The year was 2015. Marriott launched their first in-room virtual reality travel experience. Along with that, it launched a travel content platform called VR PostCards. The purpose? To facilitate guests with intimate & immersive travel stories via virtual experience. That was in 2015. Presently the year is 2023. With the technological advancements of today, a virtual tour of a hotel has become somewhat of a mandate.

What does a virtual tour of a hotel comprise?

An augmented digital video tour of the hotel. When looking for accommodations more than 50% of adults prefer a virtual tour. Considering the above stats it’s a no-brainer how important having a virtual hotel tour is. The hotel website can showcase the virtual tour for marketing purposes. Any marketing collateral of the hotel can use the virtual tour to showcase & highlight the hotel.

In the pre-internet era, the hospitality sector had a very different approach to marketing. With the significant penetration of smartphones, the possibilities of marketing a hotel & associated destinations have increased significantly.

What comes to your mind when you think of virtual tours for a property? Let’s look at a few examples.

1. Gray Hotel Chicago
2. Shangri-La Paris
3. Zara Cave Hotel, Turkey

On browsing the above virtual tours one can understand the variety of outputs one can produce. Depending on the individual property requirements, the cost of producing such a virtual tour would vary.

Let’s look at why it is wise to invest in a good virtual tour for your property.

• 66% of guests watched videos when thinking about taking a trip
• 20% of users read text while 80% will watch a video with the same content
• At your property, guests are 67% more likely to book when a video tour is available
• 63% of travelers watched videos when looking for ideas for activities at a destination
• 71% of travel searches on YouTube are for destination names

How to market a hotel using virtual tours?

When you think of creating a virtual tour imagine the various stages in which a guest can come across it. Is the walkthrough video telling a compelling story? Unique pieces of content can be created to help a guest decide why they should choose your property. From selecting a destination to making a reservation, unique pieces of content can be designed to help the guest choose your hotel. Let me curate a set of examples where such content can be utilized to market a hotel.

• While searching for a destination a potential guest can come across your hotel video.
• Email signatures
• Dedicated web experience for all the 360 & Virtual Reality content

Things to keep in mind while making your virtual content

A virtual tour can showcase multiple aspects of your property. It can also showcase the destination where your property is located. Things to keep in mind while creating the first virtual tour.

• Determine what aspects of the property you may want to showcase. Rooms, lobby, Food & Beverage Outlets, Rooftop Views, Parking Area. The list can be a long one. It is better to take a back seat & understand what a probable guest might want to see about your property.
• A tour can have several formats. Videos, 360 videos, voice-over walkthroughs, etc. Think of the platform on which the tours would be displayed. 1 good practice is to create content for the platform. That way the user experience is seamless. For e.g. if uploaded on YouTube, it might be beneficial to have a voice-over. Another example. Info cards embedded in the virtual tour if uploaded on the hotel website.
• Since there are different kinds of virtual tours available it might be helpful to talk to several service providers before moving forward with one. It’s advisable to go with a service provider who understands a user journey of a hotel customer.

You might want to check out “The comprehensive guide for creating a video marketing strategy for your hotel property“. This article would help you better understand where a virtual tour sets inside the larger video marketing strategy thus helping you plan the tours in a very detailed manner.

Conclusion

If you liked reading why a virtual tour of a hotel is necessary, it may be worth your time to check out this article, where I have listed more than 20+ video marketing ideas for hotels. Before you start your journey of marketing your hotel with videos it would be great if you have set yourself with a good video marketing strategy for your property.

With the dominance of OTAs over guest reservations virtual tours can be a great tool to start getting direct bookings. Generating direct bookings has become the #1 priority for hotels big & small. Here’s a hack that can help generate direct bookings the moment you implement it. A virtual tour showcases your property in the best way possible. A probable guest gets to have a feel of the property from the comfort of his/her home/office. That in turn may help him choose your property among your competition.