308LONU Research Title: How important is aroma

enhancing guests’ experience in the luxury hotel

market?

Student Name: Or Pui Yu

Tutor Name: Mr Joe Shami1

Student ID: 6006952

Word Count: 8800

Abstract

Nowadays, luxury hotels face fierce competition over saturated visual,auditory branding and marketing strategies. The role of scent in branddifferentiation and guest experience enhancement becomes more significant asguests are able to distinguish different hotels from their signature fragrance.

This research aims at analysing the importance of aroma in customerexperience enhancement in luxury hotel market by studying the effect of scent overSheraton Hotels, Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts and Langham Hotels as benchmark.In order to achieve such objectives, primary data has been collected throughstructured interview and questionnaires. Based on the on the perceptions andopinions from respondents, it can be concluded that the effects of scent areundeniable. Effective use of scent enables luxury hotels to gain competitiveadvantages to achieve successful goals. Researcher’s suggestions about signaturefragrance, brand value and staff members’ work performance are given. Based onthe highlight of literature review and findings, luxury hotel Management can have abetter understanding on the effect of scent and how to develop with their brandimage.

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Table of ContentsChapter I: Introduction............................................51.1 Overview.....................................................51.2 Research aims and objectives.................................61.3 Research Questions...........................................61.4 Rationale of the study.......................................71.5 Scope and limitations of the study...........................71.6 Structure of the dissertation................................8

Chapter II: Literature Review......................................92.1 Introduction.................................................92.2 Overview of Scent Marketing.................................102.3 Aroma’s effect on guests’ emotions and behaviour............12Figure 2 Cycle of the smell.....................................12Figure 3 The important role of Amygdala.........................132.4 Positive or negative impact of ambient scent in reaching hotelsuccess.........................................................142.4.1 Customer decision making process..........................14We can see that customers are willing to spend more time in scented stores..................................................152.4.2 Store and product evaluation..............................152.4.3 Staffs’ work performance..................................152.4.4 Brand loyalty, recall and recognition.....................152.4.5 Retail revenue............................................16Figure4. The important role of scents to reaching hotels’ goal. .17

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Figure5. The important role of scent and customer service in reaching hotels’ success........................................18Figure6. The important role of scent in generating extra revenue for hotels......................................................192.5 The importance of aroma in retaining customers..............202.6 Effect of aroma on customer experience varied by demographic 202.7 Summary.....................................................223.1 Introduction................................................23Figure6. The research Onion.....................................233.2 Research philosophy.........................................233.3 Research approach...........................................25Table 3 Types of research approach..............................253.4 Research strategy: Survey...................................26Table 4 Types of strategies (Saunders and Lewis 2012)...........263.4.1 Questionnaire Design......................................27Table 5 The dimension of Geneva Emotion and Odor Scale (GEOS). . .273.6 Strengths of the methodology................................303.7 Weaknesses of the methodology...............................303.8 Summary.....................................................31

Chapter IV: Research Findings.....................................324.1 Introduction................................................324.2 Findings....................................................324.2.1 Respondents’ Profile......................................32Chart 1. Age – All respondents..................................32Chart 2. Nationality – All respondents..........................324.2.2 Respondents perception on specific fragrance..............32Table 7 Ratings for three types of fragrance....................33Table 8 View towards Luxury hotels’ fragrance products..........344.2.3 Respondents’ view of luxury hotels........................34Table 9 Respondents perception towards luxury hotels............35Table 10 Reasons of choosing luxury hotels......................354.2.4 Respondents’ Behavior under the effect of aroma...........36Table 11 View of the importance of aroma in affecting behavior. .37

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4.2.5 Respondents’ Memorability.................................37Table 12 Ranking of favourite luxury hotels.....................37Table 12 Test luxury brand recognition of respondents...........384.3 Comparison based on demographic background..................384.3.1Comparison of effect of aroma between young generation and old generation..................................................38Table 14 Age range for young and older generation...............38Table 15 Comparison in between young and old generation of respondents’ likability towards luxury hotels...................40Table 16 Comparison in between young and old generation of respondents’ view of luxury hotels..............................414.3.2 Comparison of effect of aroma on male and female..........41Table 17 Comparison between young and old generations’ view on therole of aroma in influencing behavior...........................424.4 Summary.....................................................42

Chapter V: Conclusion and Recommendations.........................435.1 Introduction................................................435.2 Recommendations.............................................435.3 Conclusion..................................................44

References........................................................46Appendix..........................................................49Appendix 1. Questionnaire design................................49Appendix 2: Face-to-Face interview..............................55

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Chapter I: Introduction

1.1 Overview

The main objective of this research is to critically analyse

the effect of aroma on guests’ experience in the luxury hotels

market. Since this research aim to investigate the effect of

aroma in well-known luxury hotels, and the varied effect

toward people with different gender, age, educational level

and income level, therefore, people with varied demographic

background are the target market of this research.

1.2 Research aims and objectives

The main objective of this proposal is to examine the

importance and effectiveness of aroma in luxury hotels market

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in influencing guests’ experiences. Therefore, the research

question is:

How important is aroma enhancing guest’s experience in the

luxury hotel market?

Luxury hotels in this case refers to Shangri-La Hotel, Langham

Hotels and Sheraton Hotels, they are the benchmark in this

research. There are loads of studies revealed that smell is

associated with revenue and also have significant effects

toward human beings emotions and behavior. However, not much

of the studies discussed the effect of aroma varied toward

people with different demographic backgrounds and the

importance of aroma in luxury hotel markets.

This research aims at determine the effect of aroma and

critically examine the importance of aroma in retaining

customers.

The research objectives are as follows:

1. To determine whether specific aroma is associated with

return customers

2. To evaluate the positive or negative impacts of aroma on

customer satisfaction

3. To estimate whether aromas florist are more influential than

traditional method of customer relationship management

4. To evaluate the effect of aroma on people from different

demographic regions

1.3 Research Questions

The research questions are as follows:

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1. How does aroma affect guest emotions and behavior?

2. Does aroma have a positive or negative impact on customer

experiences?

3. How important is aroma in retaining customers within

customer relationship marketing?

4. Does the effect of aroma on customer experience vary by

demography?

The above key questions will be addressed throughout the

research process. They have been drawn to be the precursor of

research objectives.

Hypothesis: Scent is becoming more important as visual and

auditory sense is over-saturated.

1.4 Rationale of the study

Many luxury hotels have introduced significant florist therapy

such as Shangri-La Hotels to present their brand image and the

create emotions that their customers will want to feel as a

result of the service provided in the early 2000s. (Hayes

2014)

Nowadays, it is more difficult for luxury hotels to retain

their customers by excellent quality of service, good food,

convenient location and more. (Smiley 2014) Furthermore,

competitors can easily copy one another with the advanced

technological development. Therefore, adoption of signature

scents is an innovative way to distinguish between other

competitors. (Dixon, Stone and Zednickova 2014; Smiley 2014)

Scent do have positive effects on guests’ emotion and

behaviour, with the presence of scent, 84% people are more

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likely to purchase a product, it shows that scent have the

ability in influencing consumer purchase behaviour.

