So why does this happen? Well, a lot of it is about size. Compared to houses, even luxury specification caravans and lodges are relatively compact spaces containing carpets, curtains, upholstery, mattresses and other soft furnishings. During warmer weather, an odour that seemed relatively minor at the start of the morning turn can become much more condensed and therefore more obvious by the time the next guests arrive. The sun hits the roof and glass, the trapped particles of odours are released, and the air inside of the van or lodge starts to go stale.
Add a high volume of arrivals and departures, increased demand for pet-friendly accommodation and the occasional guest who ignores the smoking rules (including some more exotic smoking options), and odour control quickly becomes more than a cleaning issue. It becomes an operational and customer-service problem.
On many parks around the UK, housekeeping and maintenance teams have a batch of Ozofresh PlugIns available to the team. They provide a fast, straightforward and cost-effective way to deal with everyday odour problems before they become complaints or damaging online reviews.
Here’s the why and how.
During peak season, holiday accommodation is often occupied almost continuously. I don’t need to remind park teams of the rush as one set of guests checks out in the morning and the next may arrive only a few hours later.
That leaves a limited window for cleaning teams to remove not only visible dirt but also any smells left behind by the previous occupants.
As soon as you open the door, you find one of the common summer odour problems, including:
Cannabis smell is becoming more common, and it can be a particularly challenging problem. That distinctive heavy spice smell can remain in the air and become trapped in fabrics and furnishings. It’s also a very noticeable odour for the next guests, and it hangs around even when the accommodation has been cleaned thoroughly.
Pet odours create a similar problem. A caravan may be perfectly clean, but the first whiff of the lingering smell of wet dog and the perception of the accommodation changes. Guests often associate an unpleasant smell with poor cleaning, whether that judgement is fair or not!
On a smaller park, an individual odour problem may be relatively easy to manage. On a large holiday park, however, several incidents can happen at the same time.
Housekeeping may identify pet odours in one caravan, cooking smells in another and cannabis use in a third. Meanwhile, the maintenance team might be dealing with mustiness and damp odours in a unit that has been closed or a lingering chemical smell following a repair.
A single odour-control device cannot be in three or four places at once, and neither can the cleaning teams.
This is one of the reasons why keeping a batch of PlugIns on site has become standard practice for many camps. Several units can be deployed simultaneously, allowing different members of the housekeeping or maintenance teams to respond without waiting for equipment to become available.
The Ozofresh PlugIn is small, lightweight and portable. It is designed for everyday airborne odours in spaces such as bedrooms, kitchens and caravans. It plugs into a standard socket and works in the background while the team continues with other tasks. Although it’s small it can deal with rooms up to 35 cubic metres. For larger areas and for rooms with a persistent heavy odour issue, you can always call in the Eclipse Pro.
The first step should always be to identify and remove the source of the smell. Rubbish must be taken out, spills cleaned, pet hair vacuumed, and any contaminated bedding or soft furnishings dealt with as you would with any clean.
The PlugIn can then be used to neutralise the remaining airborne odour rather than trying to cover it with a heavily perfumed spray. Where traditional air fresheners only temporarily mask smells and require regular chemical or oil refills, the ozone-based PlugIn actively destroys the odour particles <see our website video for how it works>.
A practical housekeeping process could therefore be:
This turns odour treatment into a manageable part of the changeover rather than an additional job requiring a specialist member of staff.
Odour complaints can be disproportionately disruptive.
A guest who arrives and immediately notices the smell of a dog, cannabis or stale food may ask to move. There may also be requests for compensation, discounts or refunds.
In peak season, as you will know, moving one guest can create a chain of operational problems. If the park is close to, or already at, capacity, there may not even be a suitable alternative available.
The financial calculation is therefore not simply the cost of a PlugIn. You need to include staff time, repeated cleaning, lost availability, guest compensation and the potential effect of a review describing the accommodation as dirty or unpleasant smelling.
A reusable device that helps the team resolve a developing problem before check-in is a small investment compared with the cost of dealing with a series of dissatisfied guests.
The bottom line is that strong fragrances can create problems of their own.
A cleaned and then heavily perfumed caravan can actually often backfire and cause guests to wonder what the housekeeping team is trying to hide. Some people dislike artificial fragrances, some may find them irritating, while others will immediately interpret a mixture of an odour like pets or cannabis and air freshener spray as evidence that the accommodation has not been cleaned properly.
A better focus is not to make every caravan smell of flowers, or synthetic chemical “fresh linen” smells, but to create neutral, fresh-smelling accommodation with no trace of the past occupant.
The PlugIn is intended to neutralise everyday odours rather than overpower them with another smell. The caravan treated with ozone will smell only of clean, fresh air.
The PlugIn is intended for everyday and background odour control, and there will be occasions when a more powerful treatment is required.
The Ozofresh Eclipse Pro is designed for stronger and more persistent problems in vacant accommodation. It provides timed treatment cycles and includes an automatic ozone-destruct stage.
For the largest lodges, entertainment areas and other substantial spaces, the Eclipse Pro MAX provides higher output and airflow. Like the Eclipse Pro, it is intended to be used in vacant areas and incorporates an automatic destruct system at the end of the treatment.
This gives a holiday park two levels of response:
PlugIns for fast, everyday deployment across multiple caravans, bedrooms and smaller spaces.
Eclipse Pro or Eclipse Pro MAX treatments for heavy, ingrained or persistent odours between occupations.
All devices should be used in accordance with the manufacturer’s instructions, of course, but staff training is minimal, and they will easily fit in with the park’s own operating procedures.
Housekeeping and maintenance teams cannot prevent every guest from smoking, cooking strongly scented food or bringing a wet dog into a caravan.
They can, however, be equipped to respond quickly.
Keeping a batch of Ozofresh PlugIns in the housekeeping store, maintenance office or changeover vehicles means the team does not have to search for an available device when several odour issues are reported at once.
They can clean the source, plug in the unit and continue working.
Larger holiday parks tell us that the ability to treat several accommodations simultaneously can make the difference between resolving an odour quietly during changeover and dealing with complaints after the guests have arrived.
The PlugIn provides the everyday response. The Eclipse Pro and Eclipse Pro MAX provide the additional power for the most serious cases. Together, they give holiday parks a practical odour-control system that can help protect accommodation availability, staff time, guest satisfaction and your online reputation.
Why not speak to Ozofresh about putting together a batch of PlugIns for your housekeeping and maintenance teams?
