4 Tips to Stand Out on Travel Sites

Compelling visual content converts travel shoppers. That’s why OTAs and travel channels demand it. TripAdvisor published a study showing that properties with more than 20 photos get 150% more engagement. In fact, doubling a hotel’s online pictures can result in up to a 4.5% up-take and $3.50 higher ADR. 

Having the right content will put your properties and your brand(s) at an advantage over the competition – on your brand site, OTAs and all other third-party travel & technology channels. Follow these 4 tips to ensure your hotels stand out.

1) Keep Content Current

It’s important that visual content is kept current. Most brand guidelines prohibit the use of photos older than three years; beyond that though, fresh photos ensure a new experience for returning travel shoppers. Photos should reflect the property’s current condition and amenities and should be updated after any renovations, service changes, etc. Make sure that the visual content always reflects the current offerings of your property.

Best practice recommendation:

• Encourage hotels are review content on a monthly basis and make updates as needed.

2) Show off Your Rooms

Travel shoppers view guest room images two times more than any other image. They want to see the product that they’re purchasing – the guest room decor, design, layout and amenities. So make sure you’re showcasing what's unique about your property or brand's different categories of rooms.  

Best practice recommendations:

• Provide a minimum of 4 photos per room type – and don’t forget to showcase the bathroom in at least one of those photos.
• Unique features of the room such as the view, working desk, TV and type of bed are also key decision factors in visually upselling your rooms.

3) High Resolution Content is King

High quality content is one of the key criteria used by OTAs and travel & technology channels to define your content score and subsequently display on their sites, so you should always upload the highest quality images available.

Best practice recommendations: 

• A minimum of 70% of your images should be high-resolution (a minimum of 2048px on the longest side).
• An aspect ratio of 16:9 is ideal as it’s the most common aspect ratio for TVs, computer monitors and smartphones or tablets turned sideways. This landscape orientation is preferred because the image will occupy the entire screen. If a vertical orientation is used, then the viewing device will surround the image with “white space” when image is rendered.

Of course, photos should reflect your brand identity; be free of debris, cables, cords, trash cans, ash trays, power lines, banners or other eye distractions; be royalty-free or must be accompanied by proper credit information to be posted in the photo caption; and look good!

4) Don’t Hold Back on Quantity

If we know that properties with more than 20 photos see 150% more engagement than properties with less, then why hold back? Share all the high quality content you have for your guest rooms and amenities.

Best practice recommendation:

• Limited service properties: 15 - 21+ photos
• Full service properties: 18 - 28+ photos
• Luxury properties: 21 - 35+ photos

Want to know how your brand measures up?

Contact your Account Manager. We’ll share your Leonardo content health score as well as other content quality reports to assist you in evaluating how your properties/brand(s) perform and compare with others.