After one of my guests there appeared a very unpleasant bad smell inside the apartment. It smells as if some plastic or rubber is smoldering. I thought that it is most likely wiring is damaged or something. At the same time the smell reminds me of as if something was burnt during the cooking process. I asked the guest about this smell upon check out since I noticed it once I entered the apartment. He immediately pointed to the frying pan that was filled with olive oil and oriental style spices inside, it looked as if he cooked something and it burnt a little bit. According to his words, the oil was excessively burnt while he was cooking earlier, he didn't broke or spill anything. I ventilated the apartment, but the smell didn't go out. It persisted after a few days and it is now, two weeks after this guest stay.
I checked every little thing, literally every corner. Electricity works well, nothing is broken, the only thing was that the extension cord was not working, but I already bought a new one and reported this issue to Airbnb. I checked sockets, microwave, fridge, gas stove, bathroom, washer, I even turned off the electrical circuit breaker outside the apartment, left it for a couple of days without electricity, but the smell was on when I returned. I asked neighbors as well.
It is the first time I am experiencing this kind of issue after almost a year of hosting. I can't find the reason of the bad smell. I informed the Airbnb support team. They can make reimbursement for this case, but I've no idea what kind of specialist I should ask. I called electricians, cleaning services, bad smell specialists, even they need the specific reason of the smell, whether it's after smoking or pets, or it's a problem with electricity. There's no specialist who can find out the reason of this bad smell, but I really need the reason of it. It is pretty obvious when you enter the apartment, but then after some time you spend inside the nose gets used to it.
I already had another guest for a short-term stay after that. Of course, I let them know in advance that there's some bad smell. They also noticed that, but told me the same, they couldn't notice anything out of the ordinary while they were staying there. I called to the specialist working in one of the cleaning companies, she told me that I should know the reason of the smell for sure, otherwise even if they do expensive dry cleaning it might not help, 'what if it's because of the wiring?'. In this case, I am not sure if I can get second reimbursement from Airbnb because I'll need to pay to electricians then to dry cleaning.
I am stuck, no idea what to do. What would you recommend?
