Have you considered that the way your hotel smells could be an incentive for guests?

Scent marketing is big business for hotels, Bloomberg reported that in 2015 the hotel scent-branding industry was worth an estimated $300 million. The reason, Bloomberg noted, is because smell is “the Superman of the senses… the only one that comes fully developed at birth. It’s the only sense directly connected to the amygdala and hippocampus, areas of your brain that process emotion and memory.”

Forbes reported recently that many in the hotel industry are using scent as a “secret weapon... capitalizing on smell’s ability to instantly cue memories and conjure up certain emotions, and turning that moment into a branding opportunity.”

They mention such top of the line chains as Sofitel, Le Meridién and The Ritz-Carlton, while noting that “smaller brands have started focusing on fragrance as well.” And not just to mask unpleasant smells, but to produce positive impressions.

Walk into the Mandarin Orange and you smell… oranges.

The sense of smell is tied closely to memory and conjures up powerful associations. Krispy Kreme doughnut stores in the United States are famous - notorious? - for using fans to waft the aroma of freshly-glazed doughnuts out to the street, with predictable results.

And if you’ve gone to see houses for sale recently, chances are good that at least one of them had fresh coffee brewing or yummy baking smells.

It’s tricky to get right, matching the right scent with the experience you want to provide for your target demographic, but done correctly, it’s a powerful memory for a guest of the positive experience they had at your property.