Next time you step inside a high end luxury hotel or residential tower, take a minute to see the ways your senses are heightened; design, furniture, lighting, music and increasingly in the last few years, scent. Many major hotel chains, resorts, and residential properties have used a unique aroma throughout their cache of properties for brand awareness and recognition. But don’t be fooled and think it’s only the big boys employing this tactic. Smaller boutique hotels, Condos and Resorts are also recognizing the power of proprietary scent in their locations.
Scent marketing is an essential tool to stay with the competition in the hotel and luxury condominium industry. Exclusive properties are working to build brand awareness through their guest’s and resident’s olfactory experience, which in turn unconsciously influences a person’s perception of the establishment. With ever-shrinking margins in these industries, anyway that a property can make more money or stand out for the better is welcomed.
Using scent as a sales tool is just another way high-end luxury builders and developers are enhancing a buyer’s impression of a home or business through a subtle signature scent. Branding scents to match the personality of a project is taking over across the industry, as luxury developers are working with Scent Marketers to create customized, individual scents for their properties.
Since scents evoke particular feeling and emotions, establishing a scent that is perceived as positive, warm, inviting and conjuring is a no-brainer in this industry. Hotels, resorts, and residences hope that whiffs of their scents will allow you to make the correlation of having had a positive experience with their brand.
While signature blends in hotels and residences are meant to be one of a kind, many of these proprietary fragrances share common notes. White tea, citrus, and fig are all popular choices in the industry, sharing the commonality of instilling a sense of calm and cleanliness in their scent notes, all the while being non-offensive.
In Dallas, a new luxury rental building called StreetLights Residential is currently using a light floral scent in both its sales center and lobby. Additionally, they are using a woodsier smell for their fitness center. The idea behind scenting is that it is truly “the last frontier” in getting in touch with all five of a person’s senses. It’s another way to strengthen a property from a branding perspective and takes into account the décor, location and overall feel of a given property. When you smell something beautiful it’s truly part of a memorable impression. Ambient Scenting allows a “scent memory” to be created that is seen as a positive recollection.
