Why Video-Based Virtual Tours are the Future of Hospitality

If you had only dipped your toe into the digital world pre-pandemic, you must be all-in now or your business will struggle to survive.

Customers increasingly research and buy online. Indeed, in many developed countries and major travel markets, online hotel bookings account for 70%-80% of total bookings (Statista, Phocuswright, HospitalityNet).

The hospitality industry is increasingly looking at innovative ways to showcase their properties and elevate the guest experience. Websites must continually evolve to capture the attention of customers, which requires the introduction of more dynamic content and less static, text-heavy content.

One method of introducing dynamic eye-catching content is through virtual tours – providing a digital simulation that allows potential guests to explore the hotel without physically being present.

The Value of Virtual Tours for Hotels

1. Enhanced Customer Experience

Virtual tours provide potential guests with an immersive and interactive experience, enabling them to explore your facilities and visualise the spaces and amenities before making a booking. This helps to increase customer satisfaction and helps build trust and confidence in your hotel.

2. Increased Bookings

By showcasing the hotel’s best features, virtual tours can entice potential guests to book a stay. High-quality virtual tours can help increase bookings, as they provide a better understanding of the hotel’s offerings and limit the shopping around that negatively impacts bookings.

3. Competitive Advantage

Hospitality is a very competitive market, and most hoteliers have a lengthy list of competitors. Having a virtual tour can help a hotel stand out from its competitors. Offering a unique, engaging, and informative virtual tour can become a key differentiator and marketing tool.

Different Types of Virtual Tours and Their Limitations

Not all virtual tours are made equal, as the phrase is used broadly to include both video and photographic-based tours.

We asked ChatGPT: If a picture is worth a thousand words, then what is a video worth?

1. 360 Tours:

Also known as panoramic tours, are composed of still images stitched together to create a 360-degree view. Although they provide a sense of space, they lack the immersive and interactive qualities of video-based tours. Additionally, they often have a ‘fisheye’ effect, which can distort the perception of the space, and they can be frustrating to use due to the continuous need to guide and click to orient and navigate through the space.

Utility: Low utility, most frequently used for planning an event once a venue has already been sourced.

2. Virtual Reality (VR) Tours:

VR tours use advanced technology to create a fully immersive, 3D experience. While they offer a high level of interactivity, VR tours can be disorientating for the user, especially those who suffer motion sickness. They require specialised equipment, like VR headsets, which can be expensive and limit accessibility for potential guests.

Utility: Low utility, most frequently used during trade shows as it’s difficult to scale usage due to monetary and accessibility restrictions.

3. Video-based tours:

Video-based virtual tours, such as E X P L O R E, are designed around all users of the product, from hotel sales & marketing teams to event planners and travellers. E X P L O R E provides cinema-quality, tailor-made film that tells your space’s story to clients wherever they are. Its customer-centric technology and state of the art production techniques bring your space to

life in magnificent detail, whilst being simple to use. Animations, graphics, and call-to-action buttons provide users with quick & simple access to key hotel information relevant to their decision-making. These tours are widely embeddable on websites and can be sent directly to users via multiple channels, making them widely accessible with no friction.

Utility: High utility, engaging customers throughout every stage of the sales & marketing cycle + Post Sale: Planning tool for event planners

Why Video-Based Virtual Tours Are Category Leaders

When you’re deciding on which virtual tour to use, you’re assessing its utility and effectiveness across multiple dimensions. How does it help your marketing teams to increase visibility of your hotels to as wide an audience as possible? How does it help your sales teams to more and to close sales quicker? How does it help your operations teams to reduce friction and wasted time? How does it help your customer to make decisions remotely?

Video-based virtual tours are proven to have the highest utility providing value across multiple dimensions, helping both the hotel and the customer. Here are 3 key reasons why E X P L O R E is a category leader:

1. Realism and Authenticity

EXPLORE offers a more realistic and authentic experience by providing smooth, high-quality footage that accurately represents the hotel’s space and amenities. It may include people enjoying a meal or the wellbeing at the hotel, telling a story that connects with your customers. This allows potential guests to have a more accurate understanding of the hotel, leading to a better-informed booking decision.

2. Accessibility and Ease of Use

Unlike VR tours, E X P L O R E can be accessed using any device with an internet connection, making them more accessible to potential guests. They also require no additional equipment or software, making them user-friendly and easy to navigate.

3. Interactivity and Engagement

E X P L O R E includes interactive elements that enable users to navigate through menus to view the video content that is most relevant to their requirements. Clickable hotspots also allow users to access additional information about the hotel’s features and services. This enhances engagement and keeps potential guests interested in the property.

E X P L O R E goes far beyond video. Augmented by the engaging content creation, it provides instant access to a wealth of real time marketing insights, which makes it a total gamechanger for space sales.

As the hospitality industry continues to evolve, hotels must adapt and embrace new technologies to meet the needs of their customers. Video-based tours, like those offered by E X P L O R E, provide an ideal solution by offering an accessible, engaging, and realistic way for potential guests to explore a property before booking. By investing in video-based virtual tours, hotels can position themselves as industry leaders and enhance their overall guest experience.