I read recently in Luxist that the Westin Hotel chain is using magazine scent strips to advertise their new signature scent: "White Tea. The Calming New Scent of Westin", which according to Brandweek will be "faintly wafting this spring in Westin properties worldwide". Sure enough, there is a strip in my latest New Yorker. It smells vaguely like a cross between Bvlgari's Green tea and White tea fragrances, and I would venture to guess that it isn't all that different from the lemongrass and green tea fragrance used at Omni hotels. More hotel scenting news:
Hard Rock Hotel's lobby in Orlando has "Ocean" scent, and the hotel draws visitors to the ice cream store on the ground level by blasting a "`Waffle Cone"' scent up the stairway. (via Washington Post)
A brief perusal of Scentair's website (Scentair produces the scenting systems that make all this public fragrancing possible) reveals several other interesting uses of fragrance as a marketing tool. Bloomindales pumps the scent of baby powder into the infant department. Exxon uses a coffee aroma in their convenience stores.
Peugeot, meanwhile, has joined Citroën in offering in-car fragrance diffusers. Even Rolls-Royce has gotten in the game:
When Rolls-Royce buyers began complaining in the mid-1990s that the new cars didn't live up to their predecessors, researchers tracked the problem to its source: the smell. Using a 1965 Silver Cloud as a reference point, the company deconstructed the scent, identifying 800 separate elements. It then recalibrated the aroma and now sprays it under the seats to re-create the scent of a classic "Roller." (via FastCompany)
And if all that isn't enough, soon you may be able to carry your own "public scent" with you: Samsung has filed for a patent for a cell phone that emits fragrance when it rings. Read more about it at EngadgetMobile. Other brands of scented cellphones are already available in Asia.
I would like to know what kind of market research surrounded the hotels' decision to use fragrance, and the type of fragrance they chose to mirror their target market. I smelled the strip in our New Yorker, too — and it IS a calm scent, I suppose. Calmer than waffle cone anyway. xoxo
Yes, very calm. Almost too calm.
On the market research, no idea, but can only imagine that it was focus group-ed to death 😉
I can personally attest that this is true in my case, that I chose one hotel over another because of scent. I was doing hard times in Las Vegas, one of those projects that lasted weeks after weeks after weeks. I think I stayed at all the major hotels on the Strip, with the exception of Bellagio and Venetian (Ha! accounting would kill me if they saw the room rate.) The Mandalay and the Treasure Island has the same smell, although the architecture, decor and theme of The Mandalay was more suited to this smell. The best I can describe it is exotic vanilla + leafy + very slight patchouli. I loved coming back to the hotel at night and smell the air (ok once I got away from the smoke pit from the gambling area) as I go up to my room. With the right twilight and the right breeze as you walk out to the pool area, you can almost believe that you're somewhere in Central Asia. The worst artificial hotel smell was at The Venetian. I don't even remember what it was like now but I do remember hating to go in there.
I saw a TV segment a few days ago for the new Peugeot with the built-in scent diffuser, and I thought, “what a great idea!” – not to mention, “leave it to the French.” 🙂
I have not yet experienced a scented hotel, but when I stayed in the Sofitel in NYC a few months ago, I took the toiletries with me, which I hardly ever do. They had Jean Marie Farina scented products from Roger & Gallet, which I thought smelled wonderful.
I am very surprised that the Mandalay is any cheaper than the Venetian or the Bellagio, I would have thought it was up in that range. It is the one with the aquarium in the basement, right?
Anyway, sounds like they have an interesting scent, I'll have to see if I can find anything about it online.
I can't decide if I'd like a scent diffuser in my car or not. My car usually smells like french fries, so it might be a good thing I guess!
Yes, that's the one, Shark Reef, I think they called it. It is usually not cheaper, just the few times when I lucked out and found rooms they couldn't sell, which is never a problem with Bellagio or Venetian.
Yes, Shark Reef. My son loved it.