(Madzharov, Block and Morrin 2015)

Under a scented environment, staffs found to be more

productive, and enable to provide excellent customer-oriented

services to guests, and success in retaining customers. (Mest

2014) Also, smell of citrus evoked European guests’

(Especially French and Swiss) perception and feeling of clean

and energetic, guests feeling and memory will be recalled when

they sense the smell, and increase guests brand loyalty, in

turn retaining customers. It shows the importance of aroma in

luxury hotels market.

However, studies have shown that one out of ten adult suffer

from asthmatic, furthermore, four out of ten suffer allergies,

furthermore, some particular scent may even trigger harmful

symptom such as throat closure. (Barry 2014)

Many marketers show interests on the role of aroma in

affecting guests’ behaviour and retaining customers. Customer

preference changes in line with the change of age and other

factors. Therefore it is essential to understand target

consumers’ background.

1.5 Scope and limitations of the study

This research study generally covers the effects of aroma

therapy in luxury hotel chain Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts,

The Langham Hotels, Sheraton Hotels in area like brand image,

brand success elements, consumer behaviour and attitudes. It

also discusses the power of scent that is able to influence

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heavily on consumer and staff behaviour and perceptions. This

research will precisely investigate Asian consumers on how

they perceive and behave under scented environment. However,

due to time and financial constraints, this study can barely

cover the topic with some basic information. It also limits

the scope of scale of hotels and lead to the inability to get

more respondents from different nationality in order to get

equal division of respondents with varied demographic

background. The questionnaire conducted fails to give

sufficient in-depth information as part of the weaknesses of

quantitative research. Conclusion is made from the

contribution of the results collected and eventually,

recommendations are suggested based on the research findings

upon the use of aroma.

1.6 Structure of the dissertation

This chapter is a basic outline and guideline of this

research. It evaluates the background, rationale, scope and

limitation of the research. Five research questions are come

up with and be answered clearly within this research.

In chapter two, this research critically deduces collected

secondary data in detail. Literature reviews consisting of

important hypotheses and questions that is vital for

researcher to evaluate. This section further explains and

investigate the effects of aroma in retaining guests; examine

do the effects vary by demographics. This section will further

analysis and investigated the research titles and answer the

questions address from above section

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Chapter 3 is about methodology chosen for this research.

Further elaboration on research topic and answers from

questionnaires will be connected as a whole. This section is

essential in explaining how to achieve these research aims and

objectives. The chosen philosophy for this research is

pragmatism, inductive approach and the design structured face-

to-face interview and questionnaires are further discussed in

this section. Besides the data collection method as well as

the strengths and weaknesses of the methodology used in this

research are explained in detail. It shows a clear picture for

the whole research aim sand objectives goes hand in hand with

the direction of this research brings.

The next chapter mainly focuses on the presentation of the

data and how the findings of the methodology been used and

analysed. Data will be presented in the forms of tables and

charts allowing readers to have a better understanding with

the research. Hypotheses are tested and supported by accurate,

precise numbers and figures. This section also allow reader to

discover the answers for the questions that are being put

forth before the reader begins to research.

In the last chapter, conclusions and feasible recommendations

will be made and also the evaluation from previous chapters is

combined as a whole. The recommendations and conclusions are

based on the literature review and analysis of data collected

allowing researcher and reader fully understand the statements

and answers deduced from above. In conclusion, this chapter

aims at evaluating all the findings to achieve the objectives

of this topic.

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Chapter II: Literature Review

2.1 Introduction

Scent theory in consumer behavior has been widely discussed.

Notwithstanding, thus far relatively little attention has been

devoted to the impact of scent on brand memory.

Customer experience is defined as the customer’s direct and

personal interpretation of and response to their interaction

and participation in the service process and its outputs,

involving their journey through a series of touch points.

(Johnston, Clark and Shulver 2012)

Emotion is a critical part of the experience statement,

organizations have to identify the emotions that customers

want to feel as a result of service. (Johnston, Clark and

Shulver 2012)

This section further explains and investigates the effects of

aroma in retaining guests and also will such effects be varied

from different demographic regions. This section will further

analyze and investigate the research titles and answer the

questions addressed from above section.

2.2 Overview of Scent Marketing

More companies have been turning to scent and aroma marketing

in order to create competitive advantage other than

oversaturated auditory and visual marketing. Scent marketing

refer to the use of scents to set a mood, congruence of the

promote products or position a brand, aimed at influence

consumers’ feelings and behaviour through senses. (Paul 2014)

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While scent branding can be classified as marketing, appeals

all the sense in relation to brand.

Scent Branding gain popularity near a decade ago. (Mest 2014)

The scent marketing industry is growing steadily, grossed

$200million and accounts for 10% growth annually. (Barry 2014)

Furthermore, there will be a significant expansion of scent

marketing over the next decade. (Eric 2013) While hotels have

been familiar with the use of sensory branding among the

consumer business sectors since the early 2000s. (Miller and

Washington 2011) Not only hotels but other service industry

also adopts scent as their core marketing and branding tool

On the other hand, apart from the sense of smell, the sense of

sight and hearing also affect consumers’ behaviour. In-store

music is one of the environmental factor that has been shown

to influence consumers’ emotions and shopping behaviours.

(Morrison et al. 2010) Some research conducts real-life

settings among real shoppers, Mattila and Wirtz (2001)

manipulated music tempo and presence and type of scent to

induce different levels of arousal among gift shop consumers,

results that consumers respond more positively under the

existence of congruent music and aroma. (Morrison et al. 2010)

It suggests that music and scent cues enhance consumers’

responses more when cues are congruent with the shopper’s

orientation.

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Fi

gure 1 Environmental factors to influence consumers’ behaviour

Table 1 Signature scents used by different hotels (Hayes 2007)

The two leaders in "sensory branding" technology are ScentAir

and AromaSys. The ScentAir system was created by a former Walt

Disney scientist, searching for ways to infuse theme park

attractions with different aromas. (Mautner 2006) ScentAir, a

company that provides scents diffusers to hotel brands like

Westin, Sheraton, Marriott and Shangri-La Hotels. (Forbes

Travel Guide 2014)

With the use of this technology, hotels and stores are able to

deliver these scents. It is a precise and cost-effective

technology, high-voltage, low-current electricity is used to

convert liquid scent into vapour that is then distributed

through the ventilation systems of buildings. (Eric 2013)

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Music

Aroma

Emotions Pleasure

Emotional Arousal

Approach Behaviors e.g. Time and Money spent in storeOverall

satisification

Hotels are spreading fragrances into meeting rooms, lobbies

and guest rooms, aimed to elicit strong emotive response from

customers and further distinguish their brand. For example,

Langham Hotels International consulted a perfumer to develop

its ginger flower room fragrance. (Hayes 2007)

