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 Travel & Outdoors | April 2006 
Hotels' Latest Amenity: Signature Scents
 NYTimes
| | By June, all Westin hotel lobbies are expected to smell like white tea, an aroma that so far can be sniffed in 12 Westin lobbies, including here in Puerto Vallarta. |
A growing number of hotels are pumping perfume through their accommodations.
This month, Starwood's Sheraton brand is introducing notes of fig, clove and jasmine to its hotels.
By June, all Westin hotel lobbies are expected to smell like white tea, an aroma that so far can be sniffed in 12 Westin lobbies, including in Shanghai; Bellevue, Wash.; and Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.
Omni Hotels is using scent machines to send a bouquet of lemon grass and green tea wafting through its lobbies, a whiff of mochaccino or sugar cookie in its coffee shops, and coconut sunscreen smells near the pools.
Langham Hotels spritzes rooms with a ginger fragrance.
The scents are designed to evoke specific emotions from guests. Westin hopes a whiff of white tea will help calm guests down and defuse stress from their trips. Sheraton's fragrance is supposed to make guests feel as if they belong.
And soon, Starwood's Four Points brand will use the tang of cinnamon to help guests feel comfortable. The company is also considering changing the scents to reflect each season.
Creating a signature fragrance can be complicated. Hotels must ensure that it is neutral between the sexes, generally pleasing and doesn't make guests sneeze. Westin said it spent about a year researching and testing scents before settling on white tea.
"It's like developing a perfume," said Javier Benito, Starwood's chief marketing officer. "We worked with experts in the field and began by smelling different things."
It turns out certain smells can also help the bottom line. At one Omni hotel where mochaccino smells were tested, sales in the coffee shop soared. |
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