Post by High Priestess on Apr 22, 2018 15:26:24 GMT
This issue comes up from time to time...the guest who has a bad body odor. What to do about it? This can be particularly problematic if you have more than one (unrelated) guest in your house, so that what any particular guest does, bothers not only you but also bothers other guests.
My general rule on this is that, regardless the cause of the problem, whether it is behavior (which can be changed/improved) or guest's reliability in following house rules (which can be changed/improved) or whether it is something beyond the guest's control, like a medical condition causing bad body odor, anything which causes significant problems to you or other guests in your home, is inappropriate and need not be tolerated.
I think in general with situations like this, each host will have their own approach that works best for them. For some hosts that will mean sitting down to talk about deodorant or washing powder. However, the difficulty with that is that if the guest has a medical condition which causes the body odor, it's quite possible that no deodorant or washing powder or soap will prevent the odor. So then you've given them useless info and even if they do exactly what you recommend, the problem remains.
I would be inclined to state something in a general way, presenting it as general information, eg, "other guests are complaining about a noisome odor in the house, which is really bothering them. I am trying to track down the source of this odor. I am advising everyone to make sure there is no food or garbage left in your room. And advising everyone to make sure to wash regularly and keep good hygiene. For those with a medical condition that would result in odors bothering others, it may not be appropriate for such individuals to stay in a shared home setting, and moving to an entire place listing will be the best option."
My general rule on this is that, regardless the cause of the problem, whether it is behavior (which can be changed/improved) or guest's reliability in following house rules (which can be changed/improved) or whether it is something beyond the guest's control, like a medical condition causing bad body odor, anything which causes significant problems to you or other guests in your home, is inappropriate and need not be tolerated.
I think in general with situations like this, each host will have their own approach that works best for them. For some hosts that will mean sitting down to talk about deodorant or washing powder. However, the difficulty with that is that if the guest has a medical condition which causes the body odor, it's quite possible that no deodorant or washing powder or soap will prevent the odor. So then you've given them useless info and even if they do exactly what you recommend, the problem remains.
I would be inclined to state something in a general way, presenting it as general information, eg, "other guests are complaining about a noisome odor in the house, which is really bothering them. I am trying to track down the source of this odor. I am advising everyone to make sure there is no food or garbage left in your room. And advising everyone to make sure to wash regularly and keep good hygiene. For those with a medical condition that would result in odors bothering others, it may not be appropriate for such individuals to stay in a shared home setting, and moving to an entire place listing will be the best option."