There’s no doubt that online videos are a powerful way to market a property. But with the number of properties for sale or rent online, how do you make sure your video gets noticed? By using a virtual tour!
A virtual tour makes your property stand out from the rest by providing potential guests or tenants with an immersive experience that allows them to explore every corner of your home or business. And virtual tours are no longer limited to high-end or expensive commercial properties. Small and corporate rental property owners can now use virtual tours for marketing their listings, and vacation rental owners have also adopted virtual reality for their marketing strategy. So, if you’re looking to give your rental property an edge in today’s competitive marketplace, consider using a virtual tour.
The reasons for using virtual tours to highlight your vacation rental homes and recreational properties are plentiful. Simply put, people want to get a feel for the property before they book it. While pictures of the exterior and amenities can be helpful, virtual tours add that extra touch that helps potential renters or investors decide on their next home or rental investment.
Immersion
Virtual tours create an immersive experience for those looking at your rental. They can help people “walk through” the property, seeing all the different areas and getting a better feel for what it would be like to stay there. This is especially beneficial for those who may not visit in person.
Social Proof
Additionally, virtual tours can help create a sense of “social proof” for your property, especially vacation rentals. Airbnbs and Vrbo rentals have taken the hospitality industry by storm. Since the vacation rental market has grown with new players in the game, these rental owners look for new ways to make their properties stand out from the rest. Seeing people enjoying their stay at your home gives potential renters confidence that it is worth renting. Of course, reviews help most instill confidence in a rental, but the virtual tour is a great addition to put the renter at ease in their decision. This is especially important if the renter has never stayed with you or heard of you before. They want to feel confident that they are going into this from a good place and a virtual tour helps with that.
Highlight Amenities and Special Features
Also, virtual tours highlight your home’s amenities, such as a hot tub or pool, great views from the backyard deck, or proximity to a particular attraction in the area. There are many ways you can use virtual tours to show off what your vacation rental has to offer.
Vacation Rentals and Airbnbs
A virtual tour is the first impression many people will have of your property, so it’s vital to ensure your image quality is perfect. By taking the time to create a high-quality 360-degree tour, you’ll most likely book more rentals.
A few points to keep in mind about virtual reality in real estate:
- Virtual tours are a great way to get more traffic on listings.
- They are interactive, allowing users to navigate through the space before booking it – providing more of an immersive experience.
- Allows for social proof of your property’s quality given all the reviews seen on each virtual tour.
- Provides greater variety in marketing material with customizable previews that can be used across different platforms, showcasing available rentals.
Virtual tours add a new dynamic to marketing for vacation rentals. They allow potential renters or buyers another way to feel what the property is like without first visiting the location. You’ll create a better first impression that can lead to more bookings and sales.
Virtual Tours Make Rental Property Marketing Easier
These interactive multimedia experiences give viewers a sense of place by providing immersive photographs from various angles. In real estate, properties can be virtually toured on mobile devices and phones, and they can be easily embedded in emails, websites, and messages. Sharing virtual tours also makes marketing more accessible and more efficient. Imagine the time you’ll save on-site visits.
Virtual Tour Marketing Benefits
- Enables renters to see all sides of a property’s layout before booking while giving them the ability to “move” through the space.
- Captures attention, leading to greater chances of bookings or leads for real estate agents/brokers who are selling recreational properties.
- Ensures that all relevant information about a listing can be made available to interested parties.
- Makes the most of marketing material by allowing users to view any number of properties with customizable previews quickly.
There are several ways virtual tour software can improve search engine optimization (SEO) results, increase page views, and engage visitors.
- Allows for responsive design – i.e., the tour will automatically adapt to the screen size of the device being used to view it, giving users a better viewing experience that requires no additional navigation or scrolling.
- Uses keywords on all images (where allowed), which helps with SEO results on Google, Bing, and other major search engines.
- Captures geographic location and postal/zip code (where allowed), offering more opportunities for showing up on local search results.
- Allows users to view specific parts of a home or rental property using the dollhouse format feature. Matterport is the industry standard for using this VR tour feature, and ViviScape uses it!
- A “call to action” (CTA) button can be included to drive leads and bookings.
Now that you know more about virtual tours and their benefits, are you planning to add VR to your marketing strategy? If you need help preparing a professional virtual tour, ViviScape’s team of VR experts can answer any questions you have about the technology. Contact us or call (574) 207-6511.
