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. :/

*Posh! My phone has decided it was pish.

I complained about the smell in a bathroom once and it turned out to be water in the toilet brush holder - don't often see brushes and holders in hotel toilets now though.

I would be impressed with a plug that prevented water from instantly draining out of a hotel sink because it seems to be a mysterious rarity Why is it so hard to get a plug that fits?

I know what you mean, OP. I don't get it as strongly as you but I get "stagnant water" smell in some bathrooms. I just assume it's been awhile since that room was used. It's been in a mix of places- travel lodge a couple of times, a couple of nicer hotels, "guest bathrooms" in some houses. I've only once had a really strong smell- at an Ibis. It was really sulphury! We assumed either the water hadn't been run in ages or there was some cloggage somewhere.

I know the smell you mean too, I’ve come across it a few times in a variety of hotels. Funnily enough never in a Travelodge though!

The Moxy in Glasgow was the worst I ever encountered. I had to keep the plug in and the bathroom door closed at all times. It’s a nice hotel but I could stay there again.

*couldn't stay there.

Hmm I’ve stayed in five different hotel rooms in the past eight days and haven’t smelt it once...

A full day working, two glasses of wine with dinner and I’m barely awake long enough to smell anything though....

I know what you mean OP I have noticed it too.

In hotels (especially those with a shower in which lots of people have commented on) the shower traps are often the cause of the horrible drain smell! Lots of hotels won’t be cleaning their shower traps. They should put bleach or zoflora down the hole then rinse it out with the shower head and wash the shower traps in the sink making sure there’s no hair and grub in them. Check next time you’re staying in a hotel!

I mean like this by the way! They should clean that in the sink and also fill it up with water and again zoflora or bleach

I know exactly what you mean, I could literally smell it whilst reading your OP - do have a very strong sense of smell though so maybe you are cursed with the same

I have stayed in more hotels than I can remember for work, never travel lodge other than once (banned by my employer), often premier Inn, and sometimes very nice hotels depending on budget and availability for the area. I smelled this smell in the travel lodge and once in a Radisson blu sewage actually came up through the shower plug hole! That was rancid. I did once have a room with an adjoining door (locked) in a nice hotel in Manchester only to be woken at 6am by the smell of the man next door's lynx Africa shower gel and liberally applied body spray.

Never noticed this - EVER, and I have stayed in a LOT of Travelodges, Premier Inns, Holiday Inns, Ramadas, Ibis Hotels, Novotels, Marriott, Radison etc (all over the world.)

So maybe you have just been unlucky @Blutopia

I notice this all the time! But whoever I'm with never seems to. I do have a very sensitive sense of smell, but I'm glad to know it isn't just me!

I have a super-sensitive nose when it comes to smells...it can be a symptom of fibromyalgia..my other half can never smell anything but anything remotely nasty I can smell at 100 yards and hotels and sewage smells every time!

I notice this too. Not in every hotel, but many of them. I'd managed to convince myself it wasn't the water itself, but couldn't figure out how running the tap seemed to make it worse.

Thanks for showing it's not just me that smells it and thanks to babblingbumblingbandofbaboons for the technical explanation!

Erm they don’t...

Most likely not a sanitary issue no! Just a symptom of constant, sometimes inappropriate use of hotel facilities. The water from the tap definitely won’t be the source of the smell - it’s just that when you run it you are then draining it through the pipes and it’s throwing up an odour from there, not from the water if you see what I mean.

I feel both vindicated and reassured, thanks MN and Babbling.

This morning I thought I wouldn't be able to bear to brush my teeth whilst inhaling the stench - but I ran the water for aaages, and that seemed to clear it away quite effectively.

I stayed at a hotel in Amsterdam and I nearly vomited at the sewage smell in the bathroom. I actually complained - more because I thought they should know so they could do something about it and the management did say they'd had a drainage issue and offered me a free night. I've been back to Amsterdam several times but not taken them up on their offer funnily enough.

It is because men travelling alone on business piss in the sink.

I've noticed this recently in both an Ibis and a Novotel room.