Scent Marketing – Scenting Hotels

People use hotels for a number of different reasons; holidays, business stays, meetings, conventions and much more. One thing that is always expected is a clean and welcoming hotel and environment, which is why more and more hotels are employing scent marketing to ensure that hotel lobbies, waiting areas, meeting rooms and corridors smell as welcoming as possible.

Larger hotel chains have commissioned their own signature fragrances to create a customer experience that is true to them and also have retail offerings allowing for the customer to enjoy the scent at home – and therefore remain in the memory for a lot longer. Clever!

As a hotelier, scent marketing is something you really shouldn’t miss out on. As the old saying goes, ‘you never get a second chance to make a first impression’ – so take a walk into the hotel for the ‘first’ time and what do you smell? Is it welcoming and aromatic?  Does it make you feel that the hotel is clean and a place you’d want to stay and pay for?

According to a study commissioned by the Sense of Smell Institute;

• People can still remember smells with 65% accuracy after a year compared to visual recall which is at on average 50% after 3 months
• The brain can process roughly 10,000 different smells in an area the size of a postage stamp
• A person’s sense of smell is weaker in the morning and gets stronger as the day continues
• Scent works differently to the other senses. Sight, sound and taste all rely on the information being identified first followed with an emotional reaction, however with scent the emotional reaction comes first followed by the identification.

Ideal scents for hotels

Everyone has different likes and dislikes, but there are a few scents that seem to tick all the right boxes and also go towards creating the right atmosphere and ambience. These being the fresh scents of lemon, jasmine, rose and apples. Fresh linen and clean cotton are also popular. For a more sophisticated scent, fig, sandalwood and cedar are always a good bet.