The Scent Suite

2024 Jan - May

In collaboration with Kwan Jia Chen Suzie, Brian Khoa Tran and Cynthia Li

Supported by Cognizant

The Scent Suite is an experience room that partners with existing hotel brands to enhance guest stays through the sense of smell.

Guests have the opportunity to create their own personalized fragrance, which they can take home as a souvenir. This project aims to elevate the hotel experience by engaging guests' senses and creating lasting memories.

Smell As A Memory

Our memories are deeply intertwined with our senses. But unlike our other sensory systems, scent information travels directly to the brain’s limbic system, allowing us to process smell faster than other senses. As the limbic system controls one’s memory and emotions, this connection between scent and memory is profound.


However, the current state of scent marketing is often subconscious. And within hotels, the scent is almost only showcased in the bathroom through bath products. So we asked ourselves, how can we truly bring this sensory experience into the light?

Research Findings

In order to survey the current state of hotels and hospitality, our team went out to observe 7 hotels (all within a 4 to 5 star class) and conducted 20 interviews with hotel staff and guests.  After affinity mapping through our observations and interview quotes, we found three main insights about the value of shared stories, authentic connections, and tailored experiences. 

To gain a deeper understanding of hotel guests, we also identified four different mindsets of users and mapped out their aspirational user journeys.

Concepts

Moving forward, we used our journey maps to ideate for different sectors we identified within hotels such as the lobby, guest rooms, and amenities.

We flagged our strongest ideas to develop 8 concepts. Given our feedback, we decided that the most compelling concept to move forward with was “Aromatherapy Personalization”.

User Testing

We conducted user testing on the different phases of our experience, testing various artifacts through walkthroughs, card sorts, post-interviews and post-surveys, gathering key insights to refine our design.

Final Design

Welcome Invitation

When guests arrive at a hotel, they will receive an invitation at the front desk to explore the Scent Suite. This invitation not only introduces them to the experience but also gives them a glimpse of the local scents.
Discovery Lab

The Discovery Lab is the initial experience level that allows guests to freely explore on their own time and learn about the scents of the brand and region while crafting their own scent cards. Each station has a table for guests to explore as well as a screen that helps to guide the experience and educate about each note and fragrance combination.

Scent Capsules

When a Scent Capsule is placed into the perfume mix slot, the screen will show information about the note, such as note details, pairing recommendations and scent profile.

The scent capsule design features increasing ridges at each step—hotel note, regional note, and your note—helping users slot the sample notes correctly and streamlining the mixing process.

Scent Card

Once guests are happy with their blend, they can print a Scent Card that mixes the notes together so that they can experience the combined fragrance.

Similar to scratch and sniff samples, the ink is sealed in a thin coating and releases more scent when rubbed.

Scent Bar

Guests exchange their Scent Card for a travel-size fragrance bottle at the Scent Bar, which can be used as a dab perfume or a room scent with a paper flower diffuser.

The diffuser, designed to resemble the regional flower, allows guests to collect different flowers and regional notes as they visit partner hotels. Made from absorbent paper, the collapsible design ensures easy packaging and assembly for use as a diffuser.