Blending smells with music being played in real time at clubs and concerts concerns a phenomenon known as aroma jockeying. This is a logical outgrowth of the need today for a a new edge of discovery, so to speak, that involves pushing the experience envelope of live entertainment to expand sight and sound to new, […]
A Scent Branding Guide To Hotel Air Fresheners & Fragrances
Hoteliers everywhere harness the power of scent to tell a unique and specific story and they tell their fragrant tales in diverse ways. This is because every hotel seeks a different impression from their guests; a particular feeling, whether it be one of being pampered or just ‘down home’.
They know their offerings must strive to be something above and beyond a brick and mortar structure, no matter how lavish or extravagant the interior or amenities might be. Even if visitors stay for just one night, they should always be happy, feel comfortable and wish to return in the future.
Over the course of the last decade, luxury hotels have become elegant and intimate environments that cater to the opulent modern traveler, who is much more sophisticated than the adventurer of yesteryear. Carefully selected scents add an intangible factor to an already customized atmosphere, creating an ambiance that reinforces brand recognition, eliminates malodors, attracts new customers and, above all, enhances the hotelier’s bottom line.
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Hotel owners and managers are keenly aware that olfactory logos are essential to a brand’s identity. Studies indicate that signature scent is a determining factor in a guest’s total experience. Frequent travelers are likely to stay in places where a pleasant memory about the place has already been established.
Always seeking to think outside bigger better and different boxes, boutique hotels, such as Anantara Quy Nhon Villas, in Vietnam and the Fendi hotel in Rome, have taken the idea of the signature scene up quite a few notches by actually allowing their guests to select the fragrance they desire for their rooms from a scent menu!
The Powerhouse Called Smell
According to the brand specialists at Mandarin Oriental hotels, guests remember what they smell two times longer than that which they see or hear. Scent memories become deeply embedded because they are directly connected to the sectors of the brain that process both emotion and memory.
According to one scent branding expert: “A good scent enhances the wood that you’re standing on, the stone on the wall. It’s almost as if the environment is breathing with you. It becomes intrinsic to the space. You don’t viscerally experience a logo the way you experience a scent…Custom scents are expensive, but if you think about the amount of money a brand will spend to create a logo, this is just another form of it…-and it’s one of the most powerful.”
Our sense of smell is unique in many ways. It serves as an inner voice that warns of impending dangers, like fires and gas leaks, and foretells attractions to potential mates. It is the only sense that we possess from the moment we are born and
it remains the key influence in a child’s interpretation of the world until about age 10 when it is supplanted by vision. It is also the only one of all the senses that is linked to the areas of the brain that process memory and emotion.
Discover 5 of the most luxurious scents for boutique hotels.
Considerations When Developing A Hotel’s Olfactory Logo
Our ambient air care experts are well aware of the emotional and physical considerations that are required in order to create a one-of-a-kind signature scent that resonates perfectly with both hotel guests and surroundings. Scent branding for hotels demands an understanding of clientele, the colors and textures of the space, the weather and the method of dispersal that will best suit the chosen fragrance.
Having a scent that is too potent in one area and too weak in another is extremely ineffective. A fragrance that is out of place in a specific location (for example, an Asian scent in an American hotel) can also be a grave error in judgement. Scent marketing must always be a carefully studied and employed strategy.
Our team work intimately with hoteliers and hotel brands to help them understand the needs of their customer base. This comes with asking pivotal questions concerning the brand message and who will be listening to it. Is it a young American crowd or a European or Asian traveler that is most likely to enter your lobby? Will the signature scent be calming or energizing? Sexy or subdued? Chosen scents are very sophisticated and they must resonate with guests, all of whom have subjective olfactory preferences.
Relevant Studies and Statistics
Two scientists, Dr. Linda Buck and Richard Axel, won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine back in 2004 when they conducted a study about how human brains can differentiate between approximately ten thousand diverse smells. Their studies indicated there was a clear connection between scents and the formation of memories. This is due to the fact that the bundles of nerve cells in our noses detect scent with the same sensory sector in our brains that we use to store memories.
The North American scent branding industry is set to exceed the US $7 billion mark in 2020. According to industry experts, the nose is the fastest way to the heart and hotels are commissioning signature fragrances in the hopes that they forge a memory that will remain with their guests long after their visits.
According to Loren Nalewanski, VP of brand management for Spring Hill Suites and Towne Place Suites by Marriott: ”The goal of a branded scent should be to lodge it within a guest’s memory. Visual memories fade by 60% after a year, while the memory of a scent only fades by 40 %.”
Studies and surveys concerning the Hyatt Place hotel, which has been using a signature scent called Seamless since its inception in 2007, indicate that this enhances the visit experience and increases brand loyalty for thousands of guests in almost 300 hotels across the United States.
Public comments indicate that this scent and its refreshing melange of fresh blueberries and light florals on a base of warm vanilla and musk imparts a feeling of welcome, luxury and serenity. To ensure that Hyatt guests are always satisfied with this signature scent, the Hyatt regularly examines its properties to confirm that the Seamless signature scent is being diffused as intended.
Some hotels have designs that call for special planning when it comes to creating the best olfactory experience for their guests. For example, the lobby of the Conrad Miami Hotel is on the 25th floor, which translates into creating a fragrance that is the essence of Miami, initiating with music and flowers on the ground floor.
