It sounds like the original poster smelled the essential oil after the guest left so she did everything she could to get rid of the smell. The point of getting someone who hasn’t smelled the scent after it’s been cleaned is that you get used to a smell if you’re exposed to it for a period of time. This is why people always think their perfume is light and applied in a discreet quantity when to others it’s overpowering.
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All I know is that they smelled a faint minty smell on day one (which sounds to me like the smell of toothpaste). There’s been no updates since then regarding the smell.
Me personally I would have asked someone to check they could smell it to determine whether I needed to undertake such extreme cleaning. I’ve only ever cleaned like this to remove years of cigarette smoke from surfaces it was clinging to.
Tea tree oil smells like mint.
It’s also an energiser, and not something you diffuse to get you to sleep.
Then why did one of my guests fall asleep with an open bottle of it in his chest?
you sure that wasn’t olbas oil he had on his chest ? If it was pure teatree then I can only assume he was trying to approximate olbas oil which is something you use when you’re having difficulty breathing/have a cold etc. I think tea tree might be in there along with camphor, menthol etc
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He said that it was tea tree oil. I have no reason not to believe him. The minty scent was overwhelming, gave me a headache and forced me out of the living room.
EllenN is right. I did smell a distinct oil odor in the room after she left. The room was closed the entire time she was here and I never go into the guest room once a guest has checked in. I wasn’t home when she checked out. The odor was definitely in all the fabrics. After removing them and starting the wash I left the area for a while, came back and still smelled it (not as strong but it was still lingering). That’s when I washed the walls and had the other person come in to make sure.
The minty smell of the night before was in the hallway and probably was toothpaste or mouthwash since the bathroom door was open.
Regardless of what type she used the lesson I learned was to not allow such devices because all the assurances of the user does not guarantee the desired result - leave no trace behind.
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Oil odour ? Ok but that’s odd… glad you confirmed the minty odour was likely toothpaste or mouthwash which is what I suspected as I’ve noticed the same thing.
I’ve never smelled a very strong oil odour so not sure what could have caused that in a 24 hour period, especially if a diffuser was used.
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I’m very surprised that you got such a strong smell from a diffuser which normally only uses a few drops of EO. I work with EOs all the time in large quantities in soaps and the only time I’ve had a really strong smell anywhere was when I dropped a half litre bottle of lemongrass that I was carrying from the kitchen to my workshop … the place smelt like Thai curry for several days!
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but could it be like perfume desensitivity? For instance, that is the reason people overload on perfume. They apply it and can’t smell it and then apply more. Esp if they have worn it every day.
It’s a well known phenomenon that people who are around a scent don’t smell it after a while. The easiest illustration of this is that when you enter a restaurant the smell of food is strong. After you’ve been there a while you barely notice it. Many people think their perfume is barely detectable when to me it’s overwhelming. Clearly, people who use essential oils don’t believe the scent to be strong. I find the scent of essential oil to be intolerable. Also, essential oil is oil so the smell lingers instead of dissipating as alcohol based scents do.
There’s a lot of lack of knowledge of how diffusers work and the type of scent that comes out of them. Not surprising but I’ll state again; three drops of oil dropped onto water and then diffused does not linger on anything.
What lingers is dropping oil on sheets (for example dropping lavender oil on a pillow case or putting several drops of olbas oil on bedding so you can inhale the smell as you sleep). Perhaps the guest placed oils on the bedding and that was the reason for the very strong smell.
Although… I’ve never smelled oil when using essential oils either…so who knows.
Your experience differs from mine. Here is a link to an Ask A Manager column about essential oil diffusers. As you can see from the comments; I’m not alone in finding the scent offensive.
So now I am down to 16 hours to do a review and am feeling ambivalent about what to write…if she didn’t have the diffuser I would have positive things to say (once I got past the initial encounter, which was probably at a time when we were both not at our best.)
“Although her stay was brief we had an opportunity to enjoy interesting conversations over tea. The room and bathroom were left neat and tidy.”
Is it important to mention the need for the diffuser for future hosts? Something simple like …“Guest travels with a small natural oil diffuser.” No mention of my sensitivity- just letting others know and leaving it open for them to discuss it prior to booking…
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It’s fair to mention the diffuser in the review, and you can even say something like, She came with a small, natural oil diffuser, which she politely asked if she could use. After she left, there was a faint smell that was gone after two days." (Or whatever your experience was.)
FYI-make sure you clean the baseboards and windowsills in the room. My diffuser tends to leave a “greasy” type stain on the woodwork that makes the scent last longer than necessary.
What type of diffuser is this as it doesn’t sound right? Are you talking about something similar to a glade plugin style thing?
The diffuser I use uses water turned into a dry mist… with one to two drops of essential oil. There’s no way there’d be a greasy stain …
Did she ask or just announce? If she asked, I would leave private feed if you liked her otherwise. If she announced, I would say something like…
Guest insisted on using oil diffuser which left a lingering scent in the room.
Maybe that’s what I’m doing wrong-I’m adding too much oil!