Hotel Virtual Tours: 8 Benefits

Tourism is a growing industry that relies on new technology to offer clients and visitors an immersive experience. Hotels, restaurants, and other hospitality businesses use virtual marketing in order to promote their business, drive customer growth, and improve operational procedures. In order to keep up with all of the trends during the era of digital transformation, many hoteliers are turning to hotel virtual tours and using them to connect with potential clients. Here is some important information about hotel virtual tours that you need to know about.

What is hotel virtual tours?

A virtual tour is a popular form of experiential marketing that can simulate and facilitate on-property visits remotely. A site tour like this is used by restaurants, hotels, retail shops and other businesses to show products and services. It’s also used by resort owners or vacation homes who want to give their customers an idea of what the property looks like from afar. Employing a site tour makes it possible for potential customers to get an immersive experience, simulating the feel of physically being at your hotel all without getting up from their devices. Virtual visitors are able to take advantage of features such as teleportation between rooms or changing positions in a room, giving them the opportunity to experience everything the hotel has to offer.

  • Hotel amenities
  • Check-in
  • Lobby spaces
  • Key features
  • Restaurant and dining areas
  • Fitness facilities
  • On-site vending/market
  • Exterior spaces
  • Meeting and event space

How are hotel virtual tours created?

There are a variety of ways to create a virtual tour – one of which is to combine photographs or videos. A virtual tour might include narration, music, and other multimedia elements that allow the viewer to have a more engaging experience. For example, when guests visit your hotel through a virtual tour such as this, they’ll feel as if they’re actually at your hotel and can walk around with 360-degree views. You could also create 3D technology similar to CGI animation so you can provide floorplans.

What do you need to highlight in a virtual tour?

Hotel Virtual Tours

Hotel Virtual Tours

Hotels have begun to request that their videographers offer multiple tours in different marketing campaigns, as the content appeals to certain demographics more than others and because the video performs better on certain channels. Marketing managers take into account the impact of social media and physical location, as well as key demographic differences to determine which tour is best for them. These managers will use an exterior street view tour for an immediate grab for attention that leads guests to your direct booking site where a “Book Now” button awaits them post-tour.

How can hotels capitalize on the virtual tourism trend?

Virtual tourism can be an exciting new marketing tool for hotels. However, before using virtual tourism, hotels should go back to the basics of their hotel marketing plan. What audience are you trying to reach? What amenities, offerings, or features make your hotel and its location unique and interesting? What aspects of your property or destination do you want to highlight? The answers to these questions will form the foundation of your virtual tourism package. For example, if one of your guests always returns for a specific type of wine from the on-site vineyard, give them a tour of your vineyard so they’ll come back time and time again!

Virtual reality creates new types of experiences and can be incorporated into all parts of your business. You might offer a street art tour to younger guests while offering immersive symphony performances to older ones. Try creating three or four virtual reality experiences targeting the guests you want to see at your hotel in the future and follow them up with custom packages and targeted informational emails.

As you make your virtual tourism offer, keep in mind that this platform isn’t limited to the traditional way guests experience your property. In fact, with virtual tourism, a guest could fly over your property in a hot air balloon without getting wet, ski down to a roaring fire in your lobby, or zip line through the trees. By adding unique experiences that guests may not be able to get in person, you’ll set yourself apart from the competition.

How can hotel virtual tours impact guest safety?

Prospective guests can access a virtual site tour to see the various entry points, permissions for external pedestrians, and paths from one space to another. This assistance makes it easy for potential guests to feel safe and confident in your film set. And if you find that there is a safety concern, updating the restrictions on your updated event plan will ensure that this event is safe. Plus, making changes such as adjusting the layout will improve safety.

  • Moving guest seating
  • Including hand sanitiser stations can help keep your space clean
  • Creating multiple event check-in areas to make it easier for your guests

How is virtual tourism used?

Every hotel can take advantage of a virtual hotel tour and the demand for this virtual hotel tour goes well beyond COVID-19. Many hotels are now using virtual tourism for years to highlight the unique aspects of a location. All hotels use 360-degree VR videos to capture everything in and around the hotel. This will allow the viewers to enjoy the tour virtually in their own place.

Hotel Virtual Tours

Hotel Virtual Tours

You can also capture images and piece them together using specialized software and create an immersive where users can look in any direction. Hotel virtual tour technology is a great way for showing hotel interiors, artwork, museum exhibits and anything that can be fully experienced without motion or sound. Hotel virtual tours also help the users to get in on the action, interact with the environment and discover more through their actions.

Benefits of Hotel Virtual tour

You can experience new things without ever leaving your home. Virtual tourism is perfect for individuals in all sorts of situations, they can see and explore destinations outside their current location, their time constraints, and even the safety risks. You don’t have to think about anything when you travel with virtual tourism.

