Why do hotel bathroom sinks...

[Blutopia]

...always smell like raw sewage?

I'm staying in a hotel room, as I do once every couple of months or so for work - usually budget hotels like Travelodge, Premier Inn, Ibis etc.

I can say that almost without exception, when I run the water from the tap in any hotel bathroom sink I get a tremendous sewage aroma. So much so that I swear I can smell it on my hands after washing them in the water, although the smell comes up through the plughole and overflow.

I'm on the ground floor of a city centre Travelodge tonight and the stench as soon as the tap is switched on is overpowering.

It can't be the water presumably, so where does the smell come from? Is it the way the plumbing is arranged - maybe there are traps where old water sits?

Starting to wonder if it's me, I've never heard anyone else mention it. My DH would helpfully tell me my nose is too close to my arse. :/

It's not sewage though is it? Like a smell of shit? It's just a musty drain smell that you must be over sensitive too. Bring some flash bathroom with you when you trav and spray loads of it in the sink etc before you use it. Or zoflora. You'll be grand.

I have stayed in one hell of a lot of hotels and I have never thought the taps smelt like sewage. My theory is it happened to you once, and since then you've had some sort of weird associative thing whereby you run a hotel tap and your mind goes back to the horror.

Well, it does smell like shit - in the way that an open sewer smells, or like sewer pipes running close to the surface do in some countries.

It is somewhere between raw shite and old water. Quite sulphurous.

DH also says I could smell rocking horse shit in an empty field, I am known for my sensitive snozz.

I only ever notice it in Travelodges personally, and it's worse in the rooms that only have showers, not baths, for some reason.

Not a bad theory Hassled. I do find myself sniffing my hands after I've dried them and I can smell it.

Lordy, it's me isn't it.

Yep it only has a shower Honey. And when I last stayed here upstairs (on the business floor, if you please) there was water bubbling up through the plughole in the shower. When I wasn't even in there, I mean. Makes you wonder about the plumbing...

I've noticed this on a few occasions. I think sometimes the rooms aren't occupied as often as you think. The taps don't get run and then you get a build up of stale stinky water in the pipes.

Also, you don't know what people have used the bathroom sink for. Washing up dirty dishes or washing clothes out. Hotel sinks probably get a lot more "varied" use than your bog standard bathroom sink, which only deals with toothpaste and hand washing.

No, I know what you mean. I have a hugely sensitive sense of smell (and taste) too. Yes it smells like drains. I always smell it in hotels abroad too.

I can't hand on heart say it's only Travelodges - I've noticed it in a few others and even in a Novotel in Belgium, so the common denominator is me.

Ooh good, others have noticed it too! Good point about what the sinks are used for - we have a campervan and inadvertently left pasta water in it in summer for a fortnight. Fuck me, when I went in there and inhaled I think part of my sinuses died.

Yeah Shetland I am a bit sensitive to smell and taste - DH thinks I'm weird for rinsing and refilling the kettle for every drink, but I can taste reboiled water so strongly. Like bloody TCP.

*left pasta water in the waste tank, that should say - drained down the sink. Neglected to empty the tank as we normally would, forget why.

DH also says I could smell rocking horse shit in an empty field

My new favourite phrase

Holiday inns have notoriously bad plumbing systems. I stayed in one Monday to Friday for three months while working away and it happened often. They just shrugged and said it was the plumbing. It did make me feel really sick sometimes.

I noticed that the plug had been left in the sink - probably to block the smell.

I can shut the door on it, it's just that faint whiff of it on my hands that bothers me. Like the water is contaminated, although it couldn't be.

It's just the drains right?

It's the drains. The bathroom in our old flat was like that. Glad we moved!

Drainage type person here - the issue will more than likely be due to guests flushing inappropriate items down the toilet, causing build up / partial blockages. Imagine the down pipes that go down the back of your house taking all your sewage away. Now imagine those plumbed internally, between floors of hotel rooms. Then add in hundreds of guests not following the 3 P’s rule (pee poo and paper) and flushing god knows what down the loo. It won’t take long for issues to occur and while you will most likely never see issues like backing up or overflowing drainage, the smell is a symptom of all of that. Running the tap “agitates” what’s already in the pipes, hence the issue being worse then.

I've stayed in three Premier Inns and a Travelodge just this year and never noticed this.

I think the worst one ever was our honeymoon in Geneva - we were invited to use a friend's holiday chalet in the mountains. It was February and -10 degrees, and the chalet hadn't been used in months.

The smell of the drains coming up through every plughole and overflow hole in the bathroom was overpowering. We had three of those vile orange air fresheners going in there, the ones they use in every public toilet, but even that couldn't disguise it.

Cross-post Babbling, thank you I like a technical explanation! That explains a lot - so there isn't necessarily a hygiene or sanitary issue, it's just gases floating around - and I'm probably imagining that the water from the tap smells?

Most hotel bathrooms don't have windows could it be to do with that?

I've never noticed the smell in hotel bathroom sinks, but I know about having a sensitive nose. In both flat/house moves we've done, the smell when we looked round was nothing worth mentioning but the smell of the empty flat was awful. Not stinky as in bad but a strong smell that wasn't 'my' smell and it took a while for it to smell of us. I had to eat dinner in the bedroom for a few nights because it was worse downstairs so i can appreciate your dilemma!

I mystery shop hotels and I've never noticed the bathroom sink smelling bad. Occasionally the water doesn't drain properly and once the tap fell off in my hand (with water gushing out - I had to quickly reassemble it before it overflowed).

And i think lack of ventilation mixed with rooms not used for a while is probably what it is

This has to be one of the funniest thread I've read in a while.

Soz OP, sorry to your poor schnozz and wonky sinuses
as a result of self inflicted pasta abuse.

I've never smelled such a thing although I'm wondering whether to pack a bottle of domestos in my luggage from now on.

I am cursed with the over sensitive sense of smell, it's actually a bit of a pain - mostly things like this (when I can "smell" filthy water and think I'm washing my hands in a plentiful supply of giardia, which I've had).

But it can ruin meals (restaurant pish battered cod stinks of ammonia to me), experiences (a theatre trip was spoiled by the people a few seats up eating the most vile smelling food) and above all, associations. Smells bring back many bad memories from childhood.

And that's all from Psychology today...