Breaking the cycle of odours: Why indoor air quality matters in hospitality

Relying on scent can impact indoor air quality, create suspicion around what’s being covered up, and ultimately fail to last. When fragrance fades, the underlying odour often returns, often more noticeably than before. The reality is that most traditional cleaning approaches don’t address the root cause of odour at all.

Hotels are, for many, a home from home or a carefully chosen escape. In an industry built on experience, how a space smells plays a critical role in shaping guest perception and should be treated as a necessity, not a luxury.

Hotels across the country invest heavily in creating that all-important first impression, the visual “wow” that sets the tone for a guest’s stay. But while details like chocolates on pillows or carefully curated interiors enhance the experience, they are rarely what guests remember most.

Smell is different.

It is the only human sense processed directly by the limbic system, the part of the brain linked to memory and emotion. That’s why a scent can instantly trigger a reaction, or transport someone back to a specific place or moment in time.

In hospitality, this has real implications. Guests may forget décor details, but they won’t forget how a room smelled. Odour is not just a housekeeping issue; it is a defining part of the guest experience, and often a deciding factor in whether they return.

Every hotel room tells a story. From overnight stays to extended visits, each guest leaves behind traces, many of which are invisible.

Odours are typically caused by organic matter such as proteins, food residues, uric acid and bacteria. These materials embed themselves into surfaces and soft furnishings, often at a microscopic level.

While rooms may appear clean, these odour-causing compounds are not always fully removed through conventional cleaning. Traditional chemical products are designed to remove visible soil and disinfect surfaces, but they are not always effective at breaking down organic matter at its source.

As a result, many hotels fall into a familiar cycle:

Clean → Disinfect → Fragrance → Fade → Odour Returns

To compensate, fragrance levels increase, air fresheners are added, and reactive re-cleans become routine. This adds cost and labour, while still failing to address the underlying issue.

Indoor air quality (IAQ) is becoming an increasingly important factor in hospitality, and hotels are, by definition, environments where guests spend extended time indoors.

More than half of UK consumers say air quality influences their choice of hospitality venue, yet fewer than half of operators have actively invested in improving it.

At the same time, many cleaning and fragrance products release volatile organic compounds (VOCs), which can accumulate indoors and affect how air is perceived. In some cases, indoor VOC levels can exceed those found outdoors.

For guests, particularly those with respiratory conditions such as asthma or allergies, this can impact comfort and overall experience. Poor air quality can undermine even the most visually impressive space.

In this context, relying on fragrance as a signal of cleanliness is becoming increasingly outdated. Guests are more aware, more discerning, and increasingly expect environments that feel genuinely fresh, not artificially scented.

The challenge is not cleaning frequency, it is cleaning philosophy.

Hospitality is an industry defined by constant evolution. Guest expectations around design, comfort and technology have moved on significantly over the past two decades. What was once considered acceptable, from room amenities to overall experience, is now quickly seen as outdated.

Yet behind the scenes, many cleaning systems still follow the same principles used for decades.

This creates a disconnect: modern spaces, maintained with legacy approaches.

Hotel environments are continuous. Rooms are used, occupied and turned around at speed, meaning the conditions that create odour are ongoing. Yet traditional cleaning systems are designed to deliver only a momentary result.

Breaking the cycle of odours requires a shift in approach, from masking to management.

Rather than covering odour with fragrance, the focus must move towards addressing the source. This means targeting and breaking down the organic matter responsible for smells, so that freshness is maintained between cleans, not just immediately after them.

Encouragingly, innovation within the cleaning industry is making this more achievable. Advances in biological and enzyme-based technologies are enabling deeper, more effective cleaning of organic residues, supporting longer-lasting freshness without increasing chemical intensity.

By breaking the cycle:

• Odour rebound can be reduced
• Room conditions become more consistent
• Reliance on fragrance and reactive cleaning decreases
• Housekeeping efficiency improves

For hospitality operators, this presents an opportunity to rethink how odour is managed and how indoor air quality is prioritised.

Because in modern hospitality, cleanliness isn’t just what guests see. It’s what they breathe.

If you want to know more about how to combat odours at the source, click here.