Barbara De Lollis on USA TODAY discusses the importance of photos and video in driving consumers to make reservations for a hotel room on an online travel site.
It’s no secret that photos help make travelers go “wow” and then, many times, click “purchase” to reserve a hotel room on an online travel site.
De Lollis says that a recent piece by Glenn Hausmann, editor-in-chief of industry trade publication Hotel Interactive got her thinking about the quality vs. quantity question.
Quality vs. Quantity
The quality vs. quantity question isn’t at all simple.
Is it slick, pro shots that – once in your hotel room – turn out to be unfairly optimistic? You might say amateur shots are good enough quality for you, but they too sometimes offer an unfair portrayal of a hotel.
Room shots are one thing, but view shots pose a whole other set of problems.
Some hotels use artfully staged photos because they have no views to sell. Thus, the hotels that do have views and nice features should find a way to distinguish themselves from the hotels that don’t.
Both Expedia and Google executives say their companies are spending quite a bit of time focused on photography.
“Hotels with 15 or more images more likely to convert than hotels with only a few images,” says Expedia’s Amy Severson.
Video is the future
“A lot [of images] we are getting are not that high quality, so we are sending people out to get pics,” Google executive Rob Torres Torres told Hotel Interactive. “But this is just the start. High quality video is the future.”
