Re-examining sensory experience on highland nature-based resort rooms

Tourists are more likely to seek hotel and resort reviews before making a reservation. However, the advertised products are sometimes not in accordance with their actual staying experience. Experience is conceptualized as a combination of senses, influence, and cognition. This research aims to find out the sensory experience by the Resort’s guests based on the online reviews as the secondary data. The reviews were gathered from online travel agents, namely Traveloka, Agoda, and TripAdvisor. com. The collected data were analyzed sentence by sentence to discover the sensory experience that has been felt by the guests while staying in the resorts. It can be concluded that the sight experience was related to the superiority of a good view from nature, the serenity as the primary factor for the hearing experience but some rooms in the resorts were not soundproof, and eventually, it had influenced the unpleasant experience to the guests. Furthermore, the unpleasant touch and smell experience of these resorts were the nuisances from the insects, stiff mattress, and the uncomfortable bathroom. But, the breeze from nature has completed the whole relaxation experience. Hence, this research provides implication on the improvement of guest’s experience in the context of five senses in the hospitality and tourism industry