Future for hotel video reviews – your thoughts
By Darren Cronian on Wednesday, May 6th, 2009

Recently I have used a number of hotel search and review sites and have recorded a video blog post which I will post on my You Tube channel soon. Anyway, I have found a few video hotel search and review sites including Hotels.tv and Hotelly and I am not overly impressed.

Future for hotel video reviews – your thoughts

Staged, professional video hotel reviews

The sites themselves are fine, but, 90% of the video reviews I have seen are professionally recorded and are just like the hotel websites themselves. Featuring the nicest rooms, and when you arrive at the hotel it’s nothing like the photos and videos.

Some of the videos aren’t particularly good quality, and the dodgy music in the background puts me off. Where’s the commentary, the actual review. Creating a video, adding music, and a little bit of text on a screen is not a review to me.

User generated video reviews

What I want to see are real off-the-cuff video hotel reviews like the Shaftsbury Kensington hotel review I recorded last year prior to the Travolution Awards. I have no interest in watching promotional fluffy reviews and do not trust them.

It’s fairly inexpensive nowadays, unless abroad, to take out your mobile phone and use a service like Qik to record a video and publish it on the internet. You can then upload it to the likes of Travelistic, You Tube or a hotel video site.

So, an open question to readers.

What are your opinions on video hotel reviews, too professional and staged? Or, there’s a future for them providing that they’re user generated video reviews included. Please leave your thoughts and opinions in the comments.


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24 responses to “Future for hotel video reviews – your thoughts”

idaho | 6 May, 2009 at 10:26 am

Quite interesting and I am looking forward to see what people think of this idea. In my opinion this could be a very good idea for a start up.

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Happy Hotelier | 6 May, 2009 at 10:28 am

Darren
As a hotelier myself, I do not use video on my site, although I have several videos lying around that I could use for it.
Personally I believe that a couple of good honest (i.e. not doctored) photos should give the prospective guest a good impression. It’s sooo much quicker than video. Even a not too heavy slide show is so much quicker than a video..
In addition I strongly believe a hotel site should not make any noise. Why? Because many people surf the www for accommodation during working time. Noise on a website distracts and could distract co workers. A video without sound is no video, but a slide show. Than why not stick to a slideshow?
Guido

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Cathy Bartrop | 6 May, 2009 at 11:24 am

Hotel videos are very tricky to get right. After all a hotel is not just about fancy rooms and facilities but the whole experience i.e. service, food, atmosphere etc And timing for when its filmed also makes the world of difference i.e. if its busy/empty/ night or day etc

Video is the perfect medium to give more information but so often, as you say, they fall into the trap of either staged showarounds or wobblycam UGC – neither in my opinion is particularly helpful. If video is billed as a ‘review’ it must have some sort of commantary otherwise its no more helpful than stills or written comments.

We’ve done a few UK hotel shoots for travelguru.tv but have backed away from them now, mainly because, frankly a hotel on its own is rarely a sufficiently strong story. I’d like to see more hoteliers thinking outside the box and realising that their property is t part of a bigger picture i.e. the location in general and the experiences you can have whilst staying there. Problem is, as always, finding budget to fund more than just a couple of hours of same old, same old, staged showaround filming.

Reply to Happy Hotelier also – video streaming is not as slow as you think – check out
http://tinyurl.com/crheqv

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Darren Cronian | 6 May, 2009 at 11:40 am

@ Guido

How would you feel if some of your guests recorded a video and posted it on You Tube?

@ Cathy

I agree re. very tricky, and if I had a choice between wobbly UGC and professional I’d go wobbly every time. A customer is more likely to zoom into the negatives of a hotel room, and location.

I am surprised that video and hotels hasn’t taken off, its a good match, but like Guido said, the cost and time probably is not worth it for most hoteliers.

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Timmo | 6 May, 2009 at 11:43 am

I whole heartedly agree with your point regarding the fluffy over-produced promo videos. I would much rather see an average consumers point of view of a place whilst they are there and maybe a small tour of the hotel or facility with pros and cons.

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Duncan | 6 May, 2009 at 11:59 am

I agree somewhat with you Darren. Previously I’ve felt the quality of hotel video online to either be generally too poor – or too polished. The inbetween – whereby you get the boots ‘n all insight into whether an hotel is good for your needs or not – doesn’t seem ably catered for.

One afterthought though. For me, part of the travel/holiday experience is the anticipation of going away, either during the planning stage or when you are at the airport/on the transfer to resort. If you can do virtual tours of places to visit before you go there; doesn’t that dilute some of the excitement (and experience) of actually experiencing it in person when you arrive?

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Happy Hotelier | 6 May, 2009 at 1:39 pm

@Darren
Uhm It depends….if they would post a “bed jumping” video I would be “not amused” to say the least.

If it is just a video with comment about the place, I would feel fine. I know I can stand the test. But I would doubt whether it is helpful for others.

I’m even thinking about a way to build a sort of community around my site and to invite people to publish on it….

@Duncan
Exactly. If you have an open mind and travel with an open mind, just enjoy the experience. You even can enjoy a bad experience, because you will have a better story to tell :-)

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Andy | 6 May, 2009 at 2:49 pm

Good recent photos are enough for me. Pool, room, reception, dining area, window views, exterior shots. I can quickly scan 20 photos on a page, enlarge the ones that interest me and done.

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Nick | 6 May, 2009 at 1:58 pm

Darren

Next step for trip advisor etc, post your own videos?

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Pete Meyers | 6 May, 2009 at 3:36 pm

I think in due time we’ll see much more UGC video content to complement photos. It took TripAdvisor quite a while to develop a high volume of photos – after all, why post photos when you can read reviews, right :) – and this seems like a natural next step. Especially as HD flip cams and video-enabled smart phones become more of the norm.

