Improve your Hotel's overall brand identity with the right photos

6 mins read

Hotel photo shoot is one of the most important steps for building an effective sales strategy. In fact, the right photo shoot is the most dynamic part of your brand identity. A well-defined collection of photos is one of your most powerful tools to attract the interest of your potential customers, either through your official website or through the various OTA & Review websites, increasing your booking requests.

It is rather common to come across high-quality accommodation properties, with a poor photographic content — which has a negative impact on their overall sales, as the product is not presented in full. Most of the times, hoteliers fail to realize the importance of a high quality and aesthetics visual material and the ways it can boost their sales. As a result, they do not decide to make the right investment in this important practice.

Below you can find some basic tips on how to achieve an impressive photo shoot of your property, that will highlight your hotel’s features and experiences, increasing your sales:

Make an extensive research and choose a highly qualified Hotel Photographer

Christos Drazos Photography

ⓒ Christos Drazos Photography – all rights reserved

  • Choose your Hotel Photographer based on the material you want to produce and the final result you want to achieve.
  • Trust a photographer with a rich and diverse portfolio in the hotel industry. Since Hotel photography has increased needs, it is necessary to choose a specialised photographer, who will be able to achieve the optimum results.
  • Go through the photographer’s portfolio carefully. Make sure that you can find sufficient samples not only of architectural photos but of experiential ones as well. There are several photographers who are not able to capture both types equally, so make sure the artist you choose can cope with both kinds.
  • As a hotel, you will definitely need a large number of photos. Therefore, choose a photographer who charges per day and not per photo. This pricing system is very common in the hotel photography industry and it has the best value for money.
  • When asking for an offer, send to the photographer your exact photo shoot plan. This will allow the photographer to exactly understand what you are looking for and send you a realistic offer.
  • For the correct estimation of the final cost, ask the photographer to include any additional costs that might occur during the production. The most common ones include models, stylists, assistants etc.

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We tried to find the most important reasons to choose Christos Drazos as our Hotel Photographer:

  1. He focuses not only on architecture and design but also on the guest experience within the hotel as well as the staff influence.
  2. He has developed a unique technique to highlight the connection between the natural environment, the hotels and the people.
  3. Christos is an excellent Gastronomy photographer, always managing to capture mouth-watering food photos.

 

Plan your new photo shoot’s ‘Experience Storyline’ in advance

Christos Drazos Photography

ⓒ Christos Drazos Photography – all rights reserved

  • Even before choosing your photographer, plan and build your hotel’s ‘Experience Storyline’ that you want to showcase through your new photo shoot.
  • Before proceeding to a photo shoot, keep in mind that your hotel photos are your one and only tool for presenting your property to distant travellers, making them dream of staying at your hotel.
  • A hotel photo shoot is not only about the architectural part of your property but also about the experiences that the travellers should expect to live.
  • It is the responsibility of the hotelier to write down the possible architectural shots that the photographer will have to capture, as well as the ‘Experience Scenario’ you wish to present. Most hoteliers leave this job to the photographer, which is not correct, since an outsourcing collaborator is not into position to know the overall philosophy of your hotel.
  • Study the possible audiences you wish to target and develop a short photo story for each one. This targeted material can be used not only in your brand identity but also during special campaigns for specific audiences.
  • When making your plan for the photo shoot, try to combine the architectural and experience shots at the same time, in order to save time and money! It is much easier for the photographer to take the photos at the same time since the background and the equipment are already set up.

Use a diverse mix of models for covering more potential audiences

Christos Drazos Photography

ⓒ Christos Drazos Photography – all rights reserved

  • It is not recommended to present just the typical images of male and female models. Dare to choose more ‘down-to-earth’ models, approaching the ‘human’ appearance of the majority of your guests.
  • Make sure to take at least a few photos of an individual man and an individual woman. Avoid giving to your hotel a strict ‘couple’ orientation.
  • Work on niche markets and create targeted material for important audiences like Families, Silver Age, Gay Couples. The image of a chubby girl enjoying the facilities of your hotel can really maximise the engagement!
  • If your hotel is pet-friendly, make sure to include shots with lovely animals! Pet owners will definitely love your hotel, however, make sure that the photos highlight the fact that the pets will not affect the other guests’ experience.
  • Do not use stock photos that are not related to your accommodation. The use of such photos can seriously damage your hotel’s image while giving misleading information to potential customers.

Cover all the aspects of your hotel like Food, Sleep and Social Experience with signature photos beyond stereotypes

Christos Drazos Photography

ⓒ Christos Drazos Photography – all rights reserved

  • When shooting your restaurants, try to combine food with a setting. For example, a close-up photo of a dish could be everywhere. But a photo with a specific dish on the table with the view out of your restaurant’s window in the background is definitely a unique image and what the travellers will actually end up buying.
  • Architectural photos can perfectly describe the luxury and comfort provided in your rooms and suites. But an image of an unmade bed will bring the potential guest closer to the real experience.
  • Don’t forget to take pictures of the common sitting areas of your hotel. It is very important for the guests to see where they can meet and live a more social experience.
  • Take some photos of your Hotel staff. People are the most important part of the experience!

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See a selection of stunning images by Christos Drazos, taken from various hotel photo shoots.
Visit www.thehotelsbook.com to discover more than 300 hotel photo shoot collections, for endless inspiration!