But then wouldn’t the kitchen smell like coffee instead of curry? Ok I suppose coffee has a more pleasant smell than curry… 
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Thought tea leaves work wonders in removing smell.
Everyone loves coffee and the smell disappeared. Sold and made $300k.
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You got to be careful when approaching smells. You may face tenants with kids or mature people that need some medicament that smells. Or, face discrimination charges.
Most of old apartments don’t have air extractors.
What I would do, without hurting sentiments, is to notify all tenants that you are providing air extractors, of a good quality that is, that will protect your apartments from smelling. You then warn tenants that if they don’t use them, thus leaving the units smelly, they are bound to pay for the repaint or deodorizing of such units.
Black paint, and some reds, and some orange, favorite of Asians, if I may say so in my experience as a painter, are bad for repaint. If you run into that, make sure you get a self primer paint or, make sure the primer is tinted to the new color.
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My problem now is pot smoke… Tends to stain walls just like tobacco smoke… not the ugly brown nicotine stains but just a general graying of the walls…
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TSP. Warm water.
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Cooking Indian food generally involves a little oil. When you put in the spices and crank up the heat, the oil mixes with spices and vaporizes. It then lands on your carpet, couch, curtains, clothes etc. Generally, if you are renting out apartments to Indian nationals, my suggestion is:
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Have a very powerful exhaust above the cooking range that sucks out the cooking vapors outside your house. Unfortunately, many houses in the US have very poor exhausts. In many bay area apartment complexes the exhaust recirculates air back into your house!!
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Don’t have carpets anywhere close to kitchen. A carpet free house is the best option.
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If your apartment is furnished, don’t use couches with cloth kind of fabric. Leather is better.
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If you are building new house, have a damn window in kitchen, with enough cross circulation to let air freshen up your apartment naturally.
For the entrepreneurs, this may be an opportunity to sell good exhausts. I have observed that sending Indian food vapors through a vinegar bowl, clears up the smell. I would imagine that an exhaust with good carbon filter that can be easily replaced will actually clear up the smell.
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The problem is that old apartments don’t have anywhere for any ducting system to pull the air out of the kitchen and the exhaust is working big time but the smell or the fumes are not going anywhere. It also reflects that the exhausts are so old and so slow it can’t keep up with the fumes.
I have a new exhaust, I cook in a daily basis, and I can tell you that if you forget to turn it on, 3 minutes of fumes can spread around the kitchen very easily and leave the room very smelly.
Pacific range hood😀
It’s discrimation based on nationality since he forbids Indians and Pakistanians. Period.
If he accepts black people and reject whites, it’s still discrimination. This landlord needs a lawyer.
What could be the penalty? 5k, 10k, 100k or 100M?
If you leave a bowl of vinegar on the kitchen counter all the time, will it help?
Or sprinkle baking soda everywhere then vacuum, will it help?
There must be an easy way to handle this. Silicon Valley can fix this smell problem. I like natural and inexpensive ways, of course there is not much profit to be made the natural way.
There used to be at least that brand of range hoods that Chinese folks used almost exclusively due to high performance. I know the chinese name, but can’t spell it here, but I know some of you Chinese folks out there know what I mean.
Take a picture and post here. Translation and text is so yesterday
If I had a picture, I would have posted it. Again, Chinese posters here who have done remodeling for awhile now know the brand that I am thinking of. Higher priced but effective.
If you leave a bowl of vinegar on the kitchen counter all the time, will it help?
No. The vapors need to go through it. I have a downward range and exits the house from a side wall. As an experiment, I made it hit through a bucket of vinegar and bounce off it and I could hardly smell anything after it in the backyard. This was mostly to prevent the neighborhood smelling on a hot summer when there is no wind outside.
Or sprinkle baking soda everywhere then vacuum, will it help?
A wooden/laminate floor shouldn’t have smell issues if properly mopped. A cleaning agent definitely helps. The most important thing is to not allow the vapors settle inside the house.
To get rid of tobacco stains and smells I used Bleach on the walls and oven cleaner on the appliances tile and even the toilet… Smoke or vapors of any kind will destroy an apartment. Threw away the blinds, carpet even the light fixtures and electrical plates. Three coats of paint
There must be some protection against tenants that use curry, pot, tobacco, incense or any other vapors that will destroy your property…
IMHO, there should be no harm in preparing a flyer talking about issues around tobacco, pot, curry etc and clearly list out high cleaning charges. If your house is unfit to cook, tenants that want to cook will simply not rent it. I am not sure what could be the legal angle or complications there.
If you charge a higher non refundable deposit on curry using tenant, is there any discrimination? Curry is not a protected class, maybe you can put the question of curry use in the application form and charge a no refundable curry cleaning fee.
For weed smoking, can you prohibit weed smoking indoor or charge a weed cleaning fee?
It’s not just curry–bacon or any frying will leave smoke all over. For me, an exhaust fan is a necessary kitchen appliance. If there’s no place for ductwork, it’s worth moving the stove to exhaust through the wall. Most kitchen’s have windows, so at least one external wall.
I know about a house that was destroyed by someone boiling turkey bones for soup. Left it on the stove for hours the burnt bones smoke destroyed everything in the house.