Direct Response Memo: Luxury Hotels Embrace Signature Scents
Hotel chains are constantly seeking new ways to make guests want to return. Comfy beds and smiling clerks are not enough. Many hotels are now developing signature scents to waft through lobbies, restaurants, meeting rooms, and pool areas.
As an assistant to Michelle Long, CEO of a small hotel chain, you received an interesting assignment. Ms. Long recently visited the Park Hyatt in Washington, DC, and was impressed not only with its $24 million makeover and chic guest rooms but also with its custom fragrance. She asks you to conduct research online to discover what hotels are using fragrances and what scents are associated with each property.
Her goal is to decide whether this trend is something her small hotel chain might follow.
In your research you discovered that Omni Hotels engage hidden machines to spray a lemongrass and green tea scent into the lobby. Omni also uses a coconut fragrance, for a tropical effect, near the pool. Apparently finding that scents are appealing, Omni plans to extend its fragrances to its meeting spaces. It is considering citrus, which is supposed to enhance energy.
You discovered that Westin Hotels & Resorts favors a white tea aroma. In Paris the fashionable Hotel Costes treats guests to an exclusive custom scent with notes of lavender, bay tree, coriander, white pepper, rose, incense, woods, and musk. Luxury properties are embracing signature fragrances to create an emotional connection to their hotels.
Your research also reveals a Web site complaining that hotels are contributing to the "sick building syndrome" by masking chemical smells with fragrances. Proponents of fragrance-free hotels recom- mend striving for fresh, not perfumed, air.
Your Task. Conduct additional Web research so that you can report on at least five hotels and their signature scents. Address a concise interoffice memo (or an e-mail if your instructor directs) to CEO Michelle Long. Decide whether to mention the argument for fragrance-free hotels. In addition, think about how you can make your findings most readable.