The most significant aspect of your Hospitality website is to capture the imagination of potential guests and to convince them you are the place to book their stay. Creating an engaging experience as quickly and effectively as possible is a crucial step to achieve this. Creating a vicarious experience when a potential guest looks at your site will increase their potential to book with you to experience the real thing.

Images play an essential part in showing your potential guests what they should expect if they book with you. You have probably heard the phrase ‘A pictures worth a thousand words.’ This statement has been around since the early 1900s and still holds today; most content online being viewed is either photos or videos. So when potential guests look at your website, they are drawn to your images and will probably consider your location based on their impression alone. Most potential guests using ‘Direct Bookings’ will look at an average of 10 places before making a choice where to book. So you have a limited window to capture their interest and convince a potential guest to book with you–and not your competition.

So how do we capture the right emotion and experience in our images to get those bookings?

Many elements go into a compelling image. In this series of articles, we are going to focus on the essential elements of drawing your potential guest into a captivating experience.

1. Light
2. Moment
3. Composition
4. Subject
5. Impact

Subject – Inanimate Objects in Action

Newton’s first law of physics states that any object in motion stays in motion unless acted on by an equal or opposite force. Objects fill our spaces, and when attempting to capture a static subject that conveys emotion, you must create the illusion of action or intent in the scene. Creating a compelling image of your subject can be accomplished in many ways. Adding movement around your subject or isolating the subject are great ways to accomplish this. Or you can use props to convey action.

Using props as your subject to convey an experience is essential for marketing images for lodging properties. The room they are booking is a place to lay their head and relax, but Guests are booking usually to go somewhere for an experience. Make sure you are sharing common spaces, unique spots around your property, and the activities that can be enjoyed on and off-site.

These images below use props and movement to convey action. Finding these unique spaces will highlight the best your property has to offer and encourage guests to book with you to experience it for themselves.

You can see more examples in our portfolio