We are living more and more in tune with technology. The internet has become the guru of our day to day. How many people have not gone to Google Maps, to calculate in advance what their route to a new place will be, which streets they should go to and which landmarks they should locate?
How many, out of mere curiosity, have not browsed through Google Earth (and have even been dizzy)? How many of us like to visit virtual stores, browse catalogs, whether we want to buy online or just as a preamble to our physical visit? This makes us, in a way, innate gamers.
In this sense, the tourism sector is not left out: virtual tours have become an attraction for many, and these types of experiences have increasingly raised the public's curiosity, thanks to the fact that the development of cameras, 360 ° video and even drones has grown by leaps and bounds.
This is what some museums have done
You can go to the Palacio de Bellas Artes, in Mexico, without leaving the screen of your monitor or your mobile phone. Enough with enter here, play with the cursor and click on as many green arrows as you want to contemplate the construction from different exterior views, to "enter" the interior and see the murals or exhibitions, to even access the internal structures of the dome and the aerial mechanics where you will find pulleys and gears that you could never look closely at.
Another illustrative example is given by the Juan Soriano Morelense Museum of Contemporary Art, located in Cuernavaca. In your portal you can slide from one floor to another, as if you were in the elevator. If you click on the white circles, you can move from one point to another (it is a very similar experience to Google Maps), even see the planes in 3D ... with an invasion of pixels in between, yes. The interesting thing comes when you find colored circles, in which you can click to obtain information about the works, just as if you were reading the technical sheets.
This is what virtual hotel tours look like
Of course, the hotel industry has done this before, too. The Hotel Mousai portal, located in Puerto Vallarta, invites you to take a look at its suites, its restaurants and the panoramic pool, among other spaces. You can see the greenery from the lobby, peek out from the terraces, or even notice the reflection of the shiny mosaics, all of which create a similar feeling when you're there.
Other hotels have chosen to show their facilities in videos and embed them on their website, however, there is nothing like taking control of the camera and directing the view, the angles or the order of the tour yourself.
We tell you these ideas because these sites of tourist interest have captured the attention of users. In addition, it is proven that 67% of them choose to make reservations on those hotel websites that have virtual visits.
Now, do you want to know what you can do?
By including virtual reality tours of your hotel, your website visitors get a better browsing experience: they can observe even the most unsuspected angle, which gives them the assurance that, once they pay for your service, they will get exactly what they have seen.
Think of it this way: is it not preferable that, instead of seeing static and partial photos of the hotel facilities, you find yourself with a 360 ° tour that you can also direct yourself? Wouldn't this option give you greater confidence, when comparing it with a hotel that only shows its best angles?
Of course, the distinction is not only aesthetic: a virtual tour of the hotels also allows the user to plan their stay, according to the space. For example, if it is a work visit, virtual tours offer organizers a spatial perspective that they would not get even if they have the exact measurements of the meeting room, or no matter how much they look at the photos. Clearly, when users do a comparison, small details can make a difference.
Take inspiration and integrate virtual reality into your hotel
The pandemic that has come to change the world, after all, opens the doors for us to exploit the best ideas, and this is one that, without a doubt, can also benefit the hotel industry now and in the future.
At GuruHotel we tell you all this because we want you to stay inspired and in constant creativity, while we take charge of increasing your reservations through our platform.
Until now, we have only talked about semi-immersive virtual reality, where you need a computer or smartphone connected to the internet, but what if, by integrating this technology, you implement immersive or augmented virtual reality? The possibilities are multiple and the best thing is that it is not so difficult or expensive to implement this strategy in your business model; It all depends on how far you want to take the web experience of your next guests.
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