So what is accomodation photography and why should you hire an accomodation photographer?

Have you ever seen a photograph on social media, Air BnB , Booking.com or Riparide that made you stop in your tracks and made you want to book yourself a little holiday then and there in that moment at that exact location?  Chances are, the photo you are viewing was taken by a professional photographer who specialises in accomodation photography.

Accomodation photographers specialise in capturing accomodation that tells the story of the experience you may have if you were to have a short break or holiday stay at that particular accomodation offering.

If you’re an accomodation service provider and you’re wondering whether your business may benefit from hiring an accomodation photographer for your business then keep reading – I’m going to give you three quick tips around why it may be time for you to engage an accomodation photographer:

• You have an incredible property ready for bookings, you’ve built your website, you’ve curated your social media page and yet you’re not getting the bookings you’d imagined you would.  The first place I would be looking is at your image library.  Be honest with yourself – are your photos giving a truly accurate, professional and visually pleasing representation of what it would be like to experience a weekend, short stay, or holiday at your property? Are your photos blurry? Are they over-cropped when you upload them to your website because you didn’t capture your images in a size necessary for your website? Are your photos too dark (under-exposed), or too light (over-exposed)?  The list could go on.  Whether you want to hear it or not, humans are visual creatures, and in this digital age we’re flooded with thousands upon thousands of images every single day – it’s no wonder that the average attention span per post is a mere eight seconds.  Yes, you read that right…eight seconds.  That means you have eight seconds to not only compete with other accomodation providers, but also to capture the attention of your target market AND you also need to convince them that they should click that link or go to your website to consider finding out more about what service you offer based off one photo.  The hard reality is that if your photos don’t look professional, and don’t communicate your offering convincingly in an aesthetically pleasing way, then chances are you’ll miss a potential booking.

• You know how amazing it would be stay and experience your property, but your iPhone photos aren’t quite visually communicating the experience. I know social media makes it seem easy to take photos to communicate a product or service, but let me tell you a not so secret, secret…photography can be tough.  There’s so much more to photography than just “clicking a button”.  A good photographic eye, styling, lighting, composition and editing techniques are what makes the difference between a good, and not so good photo.  And to be clear, this is not me being dismissive of iPhone photography – there are some incredible images out in the world that have been created on iPhones – but I personally believe a good photograph is made up of 90% creative vision and technical execution, and 10% your equipment.  We are all attracted to different experiences for different reasons, and we are very visual creatures – this is what makes us humans so interesting.  More than ever, people are influenced by striking imagery and want experiences that are memorable, and experiences that are worth them spending their hard earned money on – particularly in this current financial climate.  It is for this reason, that you may benefit from a gallery of diverse, thoughtfully and professionally captured images that tell the entire story of your accomodation offering in such a way that enables your potential clients to imagine themselves having the experience, and encourages them to click the “Book Now” button.

• You’re struggling to keep up with the content creation beast that is social media.  As a small business owner I know first hand just how many hats we wear.  Between keeping up with admin, digital marketing, accomodation cleaning and maintenance, bookkeeping and client services, there’s a lot to do, and only 24 hours in the day (for which some of that 24 hours *should* be reserved for sleep and friends/fur baby/partner/family time).  Even I as a photographer and creative dislike immensely the pressure of creating content to satiate an algorithm, but unfortunately it’s a necessary evil in that social media is a proven marketing strategy.  If I’ve learned anything  from my time so far as a small business owner, it’s that outsourcing is a smart investment not just financially – but also mentally and physically as well.  You only have so many hours in the day, and we all have our strengths and weaknesses.  If you invest in a professional photography package, you’ll have a gallery of images to use across your social media and website platforms, and rather than you trying to run around and capture professional looking photos, it’ll be done for you by someone else, you’ll have a gallery of images at your disposal, and you can focus on other aspects of your business that require more attention.

So there are three reasons why it may be time for you to engage in a professional accomodation photographer for your accomodation services.

If you’re ready to take the next step and book an accomodation photographer, then feel free to reach out to me via the services page – I would love to speak to you about how we can work together.  If you’d like to learn more about me, then head on over to the About page, or you can follow me over on Pinterest,  Instagram or Facebook for more behind the scenes.  And if you’d like to see some examples of my work, you can find examples of my accomodation photography work here.

Until next time,

Deb

Founder, Lens & Muse