Wake Up and Smell the Roses

Next time you’re staying in a hotel abroad, if you’re particularly observant, you may just notice the subtle new weapon in the hotelier’s arsenal. The power of the senses has always been crucial in how we judge everything in life; the feel of material, the flavour in meal ingredients, the collective arrangement of furniture. Chefs the world over know with any dish they prepare that for consumers judging it the first bite is always with the eye.

But one of the senses has often been neglected and has only recently being identified by canny marketers. The sense of smell is apparently a very powerful one. How often do we hear people refer to a vehicle having “new car smell”? Or how often do we walk past a bakery or café and feel the smell of freshly-baked bread or freshly-brewed coffee drawing us in?

Studies into consumer behaviour have indicated that shoppers stay longer and spend more in shops where there is a scented environment. Some marketers are themselves paying through the nose, if you will, to entice consumers through scents. In the US alone, $50 million was spent on in-store scents in 2006. This is expected to grow to $100 million by 2013.

Many hotels are considering adopting the power of smell and have developed their own hotel branded scents. Variations on ginger, pine and ‘white tea’ are just a few of fragrances currently trademarked and used by major hotel chains. As to whether this sensory initiative will spread to our fair shores, who nose?

But would it make you choose to stay in a particular hotel over another? If you stayed in a hotel and loved their fragrance would it make you more likely to stay there again? We’d really like to know what you think.

Are your olfactory senses powerful enough to affect the hotel you choose to stay in? What scent do you think would be perfect for Heritage Hotels? Feel free to add your thoughts using the feedback boxes below and we look forward to hearing from you.

Until next time, thanks for reading and choosing to stay at Heritage and CityLife Hotels.

Michael Hartland
Marketing Executive
12 July 2007

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Your comments

on 20 Mar 2009, Trudy Brusenbach wrote :

Our company provides ambient scenting services to the commercial industry. Many of our customers, specifically in the hospitality industry have reported that their clients comment on the pleasant scents. We provide ambient scenting to match your brand as well as odor remediation. If you are interested please contact Jodie.boutilier@ambius.com. Thank you.

on 24 Aug 2007, Mark Boody wrote :

It's a nice idea, but due to some people's sensitivities it would best be optional - the "new non-smelling" rooms? Normally this sort of gimmick has little effect on me, but if you find the perfect product I'll pay above market price to get more of it!

on 4 Aug 2007, Margaret Cropp wrote :

I would love hotels to smell nice, and I particularly like lavender frangrance. It is used for relaxation which would be great in a hotel.

on 3 Aug 2007, Judith Burson wrote :

I find that the idea is great and the reality often makes it impossible to shop as the perfume chosen is so strong it affects my allergies and I cannot stay in the shop. For exampl I never shop at the Body Shop or home stores with pot pourri as I end up with a streaming nose and nausea - others that I have spoken to have the same reaction. If a perfume is going to be chosen it needs to be something unobtrusive and light - rose perfume would need to ge light but would be acceptable. Pine or something like that would make it impossible to stay in the lobby more than a few minutes thus meaning that I would be unable to have an evening drink at the bar or dinner if that too was perfumed. If it was introduced hotelwide and I could not stand it them it would bring about the end of our 15 year relationship with the Rotorua Hotel.

on 23 Jul 2007, Ewa Fenn wrote :

I did not have an experience of actually detecting any artificially added scents in a hotel, but there is nothing worse then a musty smell in a bathroom or old cigarettes smell in the hallways. I like hotels with some live greenery in the reception/entry area and imagine that scented flowers would be a pleasant welcome to a hotel.