Easy as pie: Against scented lobbies
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Last week, I spent a night at a Four Points Sheraton. It’s been little over a year since I’d been in one of their hotels, so I wasn’t mentally prepared for what awaited me. As I walked into the lobby and toward the front desk, I was accosted with a phony smelling scent of apple pie.
It was then that I remembered that pie was the chain’s schtick. (Sheraton-branded pies are even being served up in US Airways’ first class. Maybe that comes with an ad on the tray table, too.)
It was just about a year ago when I posted this:
And joining the trend of hotels pumping scents into the air, [Four Points] will start misting their public spaces with the scent of baking apple pie. Why apple pie? They did a survey, and found that it “will spur thoughts of childhood (27 percent), home (39 percent) and holidays (48 percent).” As much as I like apple pie, do you really think it’s a good idea to make road-weary business travelers think longingly of home and carefree youth?
I assure you, I thought of none of those things. Rather, I tried to pinpoint what it was that I was actually smelling.
I thought, “What’s that fake-smelling odor? Cinnamon?” As I waited, I recalled the press releases and e-mails promoting the scents. But apple pie? Not a chance. It was too phony-smelling.
I don’t know how the staff can handle being surrounded by that scented air for extended periods. (Much like I wonder how anyone can work at a Yankee Candle store, but that’s another matter.)
A fresh and clean smelling lobby is one thing. But the stifling, phony smell that the Four Points was pumping into the lobby gets the thumbs down. Consider a clothespin for your nose.
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May 13th, 2007 at 7:54 am |
I’d be happy for the scent of real or fake apple pie in the ‘big’ Sheratons in which I’ve been staying. Two recent trips - w/ hotel dictated by clients - I got sick just walking through the lobby. Westin does it to me too. All of them. YES to just clean (but not chemical-clean) scents to lobbies and rooms. For those of us w/ severe ’scent/chemical-sensitivities’ which is covered, in the US, under the ADA, travel (which I do every week) is a nightmare. How do we start a movement to change this and move all those folks who think aroma therapy is positive out?
May 17th, 2007 at 11:52 am |
Artificial scents (air fresheners, etc.) should be totally phased out. As the previous commenter wrote, there are many persons who suffer from chemical sensitivities, and artificial scents aggravate their condition. If the result of “hot apple pie scent” is physical pain for some guests, I think the implication is obvious.
August 1st, 2007 at 6:14 pm |
I don’t consider myself particularly sensitive to scents, but a recent stay at the Omni in Washington DC left me nauseous–literally–due to their overuse of a floral scent. When I arrived for the weekend on Friday it was noticeable, but for some reason, on Sunday at midday it was pumped way up. I complained, but was told they could not control the strength of it. Something–the number of people, or the temperature, who knows–something made it stronger one day than another. And I could not get the taste of fake flowers out of my mouth, or the burning out of my throat, for hours after leaving. Fake scents should be banned!