2.3 Aroma’s effect on guests’ emotions and behaviour

Figure 2 Cycle of the smell (Eric 2013)

What make sense so unique, is all of the other senses, require

people to think before you respond, but with scent, brain

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responds directly and immediately without thinking. (Vlahos

2007) According to Dalton, smell is developed before birth, so

babies have been found to prefer fragrances that their mothers

wore late in the pregnancy. She says businesses that expose

pregnant women to their scent "are already grooming their

customers before they are born."(Barry 2014)

When people sniff something, signals from the odor receptors

in their nose will first reach their amygdala first. This will

produce an immediate and visceral reaction. Moreover, the

amygdala is part of the limbic system, which is essential for

processing emotion as well as influencing behaviour, mood and

memory. No other sense is directly wired to this emotion-

processing part of the brain; scent is unique in the way that

any response in the higher cortical areas responsible for

conscious thought comes second if it comes at all. Thus, scent

signals go right to the center of our emotions in the brain,

bypassing the center related to mental judgment and

interpretation. (Eric 2013)

Other characteristics of the sense of smell is that people are

able to recall scents with an accuracy of 65% even after one

year. Thus, sense of smell has been found to determine 75% of

our emotional states. (Eric 2013)

Other than connecting people with varied event, person or

product, scent function can be a powerful tool in creating a

mood or emotion. As shown in figure 3, smell is

psychologically linked to the brain center that vital in

controlling emotion. Thus, research literature shows that

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music and aroma have the ability to affect shoppers’ emotional

states.

Figure 3 The important role of Amygdala (Eric 2013)

Emotion invoking power of scents will be further discussed in

2.3.

Scents have the ability to trigger over 300 distinct human

emotions such as joy, surprise, love, shame, anger and more.

(Johnston, Clark and Shulver 2012) For example, the European

participants (French and Swiss nationalities) from the

research are happier, pleasant surprised as well as clean and

energetic when they smell the citrus, aromatic fine fragrance.

(Porcherot et al. 2014) In addition, participants felt

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disgusted, irritated when smelling oriental vanilla fragrance.

(Porcherot et al. 2014)

On the other hand, Asian participants (Chinese nationalities)

appears to behave in a rather unique way in terms of odor-

related affective feelings. (Ferdenzi et al. 2014) Affective

feelings is any emotional feelings that can be categorized as

an emotion (e.g. happiness), an attitude, personality or mood.

(Ferdenzi et al. 2014)

Mood states are present in virtually every shopping counter

and could have significant effects on shopper behaviour.

(Morrison et al. 2010) Consumer’s emotion or mood is

considered as situational variable has affects his or her

propensity to purchase, implying that the effect of store

atmosphere on consumer behaviour is mediated by the consumer’s

emotional state. (Morrison et al. 2010) In addition, guest

emotion is closely related to guest experiences. In this

regard, smell may trigger different memory towards different

guests.

Since scents have the ability to trigger consumer emotion,

while consumer behaviour is mediated by consumer’s emotion

state which in turn influence by scents as well.

2.4 Positive or negative impact of ambient scent in reaching

hotel success

Ambient scent has significant effect on influencing customers:

2.4.1 Customer decision making process

Scent is one of the consideration for consumers when selecting

certain products (Milotic 2003). With the presence of scent,

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84% people are more likely to purchase a product. It shows

that scent have the ability in influencing consumer purchase

behaviour. (Madzharov, Block and Morrin 2015)

People will make quicker decisions, more willing to pay more

for the property and most likely be so emotionally engaged

that they are removed from the rational part of their

behaviour. (Vlahos 2007) (Li and Kuan 2014) Pleasant ambient

odor influence consumer decision making, congruent odors lead

to a greater access to congruent attitudes, autobiographical

memories, thoughts regarding prior experience with the product

class and product class knowledge. Incongruent scents may

determine cognitive interference. (Olahut and Plaias 2014)

Presence of an associated scent has a significant positive

effect on intention (Pearsons, 2009). (Olahut and Plaias 2014)

Under a warm scent environment may positively trigger consumer

power-compensatory preferences that increase their preference

for premium brands and products. (Madzharov, Block and Morrin

2015)

The results of the study reveal that music volume and the

presence of aroma have a significant effects on shoppers’

emotions and subsequently influence shopper behaviors and

satisfaction level. (Olahut and Plaias 2014)

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We can see that customers are willing to spend more time in

scented stores.

2.4.2 Store and product evaluation

Prior research reveals that pleasant odors influence feeling

states, evoke associations from memory, and affect product

judgments (Cox, 1969; Hirsch, 1990) (Olahut and Plaias 2014)

In certain conditions such as congruency between pleasant

ambient scents may positively affect product and store

evaluations as well as customer spending. (Madzharov, Block

and Morrin 2015)

With appropriate aroma, hotels can positively influence

guests’ judgements and also enhance consumer or guest liking

towards the brand.

2.4.3 Staffs’ work performance

The presence of fragrance called ‘Scents and Sensibilities’

enhance people’s creative problem-solving performance. (Eric

2013) A Financial Services Company tested the results of using

smell of cinnamon in its offices, and results staff made 40%

fewer errors when working in this environment. (Eric 2013)

Better services to customers can be achieved in hotels with a

productive team. This in turn increases brand loyalty.

2.4.4 Brand loyalty, recall and recognition

Scent’s effect even increase the loyalty of customers in

service industry. (Shoemaker and Bowen 2003) Companies also

intrigued by the potential of using smell to unleash memories

— positive, deeply held ones that could then be associated

with the products offered — and also to strengthen brand

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memory. (Vlahos 2007) Scent has demonstrated positive effects

if pleasant scents on attention and memory for brands and

products as well as on information processing. (Madzharov,

Block and Morrin 2015) In addition, emotional power of smell-

triggered memory has an intensity unequalled by sight- and

sound-triggered ones. (Vlahos 2007) Research shows that

presence of scent increase participants’ attention to the

brand stimuli, improved brand recall and brand recognition.

(Morrin and Ratneshwar 2003)

The results indicated that a pleasant scent with the product

category increased subjects’ attention to brand stimuli,

ambient scent improved consumer memory for familiar and

unfamiliar brands as assessed by recall and recognition

measures. The impact of congruent and incongruent ambient

scent was the same on brand recall and brand recognition

(Morrin and Ratneshwar, 2003) (Olahut and Plaias 2014)

However, research shows that brand memory is affected only by

the presence of ambient scent at the brand encoding stage and

substantially increased attention. Brand recall or brand

recognition was not affected by ambient scent at the brand

retrieval stage (Morrin and Ratneshwar, 2003). (Olahut and

Plaias 2014)

Through establishing an emotional tie associated with brand

memory between a company’s brand and its customers by the

power of scent, brand loyalty is also increased. (Eric 2013)

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2.4.5 Retail revenue

W Hotels, L’Hôtel Le Bristol and Hôtel Costes in Paris, and

The Langham Hotels all peddle forms of their fragrances.

