moved furniture, smelly fish and missing fork and spoon

[Nash-Cottages-LLC0]

We enter our cottage after the last guest to find our couch in a different spot. Whatever, we moved it back. We opened the fridge, and holy heck, we were smacked in the face with a putrid fish smell and see an opened and a leaking package of fish. UGH - still dealing with that. As we're cleaning and putting items in the dishwasher, we inventory the utensils and other items in the kitchen and notice that we're missing a fork and a spoon. Still dealing with the smell and the fork and spoon are MIA. 

People are weird. 

[Anonymous]

@Nash-Cottages-LLC0  I think the number 1 most hated thing from hosts renting out a place with a kitchen is leftover fish.  Ok, there are the extreme cases where a bin is found full of maggots or the dishes are left all crusty, but fish that has been left to rot is just the worst. 

The missing cutlery will likely turn up in an odd place ( I think one contributor here found spoons planted upright in the front yard) but that fish smell takes a long time to banish. Hope you don't have a same-day check-in.

[Nash-Cottages-LLC0]

@Anonymous Ha - Yeah, fish smell. Yuck. We have 3 days between this guest and the next, who arrives tomorrow. We may have to give them a head's up.

As for cleaning the smell, we've tried diluted vinegar, straight vinegar, dawn dish soap, as well as other tricks, including a baking pan full of baking soda placed in the fridge for 2 days. We've even taken all the trays out of the fridge and wiped everything down - numerous times each day. Alas, the smell lingers. We're going to turn the fridge off today, leave it open to air out and then turn it back on tonight. Our next guest checks in at 4 PM tomorrow, so the fridge will have overnight and tomorrow to get back to a chilly temp. 

We've looked everywhere for the cutlery, tossing our place like criminals looking for valuables. The spoon and fork are sadly gone. What's strange is that over the course of 3 days, these guests left the place once. Once.  

[Lisa723]

We have had this problem and found that the following product actually worked (after trying complete dismantlement/deep-clean, baking soda, etc.):

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07J5HXKLM

[Nash-Cottages-LLC0]

@Lisa723 Thanks for the recommendation! We just purchased it; it's arriving tomorrow. 

[Anonymous]

That's a good idea with the charcoal filters, @Lisa723 . 

@Nash-Cottages-LLC0  Cutlery and glassware are among the things I recommend keeping  cheap and easily replaceable, even in an upmarket listing. The kind of people who would turn their noses at kitchen wares from a discount retailer are not cooking their own meals on vacation - they can afford to dine at restaurants or stay at hotels with room service.

[Nash-Cottages-LLC0]

@Anonymous Yeah, we didn't go cheap, nor did we opt to get the silver cutlery either. So, it's not that they were expensive; it was just a bit, well, random. 

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Nash-Cottages-LLC0  burning candle effectively removes cigarette smell so it may be good for fish as well. Worth trying...

[Nash-Cottages-LLC0]

@Branka-and-Silvia0Thanks for the suggestion. We might do that tomorrow afternoon.  It's not the entire room; it's the darn refrigerator. We turned it off and are letting it 'air out' for a bit. Hopefully, all of the above, coupled with the suggestion from @Lisa723 will do the trick. 

[Ann3]

Do you have a coffee grinder handy? This always works for me: grind some beans pretty finely, and pour into a bowl you leave open in the fridge. I don't know why it works, but it works. I had a guest stay for a few weeks who left me a science project festering in the fridge. It was horrible. After getting rid of the source of the odor, I turned off the fridge, wiped down the inside and left the door open for a day. You could still smell it, and it stunk up the kitchen, too (great). But the coffee trick worked overnight. I've rarely been so grateful to have a break between guests . . . 

[Sarah977]

@Nash-Cottages-LLC0  They probably took the cutlery with them to eat something in the car. I had some housesitters do that once- missing bowl, and two missing spoons from an almost brand new set. The only way I knew is that a friend of mine who had met them while they were here, happened to pass them on the road on their way to the airport, when they stopped and handed him a bowl, asking if he could return it to me. But the other one was apparently still eating her breakfast, so I never got the rest back.

Or your cutlery might be in the garbage. The kind of guests who'll leave rotting fish in the fridge are probably the type to just scrape food off the plates into the garbage, not noticing or bothering to retreive the silverware that was on the plate.

[Nash-Cottages-LLC0]

@Sarah977 We had the same thought regarding their taking the fork and spoon for the car ride home.  They did write to us when they first arrived and said it was a long ride. 

[Nash-Cottages-LLC0]

@Sarah977 -- meant to say thanks for your thoughts.

[Laura2592]

@Nash-Cottages-LLC0are you getting some of my guests???

My worst food story was the group that deep fried a whole chicken for chicken and waffles in the morning before they checked out. The cleaners immediately called and said "your place smells like an old Popeye's." And that was accurate. It took both their efforts and ours to get all the grease off of the stove, lighting, cabinets, backsplash etc. We have a "no deep frying" policy now.

Are you planning to mention this in the review?

[Sarah977]

@Laura2592  Maybe I live a sheltered life, but I've never heard of a chicken and waffle breakfast.