According to Nadim Barrage, director of operations for the Conrad Miami:”…All senses come into play when creating and improving a hotel guest’s experience…It’s about bringing guests into different moods as soon as they step into the hotel, which uses a white tea and thyme scent that is diffused through air conditioning vents in the lobby for a relaxing atmosphere, and a mango-peach option by the elevators and bar entrance…”
How Hotels Use Scent to Create an Atmosphere
Hotels convey their unique message to their guests via visual cues as well. These can include artful decorations, or a bouquet of flowers and/or fruit. While these go a long way in communicating to guests, it is the selected scent that determines how a guest really feels about a specific location. Scent marketing helps hotels develop immersive and unique travel encounters. A signature scent has great power and can create either a positive or a negative impression.
In order to be successful, scent branding must always reflect a hotel’s identity and values. When a hotel’s selected signature scent is alway there, albeit in the background, it increases guest satisfaction and forges their emotional connection with the property. There are certain unspoken guidelines.
Explore the top 12 fragrances used in hotel lobbies.
For example, a soft mix of roses and tobacco serves to convey a feeling of being home, while elegance and wealth might be conjured with exotic strains of essential oils such as sensual and alluring Oud and the opulent, rich bouquet of spices from far away realms. The selected scent is often used in candles or sprays as well as in soaps and lotions that guests can take home. The idea is to impart a brand message to the traveler that will connect him or her with a pleasant memory the next time he or she thinks about booking a hotel.
Other Elements Contributing to Hotel Branding
The idea of taking a favorite hotel scent home with a traveler is a brilliant way to enforce brand loyalty and imprint a permanent association with both the scent and the hotel. Bottling the scent of a place, so to speak, can take many manifestations that are only limited by the imagination of the hotelier aided by ambient air care experts and master perfumers.
Candles and skin care products, for example, are fine for gifts left in hotel room. Other hotels go even further by incorporating the scent into linen sprays in guest rooms, cool towels by the pool, diffusers in the lighting, and even on business cards and postcards.
New York’s Quinn Hotel offers notecards containing invisible capsules that hold their signature scent. It is released as soon as a guest begins to write on the card. It is all designed to transport the traveler back to that favored vacation spot even when toiling away in a high rise office building far away from exotic lagoons and serene marinas.
Air Scent’s Fragrance Dispersal Systems
Regardless of size, every hotel demands an even balance of consistent, aromatic fragrance, which requires the sophisticated air diffusing technologies and systems. After a hotel signature scent is formulated, the final part of the equation is nailing the right delivery method. Blowing a traditional perfume into the air involves alcohol, to which some guests could be allergic. Using only candles makes for uneven scenting. Using heat means you can lose the depth of the scent. That’s where our ambient air care masters rush upon the soon-to-be-very fragrant scene.
Air-Scent’s In House Perfume Manufacturing Division
The reason some odor-control programs work better than others is quite simply because some are better than others. With well over seventy years of on-site experience conducted at our 85,000 cubic feet-research facility located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, our odor-control and fragrance enhancing products are heads above the rest and far exceed industry standards.
What puts us above our competitors? In addition to our superior odor neutralizing additives, which we use in all of our products, we are probably the only scenting company with its own in-house perfume manufacturing division — better known as Alpha Aromatics, a global leader in scent creation for some of the biggest brands in the marketplace.
As a result, our laboratories are equipped with the best tools that money can buy including the latest in: gas chromatography, mass spectrometry, headspace analysis, distillation, extraction and quality control technology. We are an undisputed champion of ambient scenting, and our many diverse products speak volumes as to our versatility and innovation, which are the byproduct of our superior research, knowledge and application of the principles of industrial science.
Scent Machine Solutions For Hotel Air Freshening
The appropriate scent in any lobby can induce a positive first impression that triggers the senses for guests the moment they step inside a hotel. The chosen fragrance must instantly and indelibly remind visitors why they have come and what they can expect from their sojourn. When hotels get it right, guests often fall in love with the totality of their visit, and years later, the scent can conjure up strong emotional memories of that experience.
The Aroma Beam Diffuser
Our Aroma Beam diffuser can cover areas up to 50,000 cubic feet and is the perfect dry vapor scenting system for large hotel areas, such as lobbies and lounges. It diffuses and effectively freshens interior spaces without wet vapor. Aroma Beam’s 30-day refill systems are available in two varieties: the Aroma Beam Cartridge and The Aroma Beam Squair. The former contains 30 days worth of pure fragrance specially formulated to create a desired response. Dozens of fragrance choices are available as well as the option to include that custom signature scent that will reflect your hotel’s brand and encourage loyalty. These refills also offer 30 days of fully adjustable performance.
The Aroma Styler HVAC Scent Machines
This dispersal model, known as the Aroma Styler, is an HVAC atomizing diffuser system that is available in three application sizes. It is both potent and easy to use. Cutting edge and innovative technology creates a vapor that is invisible and floats evenly across any large open space. In addition to providing ambient scenting and controlling malodors, it also greatly improves air quality.
In Conclusion
Hoteliers understand the power of fragrance and specifically, a customized signature scent scent for their lobbies, restaurants and guest rooms. We know how to tap into the almost mystical hold that fragrance can have on customer mood and loyalty.
Creating scent memories is a delicate, complicated and precise art, and in the case of hotel fragrances, requires special considerations. These include: the architectural design of the space; the diverse colors and textures, and whether or not doors and windows will be open or closed, which might demand that the chosen scent must blend with outside aromas.
So if you a hotelier, work for a global hotel brand or you’re a scent marketing supplier that services the hotel and lodging instury, call our team today and let us help you develop that special scenting solution for your hotel with competitive pricing and quite simply the highest quality essential oils in the marketplace today.
Final thoughts on hotel fragrances: When you get into a hotel room, you lock the door, and you know there is a secrecy, a luxury and fantasy. There is comfort. There is reassurance. ~ Diane Von Furstenberg
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