There was once a time where the combination of virtual tours and the hotel industry seemed like a distant thought. Why would a hotel consider a virtual tour and why does it really need one? Aren’t photos enough? What’s the value proposition? Turns out, a lot more than one might think.
People get married at hotels. People hold businesses conferences at them. Hotels are much more than just a place to stay, and that’s opening up a whole new world for the hospitality industry in general.
The hotel industry is a competitive one.
Hotels and services like Airbnb are going head to head to compete for more bookings. It’s getting increasingly more difficult for hotels to stay innovative and fresh in an industry where online travel agencies and peer-to-peer websites are taking over.
What cuts through that competition is turning out to be virtual tours. And here’s why:
Virtual tours offer a level of control that many other services really can’t match.
Consider this: a bride is looking for her dream wedding venue, and stumbles across a beautiful hotel with a virtual tour where she can explore the grounds, ballrooms and bedrooms. She can navigate throughout the entire hotel virtually and decide if this is the place for her.
Compare that to a hotel venue with just photos of the space.
Which one do you think she may be considering? Of course, there’s much more to that decision, but this puts the consumer in control of their experience and decision-making.
What simple photos can’t always do is offer full transparency to consumers.
Virtual tours, however, are a full 360 connect experience showing exactly what the guest will see when they arrive.
Virtual tour statistics tell us that transparency in general leads to more trust between brands and consumers. It’s been proven that consumer trust has increased with businesses that have virtual tours tied to their Google listings.
Many times, guests arrive a hotel and realize that it’s missing something they thought it had but with a comprehensive virtual tour, guests will get to experience your space virtually with no gimmicks and no surprises.
Hotels with a virtual tour leave a lasting impression on consumers, something that many other forms of digital content cannot do.
Naturally, site visitors spend much more time exploring a virtual tour than browsing photos of a hotel. Web pages with virtual tours also see a significantly lower bounce rate than pages without.
As you might imagine, these points lead to increased bookings, higher retention rates and ultimately establishes trust between your hotel and its guests.
More and more hotels are opting for virtual tours to show off not only where guests can stay, but the atmosphere of the hotel and the venues throughout.
Let us know how we can help marketing your hotel to guests!