(Forbes Travel Guide 2015) Hotels also sell their custom

scents as bottled fragrances and candles, so that guests can

bring the olfactory experience back home with them. (Kristen

2014)

Not only extension of hotels’ product lines, but brand loyalty

is also increased by allowing patrons to develop an emotional

connection to the hotel’s scent. (Kristen 2014)

The above results reveal that effects of scents on human

behaviour are undeniable. There is a greater chance their

target customers will have a better feeling if hotels are able

to create a distinctive aroma. Competition over luxury hotels

market is keen. From the above research result, their hotel

Management should learn that aroma plays an important role for

the achievement of a successful goal.

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Figure4. The important role of scents to reaching hotels’ goal

As hotel is a business of creating memories and desire,

therefore the bond between customers and hotel is vital. (Burr

2014) Scents linked up to human emotional feelings and

memories which is vital in service industry in terms of

enhancing customers’ willingness to return and their loyalty

towards brand. The above figure shows how scent directly

influences customers, by informing customers’ autobiographical

memory that links to a particular place.

Brand recognition can be further enhanced if people could

easily recall the brand since they smell the fragrance.

Customers can easily distinguish them between other

competitors, results in hotel success. (Ajudua 2011)

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Figure5. The important role of scent and customer service in

reaching hotels’ success

Through the scents delivery system, scents are positively

affecting staffs attitude as well as productivity. Productive

employees tend to provide better services to guests which in

turn bring back return customers. (Mest 2014) Staffs made less

errors, which by chance reduce the opportunities in dissatisfy

customers. (Eric 2013) Customers then feel more satisfied with

the services, further enjoy their stay and increase their

loyalty towards the brand which in turn results in hotel

success.

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Figure6. The important role of scent in generating extra

revenue for hotels

Thus, scents have also developed into a niche business, and

revenue generator by selling candles and hotel signature

fragrances within the hospitality industry. (Morrin and

Ratneshwar 2003; Ajudua 2011; Aron 2014) Sometimes customers

not only like the smell, they even ask to buy the fragrance.

Hotels sell their custom scents as bottled fragrances and

candles, so that guests can bring the olfactory experience

back home with them. Furthermore, brand loyalty is also

increased by allowing patrons to develop an emotional

connection to the hotel’s scent. (Kristen 2014) Once again,

customers being hotel’s ‘Word of Mouth’, can bring in brand

awareness as well as revenue and customers.

However, scents may bring negative impacts such as allergic

problems. There are no harmless level for fragrance. No one

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can ensure that the tipping point of fragrance would not

trigger an allergic response. (Klara and Robert 2012) Research

shows that one out of ten adult suffer from asthmatic, while

four out of ten suffer allergies, particular scent may even

trigger throat closure, burning eye and headaches. (Barry

2014)

Thus, the growing use of scent in service industry may

resulted in over-saturated scent marketing. The size of scent

industry is growing steadily, grossed $200 million and

accounts for 10% growth annually in 2013. (Barry 2014)

Nothing is perfect. Scents do positively affect customer

behaviour and decision making process. However, weaknesses of

scents are undeniable. To minimize the threats triggered by

scent, hotels should carry out more research and consulted a

perfumer before creating signature scents to entice their

guest. Moreover, signature blends are intended to be one-of-a-

kind, many luxury hotels’ fragrances share common

notes. (Forbes Travel Guide 2014) In addition, customers may

find no difference between different luxury hotels as they are

sharing the same scents. For instance, Westin Hotels and

Shangri-La Hotels use the same white tea fragrance as their

signature scent.

The above study reveals that aroma have both positive and

negative effects on human emotion and behaviour. Effect of

aroma highly varies on people from different demographic

background. Such variation will be further discussed in

section 2.5.

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2.5 The importance of aroma in retaining customers

Scents are an important part of marketing strategies in many

areas nowadays (Hulten et al. 2009) (Li and Kuen 2014)

Customer relationship management (CRM) mainly focuses on

customer retention is that the identification and enhancement

of customer relationships is facilitated by technology. The

limitation of other approach in terms of auditory and visual

marketing strategies, brand have been the only real

differentiator in many sectors. (Dixon, Stone and Zednickova

2014)

As pointed out in section 2.4, aroma has positive effects on

increasing brand loyalty. This in turn implies that aroma

plays an important role in retaining customers.

Many companies engaging customers through scent branding, in

order to build a stronger emotional connections with customer

and drive preference for their brand. Since scent marketing

works well because marketers are always trying to connect

emotionally with customers and when people sense smell,

information go directly to their very primitive brain centers

of emotion and memory. (Barry 2014) More and more companies

are employing stimuli such as scent, sound, and texture to

build stronger emotional connections with the customer and

drive preference for their brands. (Dixon, Stone and

Zednickova 2014)

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2.6 Effect of aroma on customer experience varied by

demographic

Scents can represent a wide variety of different emotional

states for various people based on individual experiences and

cultural norms. Furthermore, different demographics such as

age, gender, nationality, educational level all vary by the

effect of aroma. According to the sense of smell institute,

humans possess the ability to detect approximately 10,000

different scents overall. (Eric 2013)

Liu (2001) also found that, in males, lavender scent could

reduce pressure and cause relaxation but could also lead to a

state of increased physical arousal, while in females lavender

fragrance led to a greater state of relaxation and less

physical arousal. (Li and Kuan 2014) Thus, scents were

alternated between rose maroc appeals men while vanilla

appeals to women. (Eric 2013) It proves that different gender

responds differently by the effect of aroma.

Cultural differences can be seen in scent preferences, for

example, Vanilla fragrance is the top charts for Americans

whereas Sandalwood is a great hit in India (Olahut and Plaias

2014) For generations, people born before 1930 love natural

smells like grass and horses. On the other hand, people born

later are fond of smell like Sweetarts. (Vlahos 2007)

Moreover, research shows that young people have a sense of

smell 200% greater than people in their 40s, their visual and

auditory senses are overwhelmed. Therefore, young people tends

to prefer a stronger blast of scent. (Andrew, Peggy and Eric

2012)

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China and Singapore, two Asian countries, both interpret

differently with given odors. China appears to behave, in

terms of odor-related affective feelings, in a rather unique

way compared to all other countries, including Singapore,

especially for Happiness/Well-being, Senauality/Desire and

Soothing/Peacefulness.

