‘Room rotting’ is the latest travel trend: Why Gen Z is choosing hotel rooms over sightseeing - The Indian Express

A hotel room with a good view, a bed nobody expects you to make, and an entire day with no plans — for a growing number of travellers, that is the holiday. And they no longer feel guilty about it. Enter ‘room rotting’, a travel trend gaining popularity among Gen Z as they increasingly prioritise rest, downtime and spontaneity over packed itineraries.

DISCLAIMER: This article is based on information from the public domain and/or the experts we spoke to.

This doesn’t mean travellers have stopped caring about the places they visit; it just means rest has finally been accepted as a perfectly good reason to travel.

Dr Chandni Tugnait, MD (A.M.), psychotherapist, coach, founder & director, Gateway of Healing, mentions what is driving the move from sightseeing to staying in:

However, some experts believe it is more about the experience of being in a beautiful or expensive place while remaining trapped in the same internal weather you left at home. The person stays in the room for most of the day, not because they are savouring stillness, but because leaving feels disproportionately effortful.

“A restful holiday is intentional, says Dr Malini Saba, Psychologist, human and social rights activist, and founder of the Saba Family Foundation.

“You might spend a whole morning in bed while you read, order room service, watch the rain, or simply lie there doing nothing because you have decided that this is what your body and mind needs,” she adds.

There is a quiet pleasure in it, as you can still look out the window and feel the place you’re in.

But room rotting, she says, is different.

“Scrolling replaces looking outside. A low-level guilt often appears: I am wasting this trip. Psychologically, this often reflects a nervous system stuck in hypervigilance; it has not registered safety even though the external conditions have changed.”

For people used to maximising every trip, consciously leaving blank spaces in the itinerary can be helpful.

“A holiday does not have to be packed with experiences to be meaningful. We shouldn’t feel guilty about having an empty day. Sometimes, an empty day is exactly what a tired mind has been asking for,” Dr Munia Bhattacharya, Senior Consultant, Clinical Psychology, Marengo Asia Hospitals, Gurugram, says.

But how can travellers consciously build downtime into a trip without feeling guilty or feeling that they are wasting their money?

“Instead of planning every morning and evening, keep a few hours completely unstructured. You could stay in your room, sleep a little longer, read, watch something, order food, or sit by the window without a specific goal. The important part is to treat this time as intentional rest rather than as time that has been wasted.”

The guilt often comes from the belief that if we are not sightseeing or doing something memorable, we are not getting our money’s worth.

“But the value of a holiday cannot be measured only by the number of places visited or activities completed. Rest, connection and mental decompression are also part of the experience,” Arpita says adding, “It may help to think of downtime as something you have deliberately paid for, just like a sightseeing experience. If you spend an afternoon doing absolutely nothing and return feeling calmer, more refreshed and less mentally exhausted, that time has served a purpose.”

At the same time, ‘room rotting’ should not become an automatic way of avoiding experiences or social interaction throughout the trip. Balance is the key.

A holiday doesn’t have to be packed to be meaningful, and doing less can sometimes let us experience and enjoy the time away rather than simply tick off a checklist.

DISCLAIMER: This article is based on information from the public domain and/or the experts we spoke to.