One of the worst rooms I ever smelled

[bhskittykatt]

(After this, and now this, I'm thinking we should just stop renting to cat people.)

Other MOD goes into room. She gets about three steps in, and runs back out choking and gagging.

I go into the room. I get about halfway through before throwing up in my mouth a bit and running out.

I won't ask why. This is CS.com. There is no rhyme or reason to SC's. However, this woman was only here for two days, so I must ask, how?!?!?!

The room smelled of cat urine, cat feces, and....just horrible cat odor. To compare, my first summer here we had "crazy cat guy" who was here for about 3 months, and he was paranoid delusional and had NO SERVICE during the ENTIRE three months because he refused to let ANYONE in the room, he had used a carved-out phone book for the kitties' litter box during that time, I don't think he ever showered, and when he finally checked out, his room did not smell as bad as the horror I encountered today!!!!!

I can think of exactly two rooms I've encountered during my employ here that may have been worse. Without having them on hand to compare, I can't really say for certain.

Two days....WTH?!?!?

[Kristev]

Oh my god. I don't know where one would begin cleaning that, unless you doused everything with baking soda.

[Pimento]

My mom used to be housekeeping for a small town hotel...and even there, the crap that they pout up with was amazing.

Cooking drugs on the stoves (ruins them big time), a man who pooped all over the place, a man beat his wife to the point where they had to replace wallpaper due to the blood, tree planters (if you live in any area that tree planters frequent, you already know what im talking about), and any number of other stuff.

I believe housekeepers need to make upwards of $25 an hour for the shit they go through. Or get hazard pay for bad rooms ($100-200 bonus). Seriously, i admire the ones that never complain about their job.

[bhskittykatt]

Oh my god. I don't know where one would begin cleaning that, unless you doused everything with baking soda.

I finally tackled it. At least the worst part. I started by taking a large cleaning rag, dousing it with air freshener, and tying it around my face. I'm very certain that's not the proper use of that chemical, but I needed something to mask the smell if I was going in that room for more than a few seconds. That, and I think it made me slightly high, too, which was also helpful.

While vacuuming, I noticed some feces ground into the carpet. I let Maint Man know so he can shampoo the carpet.

When I finally made it back to the bathroom, the floor was dark yellow. Our bathroom tile isn't yellow. It's a sort of light bluish-gray. There were also a couple puddles that weren't entirely water.
The bathroom is one of our handicapped ones with the roll-in shower, and the shower head is one of those handheld ones attached to the hose, so I got a great idea. I grabbed the shower head, pointed it at the other end of the room, turned on the water and...well, since Corporate put in new "eco-friendly" low-pressure shower heads, I got more of a pathetic trickle than the dramatic spray I was hoping for, and it only reached about halfway across the bathroom. (I hate those things just as much as our customers.)

So I sprayed the floor as much as I could, mopped around a bit, and used a squeegee to sweep the water to the drain. I then rinsed the mop and repeated. Spray, mop, squeegee, rinse, spray, mop, squeegee, rinse. After about four times, I got it clean enough for the housekeeper to take care of it. Notice I didn't say it was clean...just clean enough for the housekeeper who's actually assigned to the room to finish the job. I merely got it from horrifying nightmare to typical disaster.

Finally, I let our ozone machine run in the room. Hopefully that will take care of some of the smell (that machine is amazing at eliminating air odors). I'll find out soon how well it works.

[poofy_puff]

Oh my god. I don't know where one would begin cleaning that, unless you doused everything with baking soda.

Baking soda doesn't work on cat pee. It's gotta be vinegar. We've been through this on here recently.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

I think coroners and people who work with corpses put Vick's vapor rub in their nostrils.

That sounds nasty. Gah. There are some people out there who are just...I mean you just can't understand what's going on in their heads....

[XCashier]

I think coroners and people who work with corpses put Vick's vapor rub in their nostrils.

I've heard about that (I think it was on The X-Files) but I think they apply it to their upper lip, just under the nostrils.

Just when I think humanity can't sink any lower, they bring out the jackhammers and start digging. I hope you can charge this idiot up the wazoo for trashing the room. (I further hope they can get that carpet shampooed before someone else rents the room! Feces-stained carpet... )

[aurelemsrealm]

I think coroners and people who work with corpses put Vick's vapor rub in their nostrils.

When I took biology for science majors a few semesters ago, my lab instructor recommended this trick to me because I couldn't stand the smell of the embalming fluid when we dissected rats.

[Kereminde]

Try "Silence of the Lambs" . . . I own that movie somewhere,and I don't know if it was Vicks or just peppermint salve . . .

As for cats, no baking soda does not work and the commercial "odor remover" is not too much better.

[Ellain]

To get rid of catbox smells, you really have to use an enzymatic cleaner. Most cleaning chemicals will briefly mask and possibly reduce odors, but they are not effective. The enzymatic cleaners break the urine and stuff up chemically, so they can no longer produce odor. My favorite is Nature's Miracle. Since I foster cats (and have a few myself) I get to clean up a lot of shit.

[chainedbarista]

this is why i believe there should be a fee assessed to those who deliberately trash a room or in this case, used it as a texas sized litter box.

the stupid should pay a fee and let it be a high one. i'm sure that cleaning that mess didn't come cheaply.

[Anakah]

I hope you got to charge her extra for cleanup! That's disgusting!!!

[bhskittykatt]

We don't get to charge extra fees. But we did permaban her.

I know we have enzyme cleaners somewhere. Not sure if Maint Man used them when he shampooed the carpet. When the housekeeper finally got to the room, I saw her heaving in her trash bag on her cleaning cart, so yeah, the smell is still there. We probably won't be able to rent that room out for at least a week while we do battle with the stench.

The ironic thing is, this is the same room where we had the abandoned kitty a few days ago. I think it's just a cursed room of kitty doom or something.

[Polenicus]

The ironic thing is, this is the same room where we had the abandoned kitty a few days ago. I think it's just a cursed room of kitty doom or something.

I bet you that contributed to it. She probably had male, unneutered cats, and when they caught a whiff that another, unfamiliar cat had been in there, they busily went about marking their territory.

Granted, it's not normal cat behavior to completely coat a frickin' hotel room in two days, so there are some serious other issues at work here. But chances are in encouraged them to give it that extra little 'oomph'.

If her room was like this after two days, imagine her home.

[Seshat]

A diabetic cat produces strong-smelling urine, as well.