The good news is - thanks to indoor smoking bans, bars and clubs are no longer filled with second hand smoke. The bad news? Now that the stench of smoke is gone, people are finding out that bars and clubs stink. Without the constant presence of a tobacco cloud, the stench of body odor and bad cologne is more prominent than ever.

So do these bad smells get in the way of a good time? Yes! That’s according to a recently published study in Chemosensory Perception. Researchers surveyed club goers to find out how they enjoyed their evening. In some clubs, they pumped in pleasing scents – like orange, peppermint and seawater. In others, they did nothing to mask bad odors. They found that the addition of a pleasant scent enhanced dancing and improved the evaluation of the evening, music and mood.

Dr. Hendrik Schifferstein from Delft University is one of the researchers that conducted the study. He says that they decided to look into the bad smells because it was becoming a problem for many bars and nightclubs. It looks like bars and clubs are finding interesting solutions to curb the stench. One dance club we read about burns strong incense to mask the bad smells. Also, fragrance machines, that automatically release a scented spray, have become extremely popular after the smoking ban. There are even clubs that are hiring specialized “aroma DJs,” that produce fragrances while they’re mixing to match the music playing.