How hotels use signature scents to keep guests coming back

Aug 06, 2023

There’s a special moment following a trip — it could be days later, even months or years — when an aroma wafts through the air that suddenly transports you back to your destination, like the warm coconut smell of an Caribbean resort or light lavender scent of luxury spa day.

The nostalgia inspired by a smell is hopefully a pleasant experience, but for hotels using signature scents, it’s also happening by design. By tapping into the power of scent, hotels can set the mood, create memories and stay top of guests’ minds when they leave.

When it comes to memory, there is no sense more closely linked than smell.

“Our olfactory system is unique compared to our other sensory systems in that the pathways from the nose and olfactory bulb go directly into memory and emotion centers in the brain, such as the entorhinal cortex and amygdala,” Jennifer Newson, in-house neuroscience consultant at neurocosmetics brand Children of Earth Skincare, said in an email. She says scents can influence us subconsciously, so not only can they be used to create pleasant environments, they can plant a seed in the brain tied to a specific place and time.

Scent is also a powerful emotion evoker, which hotels harness to create a memorable experience. Guests stepping into a hotel lobby may not even be aware that they are starting to relax, all thanks to a scent being pumped through the air.

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Though scents can be subtle, developing a signature scent isn’t a simple task for brands, which is why many turn to olfactory branding agencies like 12.29 Scent, whose clients include Hyatt and Ritz-Carlton hotels.

“We’re able to create an idea of comfort, or atmosphere of safety, or inspiration, or relaxation, or whatever the hotel brand wants to do,” says Dawn Goldworm, co-founder and nose of the agency. To achieve this, they have to take into consideration everything within the hotel’s space, location and target market. “We work with the music, we work with the lighting, we work with the textures, the colors, and everything becomes that emotion a brand wants to elicit from their branding efforts.”

Presidio Lodging in San Francisco has been working with a similar company to develop a signature scent for Lodge at the Presidio, one of their two properties. General manager Terry Haney can attest to the complicated process: Starting with thousands of scents, he is tasked with sniffing his way down to one. Floral and sweet scents were nixed early on, while more subdued scents stayed in consideration. Encapsulating their unique location — bridging San Francisco’s eucalyptus forest to the Bay — is important but not without challenges. “We want to be able to bring the outside in, but I don’t want it to smell like you’re in the woods either,” he says.

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It’s a lot of work, but as a boutique property, nailing the scent is vital. “Since the beginning, we’ve never been a big box; our guests aren’t looking for that experience, they want something special,” Haney says of the 42-room hotel. “Part of that is touching on all five of the senses. But scent is really what sticks with people; that’s what creates the memory and people don’t even realize it.” He credits the white tea scent at sister property Inn at the Presidio as one of the reasons for their 45 percent repeat-guest rate.

From singular properties to entire hotel chains, scent can become one of the defining characteristics of an accommodation. Anyone who has stayed at one of Edition Hotels’ 16 properties can probably recall their custom black tea scent by Le Labo just by thinking about it.

“We wanted to create a potent means to stimulate the senses that has the power to trigger memories or an emotion of an experience at an Edition Hotel,” Josh Fluhr, senior vice president and managing director of Edition Hotels, said in an email. Their signature rich, complex aroma has become synonymous with their worldwide properties, not only setting an elevated tone, but creating a consistent sensory experience that guests can expect wherever they go.

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Though much lesser-known than its fountains, the signature scent of the Bellagio in Las Vegas may stand out in visitors’ minds. “When developing Bellagio’s signature scent, the goal was to create something elegant and beautiful that evoked wonderful memories each time a guest stepped back into the resort,” Ana Maria Viditchi, vice president of retail strategy for MGM Resorts, said in an email. Their fragrance of bergamot, orange blossom, clove and sandalwood was designed to be, “warm and welcoming while still elegant and luxurious,” ideally reflecting how Bellagio guests feel when visiting.

In Vegas hotels, the scents serve a few purposes: to create a lasting memory, help guests differentiate as they bounce from property to property on the Strip and, maybe most importantly, cover the smoky smell of casino floors.

There’s another challenge in developing signature scents: Travelers can have different reactions to the same scent.

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The smell of burning incense in the lobby of an Abu Dhabi hotel sent France-based content marketer Jill Starley-Grainger into an hour-long coughing fit upon arrival. “The scent only got worse as we were taken down the vast, palatial hallways to our room, so I can only assume that they were piping the fragrance through vents into the hallway,” she said in an email.

As someone with allergies and asthma, she believes hotels should desist from scents altogether. “Strong fragrances can cause all sorts of health problems for people, including migraines, epilepsy, nausea and more.” In this case scent created a powerful memory, but one she never wants to revisit.

For Steph Dyson, U.K.-based travel journalist and blogger at Worldly Adventurer, the signature scent she encountered at Paradise Cove in Mauritius was a revelation.

“Upon arrival at the hotel, I was given a refreshing cold flannel to dab away the sticky Mauritian heat,” she said in email. It had been infused with the hotel’s signature bergamot fragrance. “I instantly loved the idea. The fruity fragrance of bergamot seemed to encapsulate the island itself, and now conjures up in my mind the powdery beaches and aquamarine waters of Paradise Cove.”

Scent’s capacity for memory creation has also led to an influx of aromatic products for sale by hotels. The Bellagio, Wynn and Edition hotels sell the scent of their hotel for your home with candles, diffusers and scent sticks. Once they’ve landed on a scent, Presidio Lodging is also planning to offer similar products in-house. Even Super 8 motels tried to get into scent business this year with beef jerky and fresh linen candles.

“I was given a reed diffuser carrying the signature scent when I left the hotel,” Dyson says of Paradise Cove, “and it now floods my downstairs bathroom with delicate citrus that speaks of sunshine and hot, lazy afternoons by the pool.”

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