Eau de stink - how to deal with a guest that stinks up your entire apartment?

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Thank you to everyone who responded!!!

UPDATE: I’ve tried everything and have been mostly successful. There is still a tinge of the smell left in the room, but the rest of the apartment is scent-free (finally!). The room itself isn’t 100% scent-free yet, but I would say about 90% of the original scent is gone… at least I no longer get migraines from being inside the room while cleaning. I haven’t hosted any other guests in that room yet, due to the atrocious odor, but I’m finally going to host someone tonight. Hopefully, the stink will dissipate even more over the next year hours after another thorough deep-cleaning of the room.

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Just wanted to add that I use an air diffuser (plug-in model about $20 on Amazon) and a few drops of Now essential oils (lemon, orange, lavender, vanilla, or a mix). I set it up as soon as I begin turnover, and guests often rave about the smell. I have a studio with a kitchen, so I often have to deal with cooking smells, lovely perfume, bad perfume, yummy cologne, putrid cologne, etc… I had a smoker that required extreme measures, and I pulled my hair out for three days, but the diffuser/mister has taken care of most everything else. If the offending odor is strong, I add a few more drops of oil. I always give it a few hours to settle down before check-in.

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@crowntown
Thanks so much for your advice! I will definitely try that!!! Oh dear God, I hope that I won’t get any smokers. I have clearly stated in my listing, absolutely no smoking… but as I’ve read some other posters, not everyone reads the entire listing.

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And there are some who read the listing and decide to do it anyway.

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I hope it works for you! The added bonus for me is that it makes the space smell lovely while I’m cleaning. I use lemon oil most often because it perks me up and makes me happy while scrubbing the toilet. Okay, its superpowers don’t really reach so far as to make me a happy toilet scrubber, but ALMOST… :wink:
The gal who was a smoker had other issues, and I had to ask her to leave early. That was a mess. I never should have let her in, but I felt sorry for her and was suckered in. As @Zandra mentioned, she definitely knew, but didn’t care. It was a learning experience. Air can be a great teaching tool.

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I just hosted a guest with a very strong perfume (Indian) but since I’m a cigarette smoker I didn’t care.

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