The best hotel photos: How to make your content better received

Time stands still in your hotel. That's how it should be, because your guests want to switch off and feel as if they are in another world.

For those who have not yet experienced your hotel, time goes on as normal - with Day & Night and Four Seasons.

Let's assume you place an ad on Facebook with photos in winter. A potential guest gets to see aesthetic photos, but the lady in them is wearing a summer dress. Wait, is the hotel in the Caribbean? Doesn't it say "exclusive winter offer"? Unfortunately, the viewer doesn't get the feeling of a dreamy winter vacation in the snow. Wiped away.

Four seasons of hotel photos

To make sure everyone knows how beautiful your hotel is, whether it's raining or snowing, and that your advertisements, landing pages and social media posts are weather-appropriate, here are the must-haves for your hotel photos:

• Exterior shots of the hotel in spring, summer, fall and winter

• Photos of outdoor facilities such as terrace, pool or outdoor wellness area, if available

• View to the outside from the rooms, the restaurant or other areas

These photos should be suitable for websites and ads on Google, Facebook & Co.

If there are specific offers or landing pages for the seasons (e.g. Summer Deal, Christmas Special), you will also need material for these. Silent night under the blazing sun is certainly not for everyone ;)

Roses, rabbits and ghosts - hotel photos for and of events

Does your hotel have an annual Easter brunch? Or a proper Halloween party in the lounge? Great, then take plenty of photos of it. You can then use them for future social media posts or advertisements that fit in with these themes.

Wenn du diese Events vorher bewerben möchtest, dann brauchst du auch hierfür eventspezifische Fotos.

Aber psst: Stockfotos sind laaangweilig (für uns natürlich nicht ;)).

Here is an overview of sample events sorted by month. Maybe you'll get some inspiration for your next hotel event.

January:

• New Year's brunch
  
• Winter offers (on average the coldest month of the year)

February:

• Valentine's Day
• Carnival (Women's Carnival, Rose Monday, Ash Wednesday)
• Winter and carnival offers
• Savings offers (less month, more savings)

March:

• "Lenz"
• Start of spring/ time change
• St. Patrick's Day

April:

• April 1
• Easter
• Walpurgis Night
• April weather

May:

• Mother's Day
• Father's Day
• Whitsun

June:

• Children's Day
• Start of summer
• Rose month/Rose moon

July:

• Summer vacation
• Honey month/Honey moon

August:

• Summer vacation
• Ascension
• Harvest month

September:

• Children's Day
• Beginning of fall
• Oktoberfest

October:

• Harvest festival
• Halloween
• Winter time
• Longest month of the year

November:

• Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead)
• Start of carnival

December:

• Advent
• Christmas
• New Year's Eve
• Start of winter

What formats and media do you need?

So that you can use your hotel photos when, where and how you want, we recommend the following formats and media, depending on the type of use:

Website:

• Landscape formats
• Portrait formats, if required for desktop and mobile version
• Videos and audio, if applicable

Newsletter:

• Portrait and landscape images
• GIF-enabled videos

Social media:

• Portrait images
• square pictures
• Portrait video, 1 x very short and 1x slightly longer
• Audio, if desired

The ultimate tip

If you send the hotel photos or other media to your agency, for example (ideally to us ;)), they should be of the best possible quality. So there is always the possibility to optimize them, cut them and do other mischief.

The icing on the cake would be the correct naming of the website images according to the page name or landing pages. This way, your hotel page can be even better optimized for search engines. Use minus signs or underscores instead of spaces for the image names and your keyword should also be included.

But there is a small problem here: There are images that are used in several places on a website. Uploading them several times with different names is suboptimal. Ideally, you can set it up in your backend so that copies of the image are named separately.

Cobra, take over!

If you hire a photographer and models, it should be really worthwhile. That's why they are informed in advance that as many seasons and/or events as possible will be covered in one shoot. This saves you the money of having them come more often.

If the model brings outfits for different seasons, you also have suitable decoration ready and the weather is not too extreme, the photographer can really get started:

After the winter outdoor shoot, a Valentine's Day shoot and carnival on top. With mild spring temperatures, summer shots are also possible with a cocktail in hand and the right clothing.

Delicious food photos

Speaking of cocktails: the food in your restaurant can be photographed at the same time. Kill several birds with one stone!

Too much planned for one day? If you're short on time or the menu changes frequently, it might be worth sending one of your employees on a food photography course. After all, you eat with your eyes.

With our tips, your hotel photos will always be up to date and in keeping with the season - that makes you want more.

Do you have any questions about the best images for your hotel or any other concerns? Feel free to contact us, we are here for you.

Photos:

olesiabilkei, inhauscreative, Andrekart Photography