The importance of cognitive, sensory and affective attributes in hotel online reviews

This paper reports on an experimental study to measure the impact of positive and negative descriptions of cognitive, sensory and affective attributes of online hotel reviews. Eight scenarios were created by studying more than 80 hotel reviews on Tripadvisor, Agoda and Booking.com. Overall, the description of positive sensory and cognitive and, to a much lesser extent affective, attributes in a hotel review increases the attitude towards the hotel, the intention to book the hotel and the intention to recommend the hotel to a friend. Our findings highlight the significance of positive sensory attributes which are given less prominence in the literature than cognitive attributes describing the basic objective and tangible qualities of a hotel. This suggests that the hotel management should pay close attention to how sensory attributes can enhance customer experience.status: publishe