If you’re a major player in the hospitality industry and are the owner of luxury resorts, then you absolutely need to look into drone videography for hotels. Drone videography is fast replacing traditional methods and is capable of delivering professional quality images and footage at a fraction of their cost. There are additional capabilities that make drone technology invaluable for capturing the hotel’s properties, amenities, and surrounding landscapes in a way that cannot be matched from the ground or from a regular aircraft.
Find out how your resort can take advantage of this new marketing technology, and how you can turn your website visitors into actual guests that will stay at your resorts. Learn why drone videography is so popular in tourism and a few simple steps that can help you prepare for your own production.
Benefits of Aerial Photography and Videography for the Hotel Owner
The tourism industry is highly reliant on marketing materials that can showcase the visual aspects of a hotel. Apart from photos that appear in travel brochures and hotel websites, the only ones that can really showcase a luxury resort and spa are video commercials. This could be a two-minute video designed to attract the interest of travelers by including scenes that depict the hotel’s world-class amenities, popular tourist attractions nearby, and the surrounding natural landscape.
For potential guests to be convinced of their next dream vacation, this video clip could include aerial footage of the hotel property. This has long been a favorite for the tourism industry since a bird’s eye view of the resort gives the closest sensation to actually being there. When done professionally, a high-quality marketing video that includes aerial photography and videography creates an impact that few other clips or ground-level images of the hotel can match. If you can generate an emotional reaction in the heart of your potential guests, you will be able to increase the number of bookings.
Why Drone Photography and Videography Is Popular
Traditionally, aerial photography and videography were done using helicopters or small airplanes. While this can work, video productions like this are incredibly costly and available only to massive international resorts. On top of that, using helicopters to fly over the hotel property could be disruptive to the guests that are already there. There are also limitations to how close a manned aircraft could get to the hotel buildings.
Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) more popularly known as drones have become extremely affordable and reliable. The tourism industry has been quick to adapt these drones to capture aerial footage due to several reasons. The small size and maneuverability of drones make them easy to fly over or between buildings in a way that is impossible for a helicopter.
Drones can also fly lower than a traditional aircraft and yet high enough to gain a great vantage point, Drone photography can easily put ground-level images to shame and can capture the expansive beauty of a large resort. They can offer a unique aerial perspective that other methods cannot match.
Drones are also extremely quiet and will not disrupt the tranquil atmosphere your guests are enjoying if you fly one over your resort. A drone can also be quickly set up and flown by one or two operators without a massive production team arriving on site or an endless number of safety precautions. A hotel owner can get stunning aerial video clips and photos of their premises and surrounding area at a fraction of the cost and much less inconvenience by using a drone.
On a side note, drone photography and drone videography are often used interchangeably since the drones and camera gear can easily be configured for both. To learn more about drone videography, read What Is Hotel Drone Videography?
What You Can Showcase Using Drone Photography and Videography
A drone video can be extremely impactful if you know how to utilize its potential to the max when you showcase your hotel and its surrounding amenities. These are some of the unique features you can highlight using drone photography and video. By including these features, you can give viewers a small slice or taste of the kind of experience they can expect. This is a great way to increase your bookings.
Unique Architecture and Expansive Beauty of Your Hotel
If the architectural design of your hotels is unique or your premises are simply expansive, the best to impress potential guests is to show all of this from the air. If your property includes a golf course, drone photography is often the easiest way to capture its scale without damaging a blade of grass by having the production team drive over it.
Even the resorts themselves may be unaware of how great the layout of the buildings, is and how they are integrated into the natural environment until they see drone video or photos taken from above. If you spent a fortune to get a famous architect to design your hotel, then you’d better make sure your target audience can see it too, and drone photography is one of the best ways to do it.
The Natural Landscapes and Surrounding Amenities
Apart from the buildings in your resort, if you’re located near a particularly famous tropical beach or picturesque mountain range, then this could be one of the main attractions for visitors. Show them how close the accommodations are to these places of interest, and the jaw dropping views from your hotel rooms. A drone video can be extremely useful to capture not just the natural splendor of the area but just how easily accessible it all is from the comfort of your luxury hotel room.
