
The 5 sensory receptors play a very important role in our day to day life. Scents have a power to create a sense of familiarity, hence fragrances are used as a way of achieving a new multi-sensory relationship with guests and create a long lasting memorable impression.
Among the different sensory receptors, smell is the second most influential sense in humans, after vision. Different scents of a space are associated with specific feelings and desires that can potentially change the mood and transport a person to a distant memory and help you to bond with our loved ones. Hotels today are focusing on a complete experience by not only paying attention to the décor and services they offer but also the fragrances zoning through various areas of the hotel giving repeat guests a sense of familiarity. Hotels aim to create an immense effect on a guest in terms of igniting their smell sensory receptors which immediately makes a person cozy to the environment as well have a calming or soothing effect and transports the person to a different dimension.
Scenting has three major purposes; delivering an immersive guest experience, creating a seasonal display and using it as a branding device. Hence hotels need to be careful while choosing these scents as they define a lot of factors that are associated with the hotel which will be carried with the guests forever. Moreover, the scents need to compliment the aesthetics and décor of a hotel to create a warm welcome effect.
Scents are a great tool of branding and help the brands communicate a brand story by adding a sense of comfort, luxury and wellbeing. For this reason, international hotel chains ensure they work with professional scent manufacturing companies to have the right scent for the right areas. These companies help them develop signature scents for specific hotel brands so that the guests enjoy the same scent for this specific Brand of Hotel in any parts of the world.
Apart from scenting of public areas, hotels focus on signature scents for suites to add a special touch. Based on the theme and décor of the suite the hotels create Reed diffusers for suites. Some hotels as a pre arrival checklist like to know guests preferences and accordingly arrange for scents in their rooms, this not only creates a personalized touch for the guest but it gives a feeling of home to the guest as he is surrounded by a similar fragrance triggering comforting emotions.
To conclude, we can say that air freshener scents play a very important role in creating a lasting memory for a guest and enhancing their brand experience.
About the author:
Suman Basu is the Executive Housekeeper of Mövenpick Hotel Jumeirah Beach. He is a seasoned Executive Housekeeper and has worked for reputed international hotel chains in the Philippines,United Arab Emirates,Singapore and India with a total of 18 plus years work experience within the Hospitality Industry.