One of the best things about virtual tourism is that it’s affordable for a lot of people. With virtual reality, you can see and experience any destination in the world, even one you thought was unreachable. And with the technology getting better, more hotels and destinations are using it to better connect with potential guests. People who have experienced a hotel or destination through virtual tourism are more likely to book a future stay there. That’s because when they see a 360-degree view of an area, they’re experiencing it just like it mimics in real life, instead of just seeing flat images on brochures or websites. Here are some benefits of a hotel virtual tour that you need to know about.

Increase your bookings

You’ve seen the reviews and heard the stories about hotels and venues where customers were disappointed after arriving. With a virtual tour, you can provide potential customers with an in-depth preview of what they’ll get when they find your site. A well-designed virtual tour and a straightforward booking process will likely increase the number of people who book directly with you. For added click success, you can also include direct links that prompt visitors to book as soon as they decide they like the look of your hotel. The interactive website features help to keep visitors on your site for longer. Your customers aren’t mindlessly scrolling; they’re interacting with it, so it feels like they’re in control.

Hotel Virtual Tours

Hotel Virtual Tours

It shows that you are modern and innovative

A virtual tour is a nice way to demonstrate your business’s approach to advertising. Putting up stellar photos and designing clean features demonstrates to clients that you’re up-to-date. An old or outdated site suggests that you’re not succeeding, but a virtual tour will prove the opposite. You’re aware of technological advancements and are using them to provide an exceptional experience.

Stand ahead of your competitors

Adding a virtual tour to your website will set you apart from other businesses in the same field. While virtual tours are an emerging form of marketing, it’s still relatively uncommon for hotels and venue websites to offer one. A well-made and modern site won’t do as good a job of comparing the tour’s interactive features with those you’ll find on a physical visit.

Hotel Virtual Tours

Hotel Virtual Tours

Enhance your on-site time 

A virtual tour can help your business, whether you’re a hotel owner or manager! It will result in higher rankings on Google for a sustained period, which is the best thing for ROI. A higher bounce rate on Google means a better chance of conversion and increased revenue. What is a “bounce rate” and why does it matter to a hotel owner or manager?

A bounce rate is a frequency with which people leave your website after viewing one page. Poor-performing websites typically have high bounce rates, meaning anyone who visits them quickly leaves without seeing anything of real value. Virtual tours are interactive features that take about one minute to complete, which is much longer than the average time spent on an unmotivated website. As a result, their higher bounce rates will go down and visitor time will increase, leading to greater visibility online and more traffic to your site.

Hotel Virtual Tours

Hotel Virtual Tours

Customers can even tour with a VR headset

VR is a progressive tech sector that is an effective way of attracting guests and securing direct bookings. While VR was once thought to be the next game-changing technology in the gaming industry, its practical applications in other industries have been more revolutionary. In retail and hospitality, customers can tour your venue from anywhere in the world.

This isn’t just a good way to attract more bookings no matter what’s going on in the world, but also a great way to get feedback from customers and experts about potential improvements you can make to your hotel or venue. You can use Google technologies to offer customers virtual tours. Here, potential hotel guests are offered a 360-degree walkthrough of their best room and hospitality facilities.

It saves you time

If you’re like many business owners, you’ve tried to grow your company using a website without a virtual tour, and now you recognize the flaws in that strategy. That type of site is far less likely to see high traffic and bookings than one that does offer virtual tours. For example: with the booking element sorted, you can spend less time securing regular bookings for your real estate business. You can also save your team’s time by not needing to do as many guided tours prior to or post-booking.

Allow clients to take their time and plan

This high level of technology creates a realistic experience for customers. They’ll be able to take in every detail at their own pace, which is user-friendly. This gives potential guests a chance to relax without feeling rushed or pressured. This is perfect for event planners who need an accurate representation of what could happen without having to return constantly to the venue.

Show customers how it feels to be in your hotel or venue

Wouldn’t you rather show customers an accurate representation of your rooms? This way, they’ll know exactly what to expect before purchasing without any surprises. Instead of deceiving them with a flat view, use a virtual tour that accurately shows the size and dimensions of the room. Virtual tours will provide your customers with an immersive experience and make them feel like they’re standing in the room.

A virtual tour is a popular form of experiential marketing that can simulate and facilitate on-property visits remotely. A site tour like this is used by restaurants, hotels, retail shops and other businesses to show products and services. It’s also used by resort owners or vacation homes who want to give their customers an idea of what the property looks like from afar. Employing a site tour makes it possible for potential customers to get an immersive experience, simulating the feel of physically being at your hotel all without getting up from their devices. Virtual visitors are able to take advantage of features such as teleportation between rooms or changing positions in a room, giving them the opportunity to experience everything the hotel has to offer.

Summing it up

A virtual tour is a great marketing tool that promotes your hotel or venue. Provide your website visitors with an immersive, walk-through experience so they can get a sense of what it would be like to stay at your property.