Personally, I am very sensitive to smells. I use non-scented detergent for laundry at home. When we first took over this B&B three months ago, the owner bought Tide & Snuggle. I could barely walk into the laundry room! Righ away, we had quite a few guests complain that the sheets smelled too strong - the vapors coming up from under the sheets made then have a fitful night. I completely understood! I've since started adding the same fabric softner to the wash cycle (instead of the rinse cycle). It adds a very slight fresh scent since it gets rinsed out and still leaves the sheets soft.
I know you were asking about allergies, but someone metionedusing scent-free. This is a trick I started doing to keep them fresh without being overwhelming..
My suggestion, as an asthmatic, is to get rid of any scented products anywhere in the guest cycle. This includes bathroom air freshener sprays, Febreeze (hideous stuff), scented washing products, candles (scented or not, the burning itself pollutes the interior air), potpourri, plug in air fresheners anything that is not 'natural' or is overly scented.
Example- I love the smell of lavendar, vanilla and rosemary but a rosemary plant in the room gives me an instant headache. (Which is why I no longer uproot my rosemary plants to bring them inside for the winter. I just let them die.) So even natural fragrances can overwhelm. Lavendar is supposed to be one of the only scents that relatively few people are bothered by. So if you want some scent, try a natural lavendar product.
I'm even going to change our guest soaps next time we have to reorder. I'm going to an unscented oatmeal soap. I can't stand the way the bathrooms smell with the soap we now have lingering.
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