Responses to visual and olfactory routes vary across

demographic characteristics. In Mainland China, males prefer

rose scent by smell and lavender by sight whereas females

prefer rose by both senses. On the other hand, in Taiwan,

males prefer jasmine by smell and lavender by sight whereas

females prefer jasmine by both senses. In both regions, 20-30

year olds preferred jasmine, but in Mainland China,

participants >30 years preferred rose, while in Taiwan those

31-50 years preferred lavender and those 31-50 jasmine. (Li

and Kuan 2014)

The different responses from participant shows that it is

likely to be due to differences in emotional functioning

between Eastern versus Western countries such as interpersonal

styles, individualistic in Western cultures, collectivist in

Eastern cultures, stronger self-regulation of negative

emotions in Eastern cultures. (Ferdenzi et al. 2013)

In addition, respondents from Mainland China considered brand

as a very important reason when purchasing. It shows that they

believe brand and consider safety and quality as the major

reason for purchasing a service or product. (Li and Kuan 2014)

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Therefore, in order to create signature scent to represent and

integrate company’s overall image, we have to first understand

the demographic background of target consumers. Research

indicates that people’s olfactory system can discriminate

among and between at least one trillion different smells. As

different nationality has different preferences and liking

over fragrance, influencing consumer behaviours towards a

product or in a point of sale by stimulating the sense is

relatively difficult and challenging. The above research

suggests that in order to recall positive experience from

consumers by means of fragrance, hotels have to consider the

choice of fragrances on their target customers. The effect of

aroma will be further discussed in section 5.

2.7 Summary

This chapter reveals existing and related theoretical studies

for the topic of the research. Detailed studies have shown how

aroma influences consumer emotion and behaviour, particularly

the importance of aroma in luxury hotel markets. Moreover,

demographic background is another factor to consider when we

study the effect of aroma. To gain more useful information,

further evaluation and discussion will be conducted to support

these theoretical studies. The next chapter will explain about

research methodology used.

31

Chapter III: Research Methodology3.1 Introduction

This chapter will further explain research methodology chosen.

With the use of below research onion, researchers are able to

clearly explain in ascending order: Philosophy, Approaches,

Strategies, Choices, Time horizons, Techniques and Procedures.

The research is designed in the following ways: Philosophies:

Pragmatism; Approaches: Inductive as the outer layers of the

research process. The central layers consist: Strategies:

Survey; Choices: Mixed method, while at the centre of the

onion are techniques of data collection and data analysis

which will be discussed in Chapter 4. The strengths and

weaknesses of the methodology used are further explained with

this Chapter.

32

Figure6. The research Onion (Saunders and Lewis 2012)

3.2 Research philosophy

Research philosophy is located at the outer layer of the

research onion, and closely related to the nature and the

development of knowledge in relation to research. (Saunders

and Lewis 2012)

33

Table 2 Definition of the major research philosophy(Saunders and Lewis 2012)

Regard to this research study, the most important determinants

of the research philosophy are the research questions and

objectives that have been discusses earlier. It focused on the

impact of varied perception and human behaviour under scent

environment. (Saunders and Lewis 2012)

The reason of choosing Pragmatism as the strand of research

philosophy is because the ability of getting current and up to

date data and information through quantitative questionnaires,

as well as getting specific and precise target audience

responses despite to the need of finding out the effects of

aroma in human behaviour and attitude under varied

demographics background to get the answer of research question

and objectives. The pragmatist have argued that it is quite

possible to work with methods that indicate mixing methods,

both quantitative and qualitative. (Saunders and Lewis 2012)

34

3.3 Research approach

There are two types of research approach: Deductive and

Inductive, which is to attain the findings and conclusions in

relation to the applied theories. (Saunders and Lewis 2012)

Table 3 Types of research approach (Saunders and Lewis 2012)

35

Without theoretical ideas from past literatures, inductive is

the most suitable approach for this research. Under specific

observation to repeated patterns and occurrences of phenomena,

researchers are able to formulate some hypotheses which can be

texted and investigated to answer the topic on hand. The

reason for choosing inductive method is because a repeated

pattern has been observed revealing that luxury hotel chain

adopt signature aroma. As the general theory does not exist,

this study will formulate some speculative hypotheses that can

be investigated through data collection and existing

literature.

3.4 Research strategy: Survey

The researcher has agreed to terms through a research ethics checklist before distributing the questionnaires. (Details please refer to appendix 3)

36

Table 4 Types of strategies (Saunders and Lewis 2012)

37

3.4.1 Questionnaire Design

The Geneva Emotion and Odor Scale (GEOS) is a measurement,

developed to measure the subjective experience of respondents.

Table 5 The dimension of Geneva Emotion and Odor Scale (GEOS)

Criteria Topic to

investigate

Relevant Questions

Likability Loyalty Please read the following

statements and indicate your view.

I am loyal to one luxury hotel

brand.

I tend to select from a wide

range of brands, and will stay

in the same brand of hotel

when visiting countries.

38

Preference Why do you choose to visit a luxury

hotels? 

You can select more than one.

Best quality

Well-known Brand

Good food

Guaranteed excellent customer

service

Hotel Fragrance

Good location

Positive feedback from friends

or Travel site like Trip Advisor

Which luxury hotel brand(s) is(are)

your favourite? 

You can select more than one.

Shangri-La Group

Langham Hotels

Starwood Group e.g. Sheraton

Hotels and Resorts

InterContinental Hotels Group

Westin Hotel

Memorabili

ty

Brand recall and

brand

recognition

Please indicate the name of the

below brands corresponding to the

logo shown below.

39

Demographi

c

Age

Gender

Education Level

What is your gender?

Male

Female

Which age group does you belongs

to?

18-25 years old

26-35 years old

36-45 years old

46-55 years old

56 years old or above

Please indicate your nationality:

British

Chinese

Filipino

French

German

Indian

Japanese

Korean

Singaporean

Taiwanese

Thai

Other ( Please Specify :

)

40

Table 6 Design of questionnaires

3.5 Data collection methods

This research study was conducted in mixed method. Primary

data collection was completed through applying questionnaires

and face-to-face interviews.

Questionnaires are all about various methods of data

collection, respondents are asked to answer the same set of

questions in the same order. (Saunders and Lewis 2012)

Questionnaires for this research study will be collected

thorough web and face-to-face. Researcher has chosen

questionnaires to collect data despite the effectiveness of

collecting feedbacks and opinions from large numbers of

responses about the same ideas and analysed statistically.

(Saunders and Lewis 2012)

Thus, face-to-face structure interview are defined as a method

of data collection using a questionnaire in which each person

is asked the same set of questions in the same order by an

interviewer who records the responses. (Saunders and Lewis

2012)

Structured interview ensure respondents fully understand the

questions, the result are able to make up a statement or

hypothesis. (University of Portsmouth, 2010)

The questionnaire was distributed and completed by respondents

through an online programme called KWIK surveys. Respondents

were invited through social media platform like Facebook which

was one of the biggest social media in the social networking

ear. For instance, researcher has approximately 500 friends in

41

total. The researcher account served as a quick and fast

response platform from the chosen respondents.