Event Spaces
If you have the space to host events, within your premises, drone photography can be a great way to showcase these facilities. Destination weddings are now generally more desired than ones in the city. If your luxurious resort is located at a romantic outdoor location, be sure to capture its breathtaking views with a drone.
Interior Spaces, Restaurants, and Luxury Rooms
Most people in the hospitality industry still think that drone photography is only for taking aerial photos. While that has been its primary function, the increasingly smaller form factors of drone technology make it easy to use them for interior spaces as well. The unique ambiance of your indoor restaurants, the tranquility of your spas, and every inch of detail that separates your luxury rooms from others can now be caught on camera using a drone. One of the latest methods used to attract potential guests is to create a drone tour and make it accessible on the hotel website.
How to Use Drone Photography and Videography to Showcase Your Hotel or Resort
Now that you have an idea of what sort of exterior and interior spaces you can expect to record on camera to have the maximum impact on your target market, let’s see how you can go about planning for such a video production or project. Whether you’re handling the project with your in-house marketing team, or you’re thinking about using professional drone photography services, these steps are valid either way.
What’s the Story?
First, you need to decide which parts of your hotels need to be presented to your target market. Sit down with your marketing team and brainstorm what your approach will be. Are you trying to attract nature lovers? Then the tone of your video and the drone footage needs to accentuate the peaceful surroundings and closeness to the natural environment. If you’re trying to be appealing to partygoers, then you need to highlight the options for nightlife like restaurants, clubs, and live music that is available nearby.
Also, don’t forget that marketing needs to be consistent with your brand identity and voice. If you’re a city hotel focusing on business travelers, then your high-quality drone video needs to showcase convenient access to places of interest or the business district in the area. You also need to decide where the completed video with drone footage will be uploaded. This could be social media pages or your hotel website depending on the target market.
Find a Video Production Partner
If your in-house marketing team doesn’t have the required gear or is inexperienced in flying a drone, then your best option is to hire a professional company that provides drone photography services. Make sure to check their portfolio and see what kind of work they are capable of. If they have experience doing hospitality-related video productions for luxury resorts and hotels, then they might be the ones to make your marketing project a success. Also, don’t forget to check if they have a licensed drone pilot to operate the UAV.
Plan the Shots with Your Video Production Partner
Now that you have a video production partner, communicate to them which features you’re planning to showcase to your target market. This way, they can come up with a list of drone shots that need to be taken and maybe even give you an idea of the cost it will take. It would also help to let them know which types of guests you’re planning to attract.
Location Scouting
Your production partner may need to scout the hotel location ahead of the actual shooting date to get an idea of the cameras and lenses they will need for capturing the most alluring footage of your property. If there are features like fountains and various other things you may have forgotten to highlight earlier, location scouting can help generate more ideas.
Check Drone Laws
There are drone laws that need to be abided by depending on where your hotels are located. If you’re in Thailand for example, drone photography and videography for commercial purposes such as hospitality require special clearances from two government institutions. Your production partner needs to have their drone registered and the pilot should have a valid license to operate it.
There are also special rules for flying drones near buildings and other populated areas. If your property is close to a national park, it may be a restricted area that requires special clearance before flying a drone over it. Failure to comply with these regulations could result in fines or even a prison sentence, so it’s always best to check and hire a production partner that is certified to provide these services. For more on drone laws, read Thailand Drone Laws: Are They Legal?
Keep Your Hotel and Staff Prepared to Facilitate the Video Production
Finally, ensure that the staff in your hotels are prepared to facilitate the production team on the day of the shooting. It’s best to keep them briefed ahead of time and communicate any special requirements to the production team. For example, drone operators are required by law to maintain a direct line of sight at all times with the UAVs. Therefore, the production team will need access to a rooftop or other suitable location from which to remotely operate the drones.
Professional Drone Photography Services
If you’re looking for a professional production company that is certified, has experience serving in the hospitality industry, has worked with multiple five-star resorts, and is capable of handling a project that includes drone photography and videography, then check out Sujo Twenty-Two today!
FAQs
To get high-quality aerial footage of your hotel, amenities, surrounding, and nearby attractions, the best option is to hire a production company that provides drone photography and videography services.
Yes. 4K footage offers higher quality and better overall detail than 1080p. 4K when done by an experienced professional can make footage of your hotel look vastly better and impressive.
