Any scent or odor is made up of microscopic particles of the substance that is the source of the scent or odor. Tobacco smoke floats in the air, and gets absorbed into everything it touches: your clothes (and even the clothing of people around you), the drapes, the bedding, the carpet, even the wallpaper. Once the smoke hits a wall, or a ceiling, or whatever and can no longer escape from the space it's in, it's got to settle somewhere.
Because it's mixed with moist, exhaled air, tobacco smoke tends to be kind of damp, to be absorbed into things, to stick like glue as it dries, and to accumulate with added exposure. In a hotel where housekeeping is slack enough to let it get to be a problem, I can stand out in the parking lot and point out the smoking rooms: they'll have that brown film on the glass that contrasts against the white backing of the drapes in the rooms - which itself will be coated with the same film - just like the inside of the car windshield in the vehicle of a driver who likes to smoke in the car . . .
I like to smoke, too, but smokers have to get it through their dumb heads (if they haven't already, years ago), that if you smoke, one of the effects of smoking is that your sense of smell is somewhat compromised generally, anyway - and is especially insensitive to smoke odor. In a hotel room, you can vent the smoke or air the smoke out; but no matter how nice and fresh it might smell to you afterward, a non-smoker can pick up the scent even weeks later.
In the '60's, most people smoked (at least, more than half the people around whom I grew up, and it probably doesn't help that I grew up in a major tobacco-producing state), and except for people who were allergic to it, it wasn't considered a problem: non-smokers pretty much had to accept it that most people smoked pretty much anywhere. Nowadays, smoke odor drives non-smokers nuts even if it's 'not that bad'; and even for a smoker, it can get pretty old if it's accumulated in a not-well-ventilated space and gets stale.
So any chemical or aerosol deodorizer must do more than mask the smell - if that's possible. It's also got to get into whatever materials the tobacco smoke particles got into, and permeate those materials as deeply as the tobacco smoke did, and preferably break the particles down completely. That limits the number of available deodorizers or disinfectants that can do the job.
HD Supply now has a fogger that can do a pretty fair, one-day job of doing that. Most hotels rely upon a one-to-two day treatment with an ozone generator; and if it's really bad, deep cleaning the room. That involves removing all the bedding and the drapes, airing the mattress, and steam cleaning the carpet.
Yes, for them to do all that, they're going to try and charge you a hundred and fifty bucks or more. Do it in one of my rooms and I would, too - hey, if you're going to smoke, or drink, or gamble, or whatever, you're going to have to do it responsibly.
Originally appeared on Quora
Because it's mixed with moist, exhaled air, tobacco smoke tends to be kind of damp, to be absorbed into things, to stick like glue as it dries, and to accumulate with added exposure. In a hotel where housekeeping is slack enough to let it get to be a problem, I can stand out in the parking lot and point out the smoking rooms: they'll have that brown film on the glass that contrasts against the white backing of the drapes in the rooms - which itself will be coated with the same film - just like the inside of the car windshield in the vehicle of a driver who likes to smoke in the car . . .
I like to smoke, too, but smokers have to get it through their dumb heads (if they haven't already, years ago), that if you smoke, one of the effects of smoking is that your sense of smell is somewhat compromised generally, anyway - and is especially insensitive to smoke odor. In a hotel room, you can vent the smoke or air the smoke out; but no matter how nice and fresh it might smell to you afterward, a non-smoker can pick up the scent even weeks later.
In the '60's, most people smoked (at least, more than half the people around whom I grew up, and it probably doesn't help that I grew up in a major tobacco-producing state), and except for people who were allergic to it, it wasn't considered a problem: non-smokers pretty much had to accept it that most people smoked pretty much anywhere. Nowadays, smoke odor drives non-smokers nuts even if it's 'not that bad'; and even for a smoker, it can get pretty old if it's accumulated in a not-well-ventilated space and gets stale.
So any chemical or aerosol deodorizer must do more than mask the smell - if that's possible. It's also got to get into whatever materials the tobacco smoke particles got into, and permeate those materials as deeply as the tobacco smoke did, and preferably break the particles down completely. That limits the number of available deodorizers or disinfectants that can do the job.
HD Supply now has a fogger that can do a pretty fair, one-day job of doing that. Most hotels rely upon a one-to-two day treatment with an ozone generator; and if it's really bad, deep cleaning the room. That involves removing all the bedding and the drapes, airing the mattress, and steam cleaning the carpet.
Yes, for them to do all that, they're going to try and charge you a hundred and fifty bucks or more. Do it in one of my rooms and I would, too - hey, if you're going to smoke, or drink, or gamble, or whatever, you're going to have to do it responsibly.
Originally appeared on Quora
No comments:
Post a Comment