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Hotels are increasingly using signature scents as part of their branding, but guests with asthma and chemical sensitivities say these fragrances can cause headaches and other health problems. A California law firm has filed several lawsuits against major hotel chains, raising questions about accessibility, discrimination, and the use of synthetic fragrances in shared spaces.
While many hotels use synthetic scents, recent lawsuits allege those aromas can harm guests with sensitivities. Hotels increasingly use signature scents to shape their brands, but guests with asthma or chemical sensitivities say those fragrances can trigger headaches and other problems.
A California law firm is suing some major hotel chains, alleging that their use of synthetic fragrances is unfair to people with sensitivities. And if you sniff the lobby of downtown Los Angeles’ Ritz-Carlton, you may detect “bright effervescent notes ... layered with soft florals,” a custom fragrance known as Champagne & Shimmer. For years now, hotels have been spending more and more on signature fragrances to woo and hook guests. But what if they make some people sick instead?
Would those visitors be victims of discrimination? One California law firm says yes, and has filed a barrage of lawsuits this year, targeting hotels in California and elsewhere over synthetic fragrances in common areas. Alila Marea Beach Resort in Encinitas recently became Southern California’s “only adults-only oceanfront resort,” sparking a debate about state law.
The conflict highlights an emerging debate about synthetic scents: Many hotels use them, but some sensitive guests consider those aromas as welcome as secondhand smoke. For better and for worse, smells “can trigger so many things,” said Juliana R. V. Tkatch, an assistant professor at the Harrah College of Hospitality at the University of Nevada Las Vegas, who specializes in experience design, events and theme parks.
Tkatch added that there’s nothing new about using scent as a marketing tool, at least not since the first time “the owner of a restaurant cooked a pie and put it on the top shelf. ” The difference now, Tkatch said, is more advanced technology, making it easier to widely circulate synthetic fragrances and natural scents in a way that’s discreet and constant.
Doing so can strengthen customer loyalty, she said, but “it’s a good practice to let people know up front. ” The current controversy began in May and June, when the Oakland-based law firm Cole & Van Note filed a series of class-action lawsuits representing California hotel customers with fragrance sensitivities and targeting major hotel chains.
In general, the lawsuits allege that artificial fragrances used in many hotel public rooms violate the federal Americans With Disabilities Act and California’s Unruh Civil Rights Act, because those fragrances make it dangerous or impossible for some people to share the space. Attorney Scott Cole, founder of Cole & Van Note, described a recent visit to Las Vegas.
“At least 95% of the places that I visited had some kind of fragrance or heightened VOC levels,” Cole said. “I was shocked at how widespread it was there. ”, Cole’s firm asserts that 26.8% of adults suffer from asthma or asthma-like conditions and 27.5% suffer from chemical sensitivity.
He contends that when hotels circulate synthetic fragrances through scent dispersion machines, they may be spreading toxic chemicals, potentially causing respiratory problems, headaches, skin irritation and gastrointestinal, cardiovascular and cognitive problems among vulnerable guests. One man has filed 1,800 disability lawsuits against SoCal shops. Store owners are fed up A handful of people are responsible for suing thousands of local businesses under the Americans With Disabilities Act. Proponents argue the lawsuits help protect the rights of the disabled.
Store owners say they are being squeezed for cash over what they claim are minor violations. As his firm’s campaign has evolved, Cole said, some of the dropped federal cases are being refiled in state courts. He said he expects more filings outside California in coming months.
A spokesman for the California Hotel & Lodging Assn. said its members “work hard to create safe and accessible spaces” and that the industry “consistently reviews best practices to ensure guests are welcomed, comfortable, and safe. ” Representatives for Marriott, Hilton, Hyatt, Intercontinental Hotels Group and Loews hotel chains, all targeted in the first volley of lawsuits, did not respond to requests for comment. Nor did the American Hotel & Lodging Assn. , the industry’s leading trade group.
But the association’s website asserts that the Americans With Disabilities Act “has been used as a weapon by scheming lawyers seeking to extort easy settlements ... after alleging ambiguous violations of the law. ”Many of the companies that supply hotel fragrances belong to the Switzerland-based International Fragrance Assn. , which sets voluntary guidelines for ingredients.
But the U.S. government frequently “It’s outside of the domain and so the regulatory framework becomes much less stringent,” said Alexander M. Spokoyny, professor and chair of UCLA’s Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. From wafting tar pits and smells of the beach to native plants and a chocolate factory, our readers smelled Los Angeles and told us about it.
“It’s honestly time all these scents are banned the same way smoking has been banned pretty much everywhere,” one travelerYet another responded that “I’m very sensitive to scents and never noticed this. ” Hotel industry veterans note that if guests call in advance, many hotels are able to prepare guest rooms without artificial scents.
And some hotels with green leanings, like those in the Laguna Beach-based boutiqueMeanwhile, sales figures suggest that strategic scents, synthetic and otherwise, are helping businesses win over travelers and other consumers. By one estimate, thewith “the signature scent of your favorite hotels,” including subsidiary brands Ritz-Carlton, St. Regis, Westin, Sheraton and Courtyard.
You can even order upa scent-marketing company based in North Carolina, claims customers in 119 countries, including many hotels, and says its creation was “inspired byWaldorf Astoria Beverly Hills , for DoubleTree properties and for the Hilton Curio Collection’s Starling Atlanta Midtown . Scent is “memory, mood and emotion, distilled into something you can’t see but never forget,” Air Aroma said in a Yet among skeptics, questions and doubts remain on the safety of chemical entities, fragrances included.
“Even if something might be natural, if you aerosolize it and spread it across buildings, it’s not necessarily great,” UCLA’s Spokoyny said. “I do think it requires more thorough public scrutiny. ... You just don’t know what you don’t know.
”Born and raised in California, Christopher Reynolds has written about travel, the outdoors, arts and culture for the Los Angeles Times since 1990.
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