Visitors making decisions to book with your hotel largely base it off the images it presents online.
Quality photography is absolutely necessary to a hotel website.
Photos should showcase your rooms (including bathrooms), dining areas, pools and amenities. Aim for both wide “hero” shots as well as detail shots to achieve optimal results.
1. Increased Conversion Rates
High quality photos on your hotel website are one of the best ways to increase bookings. Images play a big role in whether or not potential guests book with your property – studies have even indicated that hotels featuring professional photographs experience up to 15% more direct bookings (source: Hospitality Net).
Images that meet high quality standards should be clear and sharp, using appropriate lighting and angles to highlight your hotel’s features and amenities. In an ideal scenario, your photos would tell a compelling narrative relevant to your target audience; such as featuring luxurious accommodation for guests in rooms; elegant dining areas; or inviting common spaces as examples.
Visual information can be processed much more rapidly than text, making images an essential way of conveying information quickly and clearly. Photos should have high-resolutions so they’re crisp and clear; also keep to one color theme throughout your gallery to create an appealing brand aesthetic.
As a resort, hotel, or tour operator, creating galleries on each page of your website that showcase your destination, hotel rooms or tours can increase visitors to stay longer on your site and encourage them to make reservations. Beautiful images will keep visitors engaged longer.
Skilled photo editing can transform lifeless photographs into vibrant imagery that stands out from competitors’ websites, providing yours an edge over them. This is particularly crucial when advertising on Google display or Facebook ads where visitors may only have seconds before moving onto another competitor site.
2. Increased Conversion Rates
Studies show that the quality of your hotel photos has an enormous effect on online booking rates. Hotels featuring professional, high-resolution images experience 15% more bookings on average.
High-quality photos provide potential guests with an impressive visual of your property, helping them envision themselves staying there. Skilful editing can transform dull, lifeless shots into captivating pictures that grab the viewer’s eye and encourage them to book directly with you.
People visiting your website at the start of their travel planning are known as MoFu (Middle of the Funnel) visitors; these travelers are looking for inspiration. Although some may already be inputting dates and checking availability, most are still in their consideration phase.
MoFu visitors are likely to discover your hotel through search or word of mouth and are eager to see what the property has to offer. They want a memorable vacation or business trip experience and want to know whether your hotel can deliver.
Imagery can help your hotel attract potential guests by showing what their stay will be like before even arriving on site, building the connection and anticipation before even arriving at the property. Visuals are also an effective way to upsell and cross-sell services prior to their arrival; proven strategies will increase direct bookings as well as guest satisfaction rates.
To maximize the visuals for your hotel, it’s crucial to ensure they align with its brand identity and aesthetic. Therefore, it is key that you partner with a photography company who understands your hotel well enough to produce portfolio images that accurately represent it.
3. Increased Conversion Rates
Many hotel guests make decisions to book rooms based on the visual presentation of a property in their online research. Therefore, all photos must be of high quality for maximum conversion rate – providing visitors with an immersive experience of your property will help increase conversions significantly. A photo gallery on your hotel website helps facilitate this.
Professional photography can help your hotel stand out and attract potential guests, drawing their eye and increasing its appeal to visitors. When potential guests see that there’s plenty to do at your hotel, they are much more likely to book with you.
An effective photo gallery requires including lifestyle, architectural and detail shots in equal parts to give your hotel an appealing and authentic appeal, while still being relevant to what your accommodation offers. Each second of delay in page load time reduces conversions by 7 percent so it is imperative that your photo gallery loads quickly and clearly.
Hiring a professional photographer is often an investment that pays dividends over time. Utilizing images captured from Google display and Facebook advertising – where your hotel competes against other travel agencies – to update Google My Business account will show current photos when people search on mobile devices for it.
Your photo gallery provides the perfect platform for subtly upselling various on-site and off-site experiences to guests. Whether it’s spa services, local tours or cooking classes that you offer, ensure these experiences are prominently featured to encourage potential visitors to book a stay with you.
4. Increased Conversion Rates
The Gallery page is one of the most visited pages on a hotel’s website and plays an integral part in customer journey. Hotels strive to inspire and delight their guests through imagery; creating an impressive gallery can do exactly that – in fact, studies indicate an increase in bookings among hotels with high-quality photos.
Planning gallery pages requires taking an overall approach. This means not just showing room photos but also images from your exterior, facilities, and the local area – giving guests an impression of all your property has to offer. The goal should be giving them an unforgettable experience when visiting.
Avoid stock photos as much as possible – these can come off looking unauthentic, scaring away potential buyers. Instead, hire a professional photographer and dedicate the necessary time and attention in creating stunning imagery of your property.
Add video content to your hotel website in addition to photos for maximum engagement and conversion of visitors. Video has become increasingly popular on hotel sites, making the creation process easy using rich media software such as Cincopa.
Video content has the power to engage and inspire customers like no photo ever could. From showing an intimate bedroom suite tour or exploring your property’s grounds, videos will capture customers’ imaginations and help them envision themselves at your property. For maximum engagement and conversion rates, consider including a chat feature on your website so guests can ask real-time questions directly about it all in real-time – this can build trust while creating an unforgettable customer journey on every visit!
5. Increased Conversion Rates
Hotels should include a gallery on their websites that showcases all the aspects that make them special, from rooms and bathrooms to amenities such as restaurants, bars, pools, gyms, spas, parking spaces and more. Hotels looking to increase conversion rates should showcase photos that depict all these features so visitors can get a sense of what the experience would be like when staying there.
Have a gallery on your hotel website is essential, but make sure it includes high-quality images that accurately portray what guests can expect when they arrive. Cheap stock photography should not be used because this may put off potential guests. Furthermore, using proper lighting when taking pictures for the website will ensure the images look clear and inviting to visitors.
Hotel websites should feature images of staff and guests on their gallery to build trust and credibility with visitors and increase booking rates. Showing these pictures on your gallery page will give your visitors an intimate feel when viewing it, which increases chances of booking their stay at your establishment.
No matter if you hire professional photographers or take them yourself, large and high-resolution images are best. This will help ensure that your website loads quickly without slowing down, as well as maximizing conversion rate potential and looking its best! Additionally, consider having professional editing done on these photos so they look their best and convert well.