A mature couple of Indian extraction have applied for one of my units. I am working on the application at present and have not finished processing it. They are first generation immigrants from India and it is clear that they will be preparing traditional Indian foods in the home, including curry. I did some searching and found a number of posts by landlords at a variety of sites complaining of the extreme difficulty of ridding units of curry odors. I would like to hear from BP members with experience with this issue. Can curry odor be removed? What steps are necessary to eliminate it? What were the costs or removal of such odors? If you have rented to tenants who prepared curry, would you do so again based on your experience? 

My question is motivated in part by experience with tenants I have who are first generation immigrants from Africa. They also cook traditional foods and I am afraid that whenever I go over there strong odors are present. I am not looking forward to turning that unit over. I saw a guy at a landlord trade show that had some kind of ozone type machine for removing odors. It was a large canister type device and he said several of them left in a unit for 24 hrs could eliminate smoking odors. The cost was $650. I am looking at losing February rent if I do not take this couple, and that is $1,200. So I guess the question is could curry odor related damage cause $1,200 of damage to the unit? This would likely be just a one year lease, the tenant has just moved to the area and is looking at buying a place.

All input welcome.