When entering a new place, be it a home, a hotel, a shop, or any other, we immediately absorb everything we see, feel, and smell. The atmosphere of the place impacts all our senses simultaneously, but scent plays a critical role in building our impressions.
Every location has a good or bad smell, which can evoke the desire to visit or avoid a place. So, it makes sense why all businesses, without exception, want their smell to appeal to clients. The hospitality industry revolves around creating a secure, welcoming space for guests and providing them with the best customer service and experience possible. Scent plays a significant role here. So, what do hotels use for scent? Why do hotels smell so good? Is this smell natural?
This blog post answers these and other questions so that you can better understand scent as a weapon of luxury, elegance, and comfort.
Hotel Perfume: Why Hotels Smell so Good
The hotel air subconsciously affects people’s limbic system, making them link the scent to emotions, feelings, and memories, evoking nostalgia, and a wish to return. Whether you are a hotelier or a traveler, you have probably noticed that exclusive hotels have an incredible smell. Luxury hotels maintain their scents mainly via high-quality scents and fragrance systems. Implementing pleasant odors in cleaning practices is no less critical.
Creating a Signature Scent
High-end hotels also invest in professional scent solutions that ensure the fragrance is not only pleasant but also consistent throughout the hotel, enhancing the overall guest experience. This strategy is called “scent branding”.
Designing a signature scent is the art of fragrance creation. Professional perfumers mix pure and natural materials to create specific aromas and compound scents. The entire process starts with talking to a hotelier to understand the hotel's target audience and brand objectives. Afterwards, the perfumers analyze their library of raw scents to find the most appropriate fragrance options. Usually, this process takes weeks or even months. During this time, perfumers conduct thousands of tests of various fragrance formulas to ensure they have made the right choice.
The Best Hotel Smells
Typically, hotel fragrances are not single aromas, but a blend of them. Thanks to the many ingredients, each fragrance set is like a unique bouquet offered to each guest. Some of the most common scents hotel visitors collide with are:
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Citrus;
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Vanilla;
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Leather;
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Cherry blossoms;
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Cedarwood;
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Sandalwood;
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Lavender;
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Jasmine;
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Neroli.
By no coincidence, many of the hotel scents mix herbal and floral notes. For instance, jasmine and lavender have relaxing properties, release anxiety and stress, and enhance restful sleep. It is what hotel guests value most of all.
Valuable Tips to Make Your Hotel Smell Wonderful
Hotel air is your first and foremost business card, so it is essential to make it amazing. Whether you run a high-end luxury hotel or a cozy bed and breakfast in the country, follow these helpful tips to keep your property clean, fresh, and full of visitors.
Keeps Things Clean and Tidy: Moisture and humidity are the main enemies of pleasant-smelling spaces, as they leave a moldy and damp smell behind. The daily cleaning can prevent your property from them. To keep everything fresh, consider deep cleaning, especially of soft things that keep unpleasant odors: carpets, mattresses, bedding, etc.
Avoid Too Masculine or Too Feminine Fragrances: Overly masculine or feminine scents can repel your customers. Try to keep the scents in balance, without overpowering the space with gender-oriented aromas.
Consider Space Size: Nowadays, the market is full of various options for scenting spaces: aroma sticks, reed, portable, and HVAC diffusers, room sprays, and others. The main point in finding the right tool lies in understanding how each device works in the same space. Before choosing the device, consider the size of the space you want to scent. Avoid overpowering small spaces with too concentrated spray mists, choose HVAC diffusers for large areas, and, of course, select only natural fragrances for maximum comfort of your guests.
Analyze Your Customer’s Requirements: Knowing what your customers want leads to success, regardless of the business you run. This rule is fundamental in the hospitality industry. Guests’ satisfaction guarantees their positive impressions, experiences, and feedback. According to surveys, over 90% of hotel visitors claim that pleasant hotel smells positively impacted their stay. So, add a scent to the bespoke service you provide, and rest assured that your hotel will occupy one of the top positions in the list of high-end luxury suites.
Final Thoughts
From the moment guests enter a hotel, they begin to form a perception of it. Making a scent a part of a brand experience will help a hotel stand out from the competition and keep guests coming back. A cheerful and welcoming scent may become your hotel’s top visit card. So, don’t hesitate to implement the scent strategy and reap its benefits in the long run!
