One of the lasting memories of a premium hotel is the scent pumped through the ventilation. I finally bought the scents and it’s incredible the difference it makes.
If you are considering booking travel or signing up for a new credit card please click here. Both support LiveAndLetsFly.com.
If you haven’t followed us on Facebook or Instagram, add us today.
Strong Memories
Of all of our senses, the sense of smell is thought to be the strongest with ties to memories. The smell of popcorn can take someone right back to a movie theater, fresh cut grass, rain, these don’t just transport us to memories, they also establish an emotional connection.
“The sense of smell is closely linked with memory, probably more so than any of our other senses. Those with full olfactory function may be able to think of smells that evoke particular memories; the scent of an orchard in blossom conjuring up recollections of a childhood picnic, for example.” – Fifth Sense
In fact, it was a hotel scent that was the subject of my first blog post ever, Le Meridien’s LM 01 (discontinued.) Walking in from the sweltering humidity of Bangkok, the cool air conditioned lobby with LM 01 permeating everything made it clear that we had found our oasis in the city.
Luxury hotels have latched onto scent marketing to make their brand experiences memorable.
“[A] study revealed that the 100 consumers who shopped with the simple scent in the air spent an average of 20 percent more. Spangenberg said the research underscores the need to understand how scents affect customers.” – Business News Daily
As such, many of my favorite hotels (including those listed on the Michelin Hotel Guide) have their own custom scent and I, too, want the same clean scent throughout my home. It elevates my home.
Favorite Scents
The most copied scent or “inspired by” seems to be from the 1 Hotel and admittedly, it’s one of my favorites too. I started shopping a few different companies that sell both diffusers and hotel-specific scents and I have been most impressed with the Hotel Collection. I selected the following:
- My Way (1 Hotel)
- Cabana (Ritz-Carlton)
- Dream On (Westin)
In a surprising twist, my favorite of the bunch was Dream On. I don’t often stay in Westin hotels, I don’t remember any of them being remarkable in the way that some of the others are, and yet it was far and away my favorite.
My Way was excellent as well. The site has a subscribe and save option (but the offering was wrong when I checked it while writing this) but assuming it’s fixed, I’ll likely continue with that going forward and likely the Dream On scent going forward.
What’s Still Missing
There’s no question that Le Labo is a premium leader in the space. This site (and many others) have made it clear that the hotels that use Le Labo for toiletries are among the best, and I always collect the little bottles before I leave. In fact, during the pandemic where we didn’t travel nearly as much, we switch to those bottles at home to briefly return to the Park Hyatt New York for example.
I’d go to great lengths for a bottle of LM 01. It’s personal. Which is exactly what scent marketing is supposed to do. It evokes an emotion. My wife and I are instantly back in Bangkok, a lovely night out, complete with a relaxing stay at the first premium hotel we ever stayed in.
More generally, Le Labo has a few notes that seem to run through all of their scents (and it’s not Santal 33) and yet, I can’t find a good comparison product for their scents. Le Labo sells oil for diffusers but it’s $109 for 9mL which I can’t justify when I am rather happy with the ones I have for about $50 per 50mL.
Conclusion
I love opening the door to my house and being reminded of great hotels I have stayed in. If I get serious enough, I am going to hook one up directly to the ventilation system. I haven’t bought the bedding from hotel chains I love yet, but in this little way, I can recreate some of the magic of being on vacation while at home.
What do you think? Is there a hotel scent you would put in your home?
First of all I agree that the Westin signature scent is a good one. But why buy a knock-off when you can get the real thing? It’s called White Tea, and Westin sells it in their online store.
https://www.westinstore.com/category.aspx?white-tea-home-fragrance
Does the scent end up eventually end up settling into the walls and floors of the place? Over time does that scent go a little rancid when in contact with some surfaces?
@GU … especially skunk scent .
@kyle, I have no idea if I was just unlucky or if a home HVAC system is not designed for scents, but I put the scent through my HVAC system and it caused a bit of trouble.
I am not entirely sure how, but it got onto the main control board, (the HVAC repairman said that he had seen it before) and it fried the board.
He gave me the dead control board which was sticky, I presume from the scent (my wife and I both like the Westin scent) as the board had a strong scent of White Tea.
We followed all the direction and installed it properly, so it was not an installation error I do not think, just a word of caution.
@Interested … too much time on your hands ?
Lol, probably
Burning any bakhoor made in Dhofar will make your home HGTV grade showcase. Try spraying Amouage Gold over your bed linens for a trip to exotic locales.
Be cautious using fragrance in your home. Scents can introduce pollutants otherwise best kept outdoors and trigger allergies, asthma and headaches. Newer homes will not have the advantage of dissipating smells with drafts and you will become desensitized to the very thing you enjoy.
@Maryland … +1 . Kyle’s poor idea , especially if he installs a wrong “perfumy” middle-eastern scent in error . Also , he has not considered the effects on animal pets or sensitive allergy sufferers .
My idea is better : windows open year-round for the fresh Hawaii winds , and sounds of the surf .
Alert
Yes open windows even here in Maryland winters I do this! Fresh artic air smells better than fake scents.
@Maryland … +1 . Yes , and the howling blizzard will bring in the snowdrifts .
Alert
The snow fragrance recreates memories of ski vacations ;· )
@Kyle … “recreate some of the magic of being on vacation while at home” . Seriously ?
Just carry your full suitcases back and forth through your home . Problem solved .
So much can go wrong by passing scents (or anything else) through your HVAC system. They’re better ways to remember places you travel.
Just have Matthew roll around in your house for a little bit
This is just an ad disguised as an article. That’s low Kyle, even for you and your banal writing.
A scent I used to absolutely love was InterContinental Hotel’s old scent before they changed it a couple years back. I looked forward to walking through the IHG in Singapore just because of the fragrance. I discovered that the scent was lemon and verbena, but then they changed it to something else that was pleasant but didn’t quite deliver the emotional impact, I just lost interest. How about creating a scent called, “My Favorite Italian Restaurant,” with both regular and extra tomato and garlic versions?
Unrelated to Hotel scents. Whenever I flew American Airlines back in the day, any aircraft type I flew on had the same scent when boarding. It was fresh and calming. It was present during entire flight.
If you do a bit of looking up, you’ll see all this scent stuff including febreeze is Cancer Causing in the long run. Be careful.