By Michelle Chaplow

How to prepare a hotel photo shoot – Top Tips for Luxury Hotels.

This is the first in a collection of three blog posts, giving sound advice to hoteliers on how to prepare their next photoshoot.

Top Tips for Luxury Hotels on how to prepare your next photo shoot

Top Tips for Luxury Hotels
on how to prepare your next photo shoot


KEY POINTS

Essence The essence of your luxury hotel is in the details that distill the feeling, the heart and the very soul of the hotel. Give the photographer time to seek out and identify those details.

Essence details, the photographer needs time to seek out details

Essence details, the photographer needs time to seek out details

Light A photographer must be passionate about your hotel to portray it in its best light. 
An advance visit will allow him/her to observe
the interplay of light both inside and outside at different times of the day – good lighting is key to strong visuals.

Quantity and Quality The two go hand in hand – you need to be realistic in your requests. As a guide, a new or refurbished hotel about two weeks photoshoot. A hotel update can be anything from 3–10 days.

Seasons You may need to bring in the crew two or three times in one year to capture the hotel in different seasons. Ideally, shoot just before the high season when everything is pristine.

Geo-Identifiers A great crew will pick out your key Geo-Identifiers immediately and use them to draw guests to your hotel’s unique location.

Styling & Lifestyle A good crew will have a stylist that knows your market.
Accentuate your best points If you are famous for something, make sure you have a photograph of it in your archive. Ask yourself, why am I different?

Visual story telling Use not only the architecture of your hotel but the details to accentuate your hotel’s best assets. Luxury and your uniqueness are two key elements to highlight.

Visual story telling, a hint of superb light, a pool and exotic flowers. Simple, yet sends a strong message.

Visual story telling, a hint of superb light, a pool and exotic flowers. Simple, yet sends a strong message.

Heritage If a hotel is a Historic property, choose a professional photographer who is genuinely interested in the hotel’s heritage. If its history doesn’t spark her/his curiosity, then this essential interest and engagement won’t be reflected in the photos. If you are lucky enough to have heritage, flaunt it.

Images with history

A 100 year old spiral staircase, this image is not only attractive in form, it gives a sense of heritage to the hotel establishment.

Keep in mind these key points and they will be a sound basis to really capture the very essence of your hotel. Guests crave strong visuals and quality photography will entice guests new and old to hit that reservation button.

Stay tuned for more great tips, in the next blog we will look at the technical check list, what to hoteliers need to ask for in terms of hotel photography? Find all the answers in part two.