Wake Up To Bacon? Holiday Inn Express Tests A Breakfast Alarm Clock

I am not a morning person, but if you tell me I can wake to hot coffee and buttery pastry, I will at least listen. Holiday Inn Express is giving guests that fantasy with an in-room, diffuser-style Breakfast Alarm Clock, rolling out across Australia and New Zealand with select hotels in Singapore, Thailand and Japan. No beeps, no playlists, just aroma. It is part sci-fi, part bakery.

Let’s be honest, this pushes a button in all of us who wear gourmands. We have been spritzing breakfast on our skin for years. If you love coffee and pastry notes, you already know the comfort of:

• Bond No. 9 New Haarlem for that sticky-treacle coffee vibe
• Maison Margiela Replica Coffee Break for latte froth and lavender calm
• Mancera Aoud Café for roasted beans with a dark gloss
• By Kilian Black Phantom for sugar, coffee and a sly boozy wink

What the Breakfast Alarm Clock does is flip the script. Instead of perfume projecting from you, the room greets you with a soft edible haze and your brain completes the ritual. It is hospitality using fragrance like a friendly nudge rather than a billboard. Intriguing, and a little provocative. Is bacon the new sandalwood, or espresso the new white musk in hotels?

A few practical notes from a nose who travels:

• Diffuser aromas read broader than fine fragrance, so expect comfort over complexity. Think crisped bacon accord, toasted crumb, espresso crema. If they get the balance right, it will be mouthwatering, not cloying.
• Ventilation matters. A scent alarm should lift you gently, then clear. Lingering croissant at 3 pm is less cute.
• Sensitivities are real. Offer opt-in, vary intensity, and keep the profiles clean.

Personally, I am curious. Imagining a 6 am wake-up that smells like a bakery line is far kinder than a phone shriek. And if it nudges more travelers to explore gourmand perfumes after checkout, even better. If you pass through a Holiday Inn Express, ask about the Breakfast Alarm Clock trial and report back. I will be the woman sniffing the air, trying to name the pastry.