On the other hand, face-to-face structured interview was

completed in the Coventry University London campus. On 11th

May 2015, ten international students had been interviewed with

standardized questionnaires (Please refer to appendix 2). In

addition, the study will be carried out in London and Hong

Kong. Through the adoption of non-probability sampling method

like quota sampling and purposive sampling to assure the

sample selected had been the right characteristics as the

survey designed. This technique fit well to the research topic

because it focused on guests from different nationality and

also stayed in the selected luxury hotels before. According

to the margin of error table, the questionnaire was sent to

250 Hong Kong people who had stayed or visited luxury hotel.

The target sample would be 150 as a whole. After receiving 150

completed questionnaires, researcher stopped sending

questionnaire and started analysing data.

3.6 Strengths of the methodology

These methodologies enable researcher to collect first-hand

and reliable information from the collected data. Survey

allows researcher to get larger sample size. It is an

effective and efficient method as it saves time and money.

From preparing questionnaires, selecting sample group, sending

and collecting data for further analysis, and the whole

research is proceeded systematically.

42

Through questionnaires, researcher can realize consumers’

perception and feeling toward luxury hotel aroma and also

understand scent effects on consumers’ behaviour. In the

absence of interviewer, such methodology enables researcher to

collect updated data and information as well as collecting

trustworthy feedback from respondents.

During structured interview, apart from collecting first-hand

information, researcher is able to ask respondents’ perception

towards specific fragrance. Eventually, by clarifying queries

during interview process, respondents are able to fully

understand and answer the questions properly.

3.7 Weaknesses of the methodology

From the weakness point of view, because of low respond rate,

data collection and analysis process are time consuming.

Questions may be misunderstood by respondents due to ambiguous

questions. Moreover, sometimes it is inadequate to understand

information like changes of emotion, behaviour and feelings,

thus, lack of validity and reliability in terms of the skills

of researcher in data analysis.

Moreover, the research may implicate researcher biases. The

research is making their own decisions and assumptions as to

what is and is not important meaning that they may be missing

something that is of importance. The non-flexibility of

structured interview, disable researcher to ask new questions,

as the interview schedule have to be followed.

43

3.8 Summary

This chapter focuses on explaining the chosen research

methodology and reviewing its strengths and weaknesses by

considering the research aims and objectives. The next chapter

will further discuss and analyse collected data and findings

so as to prove the hypothesis made from the above sections.

44

Chapter IV: Research Findings4.1 Introduction

In this chapter, data analysis applied in quantitative

research methodology will be adopted. Finally, this chapter

will explain and analyse research findings comprehensively

from chosen sample data collected by the researcher.

4.2 Findings

4.2.1 Respondents’ Profile

As the research study expects to focus on consumers from

varied demographic backgrounds, the survey was successfully

responded by 80 male and 80 female, covering 80% Chinese

consumers, 5% Thai consumers, 2% Korean consumers and 13% from

other countries. Generally, 46% of the respondents aged 18 –

25 years old whereas respondents aged over 56 years old is the

least.

As seen from below pie chart, most of the respondents are

Asian of which 80% are Chinese. Hence, Chinese respondents

dominate in terms of the percentage of each age range

comparted with those from other nations.

45

According to the above figure, respondents are broken down

based on their age, gender, and nationality:

Chart 1. Age – All respondents

Chart 2. Nationality – All respondents

4.2.2 Respondents perception on specific fragrance

In the structured interview, respondents are given three

different type of fragrance sample, and rated them under the

GEOS system.

46

Table 7 Ratings for three types of fragrance

Respondents have been asked about their perception towards

specific fragrance personally, in average 9 out of 10

respondents found that White Tea Fragrance made them feel

‘Happiness ; Well-being ; Pleasantly surprised’ and ‘Relaxed ;

Serene ; Reassured’.

Respondents (8 out of 10) mostly found that Ginger Flower

Fragrance, ‘Disgusted; Irritated; Unpleasantly surprised’, it

might be because the fragrance is quite strong that young

people do not prefer this type of fragrance.

47

Respondents (8 out of 10) mostly found Cinnamon and Apple

fragrance made them feel ‘Happiness; Well-being; Pleasantly

surprised’ and ‘Energetic; Invigorated; Clean’.

Majority of the respondents (39%) have intention to buy these

fragrances especially those aged over 35. This point will be

further discussed in section 4.3.1.

Table 8 View towards Luxury hotels’ fragrance products

4.2.3 Respondents’ view of luxury hotels

Most respondents prefer to stay in luxury hotels because of

their best quality as well as guaranteed excellent customer

services.

About 57% respondents agree that staff members in luxury

hotels are more friendly and helpful.

Questions in relation to buying luxury hotels’ fragrance

products help researcher to know more about their intention to

return under the effect of aroma.

Please read the following statements and indicate your view.

48

Strongl

y Agree

Agree Neutral Disagre

e

Strongl

y

disagre

e

Response

Total

Staffs in

luxury hotels

tends to be

more friendly

and helpful

13.64% 57.58% 20.45% 7.58% 0.76% 150

I like luxury

hotel because

of their

service

quality and

standardized

exterior

layout.

15.79% 63.91% 18.05% 5.26% 0% 150

I tend to

select from a

wide range of

brands, and

will stay in

the same brand

of hotel when

visiting

countries.

8.27% 51.88% 19.55% 18.8% 1.5% 150

I feel 18.94% 53.03% 23.48% 4.55% 0% 150

49

satisfied

staying in

these hotels.I stay in

these luxury

hotels because

of the

positive

feedback from

other people.

16.54% 60.9% 19.55% 3.01% 0% 150

Table 9 Respondents perception towards luxury hotels

Table 10 Reasons of choosing luxury hotels

The ranking form above result suggests that quality s the key

brand attribute that can induce people to choose staying in

luxury hotels, followed by the second key brand attribute and

excellent customer services. The research also discovers

fragrance is not a key factor influencing customers to choose

luxury hotel brands.

50

4.2.4 Respondents’ Behavior under the effect of aroma

50% respondents believe that they would spend more time and

money under a scented environment and whereas intention for

premium brands is higher as well for 42% respondents. As much

as 62% respondents believe that hotels layout are gorgeous.

63% respondents like the service quality and standardized

exterior layout of luxury hotels.

About 58% respondents like to work under scented environment

who believe that the smell makes them more productive. 47%

respondents are certain to distinguish brand by their

signature fragrance.

Due to the excellent quality provided by these luxury hotels,

53% respondents point out that they always feel satisfied

after staying in these luxury hotels.

Please read the following statements and indicate your view.Strongl

y Agree

Agree Neutral Disagre

e

Strongl

y

disagre

e

Response

Total

Design of the

luxury hotels

are always

gorgeous.

14.29% 62.41% 18.05% 3.01% 0% 150

I like luxury

hotel because

of their

service

15.79% 63.91% 18.05% 5.26% 0% 150

51

quality and

standardized

exterior

layout.When I am

shopping in a

scented

environment, I

will spend

more time.

10.69% 50.38% 29.01% 9.16% 0.76% 150

When I am

shopping in a

scented

environment, I

will buy

premium brand

or spend more

than average.

