Why would my hotel bathroom smell like rotten eggs?

April 30, 2013 6:41 PM

I stayed at the Bellagio Las Vegas this past week for a work conference and was really excited to try it out. But the room smelled FOUL when I walked in. The smell was coming from the bathroom, but the bathroom looked clean. I guess the smell was like excrement/sulphur/rotten eggs. When I opened the shower door, the smell just poured out. So I guess it was coming from either the water or the drains? What could cause this?
posted by KimikoPi to Travel & Transportation around Las Vegas, NV (8 answers total)

If a shower isn't frequently used, the pipes underneath dry out and allow sewer gas to leak out. That seems unlikely in a large, busy hotel, but it's possible they may have been working on the plumbing recently and the water trap got emptied that way. Running the shower for 10 minutes or so usually takes care of the problem.
posted by something something at 6:45 PM on April 30, 2013 [1 favorite]

Sulpher in the water supply. This is a common thing and has nothing to do with cleanliness.
posted by MexicanYenta at 6:45 PM on April 30, 2013 [3 favorites]

Sulphur. Sigh.
posted by MexicanYenta at 6:46 PM on April 30, 2013

I second the water trap. Surprising for one to dry out so quickly in a hotel, but Vegas is dry, so maybe that's why.
posted by Dansaman at 6:57 PM on April 30, 2013

Even with a shower or tub that is used every day you can have a perfect storm of plumbing geometry and strands of hair cause the trap to empty because of a wicking/siphoning action. This can let sewer gases come in via the drain.
posted by Mitheral at 6:59 PM on April 30, 2013

Could it be that you're just not used to how their water smells? There is a certain hard water and soap smell that strikes me every time I'm in a hotel room in areas with hard water.

It could also be a combination of that and some bad ventilation, and someone in an adjacent bathroom had too many eggs for breakfast...

(Isn't it sulfur?)
posted by gjc at 7:22 PM on April 30, 2013

Not sure if Las Vegas is still growing at the same rate it used to, but when I was there in 2005-ish, there was a strong sewer-like smell in parts that was attributed by a local to the city's inadequate sewage capacity for the expansion it was experiencing. Perhaps you had gotten a whiff of this?
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 7:27 PM on April 30, 2013

Best answer: The Bellagio is one of the nicer hotels on the Strip. I've stayed there, it didn't smell like crap. You absolutely should not have to put up with a room that smelled of excrement/sulphur/rotten eggs. I've had that problem in my house, a dry trap as mentioned above. It's hard to imagine that happening in a hotel.
posted by Nelson at 8:39 PM on April 30, 2013 [4 favorites]