The Benefits of a Virtual Hotel Tour

The more familiar your audience can get with your hotel brand online, the better your chances are of getting them to your site. One of the best ways to get traffic to your hotel’s website is with visual content marketing. There are many forms of visual content with their advantages and drawbacks. One of the best types of visual content for your audience to get familiar with your property is the virtual tour. Like a photo, a virtual tour shows your audience the best parts of your hotel so they can get a visual of your property. What sets the virtual tour apart from simple photos is the fact that they are three dimensional. This gives the potential guest the feeling that they are standing in whatever part of the hotel there’s a virtual tour of. With a virtual tour, guests have the chance to feel what it’s like to be inside your hotel before they get there.

The interactive nature of the virtual hotel tour is one of it’s most significant benefits. In the era of social media, audiences and travelers want to be able to connect with a brand. Being able to relate to a brand makes the brand more trustworthy. The current generation also seeks instant gratification. A traveler can save time by taking a virtual tour instead of finding out what your hotel is like when they get there. Stats show that 73% of travelers research multiple hotels before making a choice. If your hotel is one of the only ones with a virtual tour in your local area, your property now has a competitive edge. A virtual tour is also a great way to show your hotel’s amenities and unique selling points that make it special. Instead of merely listing the desirable attributes of your hotel, you can show potential guests exactly why your property is so great.

There are some things to consider if you want to create a compelling virtual tour for your hotel. For great looking virtual tours, you should invest in a 360 camera. These cameras take panoramic shots in all directions and then put the shots together to create one fluid-moving 3D image of a room, including the ceiling and floors. Also, remember to ensure that the lens on your camera is free of dust. A high definition camera will quickly pick up dust particles in its shots, which can hurt the quality of your images. This is why it’s always good to keep a lens cloth handy. Also, find the best vantage point in the room you’re shooting in. Place the camera somewhere where you can see the best parts of the location.

The virtual tour has been a useful tool in real estate for years and is now finally making it’s way to the hotel industry. Stay ahead of the curve by including virtual tours of your property on your hotel’s website. Visual content is the best performing content on the internet, so having something interesting for travelers to look at on your site like a virtual tour will set you apart from the competition. Let your audience know what it’s like to be inside your hotel before they arrive. Show them why they should book a room directly from your hotel’s site. Talk is cheap, but a 3D picture is worth a thousand words; and a possible increase in web traffic.