How to Make Your Restaurant Smell as Fresh as Your Food
There's nothing better than the delicious smell of food wafting from your restaurant's kitchen, right? Unfortunately, if you don't keep on top of your restaurant odours, your customers might be smelling old grease and rancid waste instead. Here are 3 tips for removing bad scents from your restaurant so customers can enjoy your mouthwatering kitchen aromas.
Replace Your Cleaning Tools
How long have you had those mops your cleaners use to decontaminate the kitchens, bathrooms, and seating areas? The same goes for those dusting cloths or sponges you wipe the appliances with. Despite the fact that their primary function is to keep things fresh, cleaning tools can actually harbour bacteria and odours, spreading them around with every cleaning. Make sure you replace your mop heads and cleaning cloths (or thoroughly launder them) when they become dirty or smelly. Remember that cleaning chemicals can temporarily cover up the smell of a dirty cleaning tool, so you'll need to inspect them after each cleaning is over.
Get a Diffuser
At first glance, diffusers seem like a bad idea for a restaurant. In the same way that aerosol fresheners often make a bad odour smell more putrid, using a diffuser to cover up kitchen and waste smells could be a bad idea. This is partially true -- you shouldn't use a diffuser instead of ridding your restaurant of unpleasant aromas. However, that doesn't mean you should steer clear of them altogether. Once you've tackled the root of your odour problem, adding the pleasant aroma of lavender could bring you more income. A study published in the International Journal of Hospitality Management showed that lavender diffused in a restaurant made customers stay longer and spend more money. Why not try using simple plug-in lavender fragrance diffusers around your restaurant like these researchers did? As an added bonus, these should cover up any fleeting or passing smells from the kitchen, such as accidental burnt food.
Clean Your Carpets
Is any part of your restaurant carpeted or matted? While carpets are often chosen for their attractiveness, the smells they can harbour are anything but attractive. Carpets can easily become logged with dirt and bacteria. From spilled drinks to dropped plates to kitchen grease to muddy footprints, grime can mount up quickly on porous flooring. You may get used to the dirt and even think your carpet is absorbing and disguising it, but customers stepping through the door will smell it instantly. Make carpet cleaning a priority in your restaurant. Vacuum it as often as possible and make sure all spills are cleaned on the day they happen. In addition, ensure you have your carpets professionally cleaned on a regular basis -- once every 3 months should do the trick. Professionals will use enzyme-free alkaline detergents to thoroughly remove all bacteria and make your flooring look good as new.