9.02% 42.86% 30.83% 16.54% 0.75% 150

The signature

fragrance of

luxury hotels

enables me to

distinguish

these luxury

hotels from

their

competition.

11.28% 47.37% 23.31% 16.54% 1.5% 150

I like to work 13.64% 58.33% 20.45% 6.82% 0.76% 150

52

in a scented

environment

because makes

me feel good

and enhance my

productivity.

Table 11 View of the importance of aroma in affecting behavior

4.2.5 Respondents’ Memorability

The respondents were asked to list out their favourite luxury

hotels brands in the questionnaire. As seen from below table,

most respondents (over 70) recognized Shangri-La Hotels

implying this hotel recalled a high memorable level from their

loyal consumers. Furthermore, about 42% of the respondents

agree that they are loyal to one luxury brand.

Table 12 Ranking of favourite luxury hotels

Shangri-La Hotels, Langham Hotels and Sheraton Hotels are

indeed having fierce completion over luxury hotel market.

However, after asking respondents to pick and match brand name

based on their logos, Langham Hotels was always the first one

recognized by most respondents, 146 out of 150 respondents in

total. 47% of the respondents believe that they are able to

53

distinguish different brands through their signature

fragrance.

Indicate the name of the brands with the corresponding to the

logo shown below:

Langham Hotels (146

respondents)

Sheraton Hotels

(142 respondents)

Shangri-La Hotels

(141 respondents)

Table 12 Test luxury brand recognition of respondents

Although Langham Hotel has high brand recognition as shown in

the research, however, most of the respondents did not choose

Langham Hotel as their favourite brand. Only 23.74%

respondents agreed that Langham Hotel is their favourite brand

whereas Shangri-La Hotel got the lowest recognition rate than

the other brands, however, 51.08% of respondents selected that

Shangri-La Hotel as their favourite brand.

Though Langham Hotel has high brand recognition that can

recall guests’ memorability instantly, respondents’

likeability is found to be relatively low. It might be because

of their signature fragrances are different. Likeability

towards White Tea Fragrance from Shangri-La Hotel is higher

than Ginger Flower fragrance from Langham Hotel. Lastly,

guests have intention to return when they smell the fragrance.

Moreover, guests’ perception towards luxury hotel is slightly

affected by the smell as well.

54

4.3 Comparison based on demographic background

4.3.1Comparison of effect of aroma between young generation

and old generation

Young Generation Old Generation18-35 years old 36-56 years old or aboveTable 14 Age range for young and older generation

This section will discuss variation of effects in different

age groups. In terms of their perspective towards work

performance under scented environment, the general opinion

from respondents believe that they perform better under a

scented environment.

Hence, both generation are loyal to particular luxury brands.

However, they have different point of view for brand

differentiation by signature fragrance. Young generation

either agrees or strongly agrees about identifying luxury

brand through their fragrance whereas old generation is just

the other way round. It reveals that young people have a

stronger sense.

Although the first reason of visiting luxury hotels is still

assured quality, old generation believes that luxury hotels’

staffs are significantly friendlier and helpful. Therefore the

excellent customer service is in the second place. In

contrast, majority of young generation believes positive

feedback from friends or Travel site are the second most

important reason.

The majority of older generation tends to buy fragrance

products. It might be because of their higher expendable

55

income and they are able to afford higher prices. Thus, they

used to put on fragrance in their daily life, shows their

concern on express their image through aroma.

Regarding memorability, older generation recognizes hotels in

the sequence Langham Hotel, Sheraton Hotel and Shangri-La

Hotel whereas that of young generation is Sheraton Hotel,

Langham Hotel and Shangri-La Hotel.

Most candidates from both generations are able to recognize

and identify Langham’s Logo implying that Langham Hotel is

more easily to be recalled despite the strong brand image in

customers mind. Nevertheless, Lanham Hotels is highly

competing with Sheraton Hotels, especially in gaining consumer

attention. Furthermore, in terms of their signature fragrance,

as part of the brand image, old generation agrees that they

like luxury hotels because of its fragrance. Younger

generation is uncertain to state that the smell from luxury

hotel is a key factor inducing their buying intention.

56

Table 15 Comparison in between young and old generation of

respondents’ likability towards luxury hotels

57

Table 16 Comparison in between young and old generation of

respondents’ view of luxury hotels

4.3.2 Comparison of effect of aroma on male and female

Looking at gender, both male and female agree that they are

loyal to typical luxury hotel brand and prefer to stay in the

same brand of hotel when visiting different countries rather

than choosing from a wide range of luxury brands.

The majority of male respondents, on the other hand, are

doubtful that their preference of premium brand is higher when

they smell fragrance. Female seems to be influenced to buy

premium brands. But both agree that upon smelling fragrance,

58

they spend more time under scented environment. This indicates

that they stay longer than usual inside such environment.

They also agree that luxury brand initially means best quality

and excellent customer service as seen in the table below.

Compared with male customers, the above fact reveals that

buying intention seems to be easily triggered on female.

Table 17 Comparison between young and old generations’ view on

the role of aroma in influencing behavior

4.4 Summary

This chapter indicates in-depth information about the

respondents’ perception on the effect and influence of aroma

in daily life and luxury hotels. It texts the hypothesis

suggested by other literatures showing the critical analysis59

between young and old generation, male and female respondents.

In order to understand the perspective of respondents with

different demographic backgrounds. And for the next chapter,

conclusion and recommendation are made based on the above

findings so that luxury hotel can be more successful in

retaining target customers.

Chapter V: Conclusion and Recommendations

5.1 Introduction

This final chapter focus on critical analysis the research

finding collected and will ended by giving a conclusion and

recommendations. Recommendations will be drawn for luxury

hotels to use aroma effectively in retaining customers and in

influencing customer behaviour to achieve greater success.

5.2 RecommendationsThis section suggests some strategies based on the above

findings in order to help luxury hotels effectively use aroma

and develop effective scent marketing and scent branding

strategies which in turn enhancing hotel room occupancy rate

as well as increasing the number of loyal customers.

The following recommendations will link to the research

question.

1. Place energetic fragrance in back office departments

Research finding reveals that fragrance has the effect of

increasing staffs’ productivity and efficiency. With this in

mind, luxury hotels spending for only US$100 per month, are

able to motivate and improve staffs’ work performance by 40%.

60

(John 2012 ; Eric 2013) By doing that, there will be less

error from back of house staff members. Customers will then be

satisfied with the services perceived and eventually turn out

to be loyal customers.

2. The choice of signature fragrance should be widely accepted

The way people perceive fragrance varies because of their

demographic background. Research figures point out that

respondents have some similarities on their preferable scents.

For example, both male and female recognize white tea

fragrance that made them feel happy and relaxing. About 94%

respondents recognize the brand. Furthermore, people were able

to recall scents with an accuracy of 65% even after one year.

