What Difference Does It Make, Really?

Many new to hospitality, struggling to balance budgets and manage properties within strict financial constraints, may be tempted to question the wisdom in investing in professional hospitality photography.

In fact, in an effort to save a buck, many turn to "the bosses nephew," "a good friend from college," or even a local wedding photographer to try to get passable images up on the site and get corporate off their backs.  

After all, pictures are pictures are pictures, and are a necessary evil... aren't they?  Those blood-sucking photographers are just out to leech off of honest, hard-working hoteliers and managers, and steal their meager profits.  I mean, come on, how much talent does it take to press a button, right?

If Marriott, Hilton, or IHG will allow it on their site, it must be "good enough," right?

If you recognize any of the sentiments mentioned above, you may want to reconsider.  It's a brave, new world, and the most successful hotel operators have long since learned how important their images are.

Andrew Grant famously once said that "you never get a second chance to make a first impression."

Here are the facts:

• 97.6% of visitors to hotel websites will carefully scrutinize the images before they book.
• Guests will book... or not book... based on their initial emotional response to your images. 
• Not having many images, or having images that are very poor evoke an almost visceral emotional response.
• Potential guests need to be able to "see themselves" staying at your property.
• Your online images are 60% of the reason they book you... and 72% of the reason they don't.
• TripAdvisor notes that potential guests are 150% more likely to book your property when you have 20 or more high-quality images.
• "Properties that have a significant quantity of high-quality images have a much, much greater conversion rate."
• "Conversely, those with few or poor quality images have a 70% lower conversion rate."

The top four main criteria that average guests use in their decision to book includes 1) location, 2) cost, 3) images, and 4) amenities.

The next time you wonder if it's "worth it" to invest in professional hospitality images, just consider your return on investment...

Let’s say, for the sake of argument, that you have 100 rooms, with an average vacancy rate of 34.9%.

This means that on an average night, 35 rooms out of 100 are typically vacant.  

At a national average room rate of $121, that means that you are losing over $127,050 in revenue… every month.

Let’s say you decide to invest, say, $5,495 (travel included) to have a professional photograph your property (and provide a breath-taking 4k video promo), and those new images bump your revenues just 1% (the actual average is over 25%).  

You now have a vacancy rate of only 34 rooms per night, and have increased your monthly revenue by $3,630, or about $43,560 per year.  You have realized an 800% return on your investment… the first year alone.

This isn’t brain surgery.  It’s a simple matter of cost/benefit analysis.