TAMPA — Walk into Novel, the 390-unit apartment complex at the $1 billion Midtown Tampa development, and you’re hit with the clean, ocean-breezy scent of freshly laundered linens.

One building east at Midtown’s Marriott-branded Aloft hotel, the lobby smells like vanilla, with a slight hint of citrus that grows stronger on the elevator ride up to rooftop bar and restaurant. Up there, the aroma of oranges is unmistakable.

Over at Tampa International Airport, beneath the sea turtle sculpture hanging in the main terminal’s SkyConnect station, the air is clean and lightly citrusy, crisp with notes of jasmine.

If you’ve been traveling in a mask the last few years, there’s a chance you might have missed the scents some of Tampa’s newer developments have to offer. But the smells are there, and not by accident.

It’s called scent marketing, and it goes well beyond burning incense or an open house’s fresh-baked cookies. Pleasant fragrances are being pumped through the air at some of Tampa’s newer million- and billion-dollar projects, often at costs in the tens of thousands, as businesses look to lure and retain customers by tickling an overlooked sense.

“From the minute the guest walks in the doors, the scent relaxes you; it connects you emotionally to the hotel,” said Charles Albanos, corporate director of operations for Tampa’s Mainsail Lodging and Development, whose scented hotels include the Epicurean in Tampa and the Fenway in Dunedin. “We want to help formulate the first impression, but also a lasting impression. And I think the scent helps with that piece.”

Marriott has been scenting hotels for at least 10 years, said Albanos, who worked there for years before Mainsail. But the Midtown and Tampa International Airport programs are newer, implemented in the last year or two, reflecting the growing field of multisensory commercial development.

“It is important to hit the five senses when branding the community: taste, touch, feel, sight and scent,” said Kaci Brown, senior regional property manager for Greystar, which manages Midtown’s Novel. “The goal is to have these five senses correlate so they are all branded and telling the same story.”

At the Epicurean, that story leaned on the hotel’s ties to Bern’s Steak House, yielding “a dark, moody vibe,” Albanos said, “all about awakening appetites unknown.” The woody, leathery scent is called Smoky Suede, and the hotel sells candles with that scent in its gift shop. Same at the Fenway, where guests can take the lobby’s citrusy scent, Orange Spice, home in candle form.

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Smoky Suede and Orange Spice come from a Charlotte, N.C. company called ScentAir, founded 28 years ago by a former Disney Imagineer who’d been asked to create a citrus scent for a ride. He saw potential for similar services at other theme parks, and eventually expanded it to the entire private sector.

ScentAir, like others in the scent marketing world, doesn’t talk much about its clientele, “because oftentimes, our clients are quite protective and proud of their secret sauce,” said senior global marketing manager Evin Ellis. But the company has more than 400 employees serving thousands of clients all over the world, from hotels to college dorms to private homes to doggie day cares.

“We can scent any space you can think of, from retail to manufacturing facilities to a sports arena,” Ellis said. “We look for companies that recognize the value in their brand and are looking to be unique in what they bring to their customers, and to try to stand out from competitors.”

Companies like ScentAir diffuse smells through discreet wall-mounted or standing devices, or sometimes through a building’s air system. The process of picking a scent varies, but always includes “a deep dive into the brand’s identity to understand its core ethos,” said ScentAir fragrance curator Neohni Gilligan.

“Our process evaluates everything from a brand’s demographic, its customers’ psychographic, brand design, core values, brand promise and more,” Gilligan said. “We distill down the needs of the brand into a scent that fills those needs.”

For example, Gilligan said, a spa might look for a scent that elicits feelings of calmness and revitalization from the first sniff, but would also linger in the memory. The scent’s lighter top notes would need to be pleasing from the first sniff, but its richer middle and bottom notes would linger longer and resonate more deeply to “give a long-lasting impression.”

In some cases, a lobby scent can create problems by wafting to a lobby bar or restaurant, or commingling with cleaning products to create a less-than-ideal mix.

“It’s similar to a chef making a new recipe, where a chef would decide how much garlic to put in so that it’s not overpowering,” she said. “If you add too much of one ingredient, you can overpower and go a different direction.”

Tampa International Airport turned to ScentAir at the suggestion of CEO Joe Lopano, spokesperson Emily Nipps said. Lopano had been in a hotel that used scented air, and in 2019 asked his staff to look into bringing a similar program to the airport.

“The intent is to offer a welcoming and warm environment while reducing stress and anxiety and enhance the experience at the airport,” Nipps said.

With input from 30 staffers in various departments, the airport narrowed a list of potential scents down to five, then three, before testing it with the public. Travelers, the airport learned, didn’t care for overly floral or beachy scents.

After a pause during the pandemic, the airport launched a one-year pilot program last November with a scent called Bamboo Tea, a subtle herbal blend that Nipps said “combines notes of green bergamot, jasmine, neroli with musk and tree moss.” ScentAir installed seven scenting units covering more than 57,000 square feet at a cost of at least $41,348.

The airport will review the program through the fall, but so far, “we’ve received only a few comments” from travelers, Nipps said.

As companies better understand how to utilize scent marketing, it may pop up in new settings, different rooms of the same building or even outdoor spaces, Albanos said. And customers may start to notice it more than they do today.

“The important piece is to try to continue to figure out what it does to people’s minds,” he said. “It’s going to help them create this experience and remember that they need to go back to that place, and that’s what we want. Our intent is to get people to return.”

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