Please guests' senses with right detergent

PROCTER & GAMBLE

There's more to laundry than soiled sheets, soaps and suds. To guests at a hotel, the smell of laundry is a key component in the perception of cleanliness.

Jessica Lawshe, assistant brand manager at The Dial Corp., recommended using a scented laundry detergent to give a more inviting olfactory sensation.

"It makes the guest feel more at home, more welcome. It evokes that sense of clean," she said.

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Dial offers detergent fragrances of original (a fresh, neutral smell), lemon and lilies.

But Ed Offshack, associate director for global technology development at Procter & Gamble, recommends a neutral, not fragranced, detergent.

"It's risky to have noticeable scents on fabrics," he said. "Some people are irritated by scents and work to be in an unscented environment. With running a hotel, it becomes hard to know who's in the room the next night, and you can't afford to have 10 percent of people reject you because you've provided a scented atmosphere."

That doesn't mean hoteliers should buy unscented detergents either, because those can often be unpleasant, lacking that fresh feeling—what Offshack calls the "dead zone."

"What the nose likes is neutrality," he said. Linens are laundered to remove unappealing stains and smells. So, an unscented laundry process may not eliminate certain unappealing odors, leaving even the scent avoiders wanting some sort of scent.