Therefore, choosing a clean and light fragrance is very

important. When designing the scent, Shangri-La hotels try to

make it reflect its DNA. Shangri-La’s scent is subtly Asian

featuring a delicate note of oriental sandalwood, in order to

express its Asian hospitality tradition and highlighting a

warm service exceeding guests’ expectation. (Ruby 2015) That

makes a prefect match to the mission of Shangri-La Hotels and

Resorts which is ‘To delight our guests every time by creating

engaging experiences straight from our heart’(Shangri-La

Hotels and Resorts 2015). Therefore, white tea fragrance is a

perfect match to their brand, as it has the effect to make

guests feeling warm and satisfied with the service provided.

All in all, it is important that signature fragrance fits

brand images meaning that different scents have different

effects on customer experiences.

61

3. Scent Marketing or Scent Branding as an add-on factor

The research findings suggest that people perceive a luxury

brand primarily based on quality and customer services.

Although scent slightly affects guests’ perception to service

perceived and improve service quality, however, internal staff

training and weekly check-up are yet the best way to improve

quality. Therefore, hotels should not over-rely on scents.

Research also shows that high recognition does not mean to be

the favourite hotels for respondents. Quality has to be kept

up with brand recognition so as to retain customers and

enhancing brand loyalty.

5.3 Conclusion

In conclusion, this research study focuses on the role of

scent and its effects especially in luxury hotels market. The

role of scent is important and the effects of scent are

undeniable, as scent positively affect the behaviour and

emotion of consumers as well as their perception towards brand

and hotel layout. (Eric 2013; Olahut and Plaias 2014)

Moreover, the research study further evaluate demographic

background as a variable factor towards the effect of aroma.

This research also uses the signature fragrance on luxury

hotel group like Langham Hotels, Sheraton Hotels and Shangri-

La Hotels and Resorts.

Although quality and customer services are still the key

factors of consumers in selecting their favourite hotels,

scent still plays an important role in influencing consumers.

Scent has been found to have effect on influencing consumers

62

perception of their service perceived, as scent have the

ability to trigger human being’s emotion, and in turn

influence their behaviour. (Johnston, Clark and Shulver 2012)

Followed up by enhancing staffs’ work performance and bringing

better service to satisfy every single customer.

The research finding points out that scent has played an

important role in retaining customers as well. Since brand

loyalty as well as brand memory is enhanced with the presence

of scent. With a pleasant scent, memory bond between hotel

brands can be easily triggered enhancing brand recall and

retain loyal customers.

In addition, guests in different age group, gender and

nationally all have different preferences in aroma. Therefore,

demography is another variable factor to be considered when

studying the effects of scent.

As scents have influential effects on service quality and

guest perception, which are the key elements for guest to

stay. Therefore, the role of scent is as important as service

quality and customer service, and will be more important in

the future.

5.4 Summary

This final chapter clearly covers overall research study and

finishes by making recommendations and conclusion to answer

the research questions and objective established listed out at

the very beginning.

63

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Appendix

Appendix 1. Questionnaire design

Introduction

I am Or Pui Yu, an undergraduate student at Coventry

University London Campus with a specialization in Hospitality

and Tourism management. As part of the requirement to complete

my degree course, I am conducting a study on the effect of

aroma in guest's behaviour and decision making process, and

whether the effect vary by demographic. You have been selected

to take part of this study on the basis of the fact that you

are age of 18 years or above. The questionnaire is brief and

69

consists not more than 18 questions that should take you a few

minutes to answer. By completing this questionnaire, you

provide information that will help determining the extent of

aroma influencing guest decision making process and more. The

information provided will be treated in confidential and will

solely be used for the purpose of this research. I will be

more than willing to avail the findings of my research upon

request. 

Questions

1. What is your gender?

Male

Female

2. Which age group does you belongs to?

18-25 years old

26-35 years old

36-45 years old

46-55 years old

56 years old or above

3. Please indicate your nationality:

American

British

Chinese

Filipino

French

German

Indian

Japanese

Korean

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Singaporean

Spanish

Taiwanese

Thai

Other ( Please Specify : )

4. Why do you choose to visit a luxury hotels? 

You can select more than one.

Best quality

Well-known Brand

Good food

Guaranteed excellent customer service

Hotel Fragrance

Good location

Positive feedback from friends or Travel site like Trip

Advisor

8. Which luxury hotel brand(s) is(are) your favourite? 

You can select more than one.

Shangri-La Group

Langham Hotels

Starwood Group e.g. Sheraton Hotels and Resorts

InterContinental Hotels Group

Westin Hotel

9. Please indicate the name of the below brands corresponding

to the logo shown below.

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Sheraton Hotels

Langham Hotels

Shangri-La Hotels

72

Please read the following statements and

indicate your view.Strongly

Agree

Agree Neutral Disagre

e

Strongly

disagreeDesign of

the luxury

hotels are

always

gorgeous.I like

luxury hotel

because of

their

service

quality and

standardized

exterior

layout.When I am

shopping in

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a scented

environment,

I will spend

more time.When I am

shopping in

a scented

environment,

I will buy

premium

brand or

spend more

than

average.The

signature

fragrance of

luxury

hotels

enables me

to

distinguish

these luxury

hotels from

their

competition.I like to

work in a

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scented

environment

because

makes me

feel good

and enhance

my

productivity

.Staffs in

luxury

hotels tends

to be more

friendly and

helpfulI like

luxury hotel

because of

their

service

quality and

standardized

exterior

layout.I tend to

select from

a wide range

of brands,

75

and will

stay in the

same brand

of hotel

when

visiting

countries.I feel

satisfied

staying in

these

hotels.I stay in

these luxury

hotels

because of

the positive

feedback

from other

people.After

visiting the

luxury

hotel, I

have

intention to

buy their

fragrance

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products

(e.g.

Candle).After

visiting the

luxury

hotel, I

have

intention to

visit the

hotel again

because of

its

fragrance.

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Appendix 2: Face-to-Face interview Please rate the White Tea Fragrance with the below criteria:  

Happiness – Well-being – Pleasantly surprised

Romantic – Desire – In love

Disgusted – Irritated – Unpleasantly surprised

Relaxed – Serene – Reassured

Nostalgic – Amusement – Mouth-watering

Energetic – Invigorated - Clean

Please rate the Ginger Flower Fragrance with the below

criteria:  

Happiness – Well-being – Pleasantly surprised

Romantic – Desire – In love

Disgusted – Irritated – Unpleasantly surprised

Relaxed – Serene – Reassured

Nostalgic – Amusement – Mouth-watering

Energetic – Invigorated - Clean

Please rate the Cinnamon and Apple Fragrance with the below

criteria:  

Happiness – Well-being – Pleasantly surprised

Romantic – Desire – In love

Disgusted – Irritated – Unpleasantly surprised

Relaxed – Serene – Reassured

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Nostalgic – Amusement – Mouth-watering

Energetic – Invigorated - Clean

79