla150 

We recycle and always asked guests to rinse plastic bags/containers that had any type of food in it before  putting them in the appropriate bin. For smelly trash (that is not recyclable), we ask that it be tied up in a plastic bag before throwing it in the trash bin so it doesn't stink up the entire home.  In our case, smelly trash was often the chicken bones left over from fried chicken or buffalo wings from a nearby takeout place. 

[Priscilla150]

Great suggestion.  Thank you.