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Darren Cronian | 6 May, 2009 at 4:39 pm

@ Pete

I think your spot on. Also another thought I just had is the potential advertising revenue someone like Trip Advisor could make. Watch a video review of XYZ hotel and sponsor ads appear at the bottom of the video.

I love Geobeats and they have done that with their professionally recorded destination videos.

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Darren Cronian | 6 May, 2009 at 4:25 pm

@ Nick

I think as Pete says in due time we’ll see that transitition happen but I videos are quite memory intenstive so would it be cost effective? Would consumers use videos as a factor for making a decision to book a hotel.

I’m not sure myself. As a few have posted it’s a number of factors why we book XYZ hotel, photos, reviews, location, price etc. included.

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Darren Cronian | 6 May, 2009 at 4:28 pm

@ Guido

I am going off topic but I like the idea of creating a small ning like community on a hotel site and people could upload videos to the ning network which would I guess cut down your costs to host the videos on your own server.

Would people use it though? I have seen a few travel social media networks and they start off all guns blazing but it dies out after a few months. This is the reason why creating such a thing on travel rants puts me off.

Back on topic.

I am glad you are receptive to videos, be them positive and negative. In my mind the only way a hotel can improve and truely satisfy the consumer is monitoring comments and acting accordingly.

@ Duncan

Interesting point you make. I remember a work colleague telling me that when he arrived at the resort he wasn’t excited because he had watched the videos, viewed the photos and read the reviews.

His wife on the other hand was excited and loved the holiday. So your spot on you can spoil the holiday experience by watching too many videos, photos and reading reviews.

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Pete Meyers | 6 May, 2009 at 4:34 pm

@ Darren – In my opinion I think that what will happen is the larger review sites will eventually incorporate video uploads, which will diminish the need for stand alone sites that solely focus on video reviews. That way it can appeal to those whom wish to view video, but not required for everyone to do so.

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Robert Reid | 6 May, 2009 at 4:40 pm

Interesting idea. But problematic if one person wants to show a range of options in one place. When I’m working on guidebooks, and visit many hotels — incl ones I don’t stay at — I suspect there’d be trouble trying to get some FlipVideo footage of anything from the $6 guesthouse to $500 luxury villa suite.

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Darren Cronian | 6 May, 2009 at 4:48 pm

@ Robert

If you mean with regard to hotels allowing you to record the hotel and public places you have a point.

I suspect there’s issues with “invasion of privacy” if recording a hotel’s bar or restaurant area.

Good point. Anyone agree/disagree?

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Robert Reid | 6 May, 2009 at 4:55 pm

I’ve definitely been stopped by chunky guys in chunky jackets while I tried to snap a photo at places like malls and hotel lobbies. Usually staff go with you inside rooms, and nearly all — I’m sure — wouldn’t want me pulling out a video camera to show the bathroom, beds and robe in the closet.

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Darren Cronian | 6 May, 2009 at 6:53 pm

@ Robert

I agree – but why if they have nothing to hide would they be so worried?

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Kim Palacios | 7 May, 2009 at 3:10 am

Good idea, but like everything else, the usefulness of the video review would only be as good as the videographer and his/her agenda. I am optimistic that talented, objective video reviewers who committ to this medium and produce telling reviews could cultivate a following, much like talented, objective travel writers.

@ Robert–I agree. It has also been my (and my photographer’s) experience that hotel employees get skittish when they see that someone doesn’t appear to be shooting personal material. We have had our share of scuffles with hotel security guards, and have been beaten into submission (now, we wait until our tour rep meets us before we start to shoot, even if we have time to kill).

@ Darren–I cover luxury hotels, and the stock answer I’ve gotten about why photography has to be authorized is concerns about the papparazi harassing high-profile hotel guests, but I suspect this is only half the reason. Certainly, mainstream hotels can’t claim this.

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Darren Cronian | 7 May, 2009 at 3:47 pm

@ Kim

I suppose I can understand it in luxury hotels where high profile guests hang out, but for the norm, the only reason why they are worried about photos/videos is because they’re hiding something.

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Clive | 8 May, 2009 at 12:59 pm

Darren

I can foresee that some hotels would post their own ‘homemade’ video footage posing as an unbiased review. This is one of the downsides to all Web2 user generated content it is hard to know the veracity of it. It is also open to spammers. Having said that it still has merit.

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robert | 14 May, 2009 at 5:14 pm

Found some great hotel videos at eurobookings.com.
Not too fancy or promo material. Some hotels are plain ugly. ;-)
Unfortunatley they do have music playing on the back but that didn’t bother me though.
I chose another hotel by lookinh at the videos there so it helped me.
I feel it;s a big added value even if video’s are not real reviews.

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Roman | 1 June, 2009 at 8:35 am

I have personally completely gone with user generated reviews for my own travel advice, but for a guy in the travel business I supposes I should really be keeping a sharp eye on this trend of “video” generated reviews. We will be offering the standard Trip Advisor reviews which are so common on so many sites, but are totally in the dark as to how to create a “space” for people to generate videos on their reviews. I will keep up with this particular post and any new info would be greatly appreciated. Darren, I’m not sure how you keep up with such a massive blog and you really help a lot of people out; I think I can speak for everyone– we really appreciate it!

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Christian Rieger | 9 June, 2009 at 7:48 pm

The professionally done and/or rigged videos can be obvious. If an amateur video reviewer is with his wife, more than likely they both will not be in the video at the same time.

Addtionally, the views and commentary will be disjointed. This gives honesty and integrity to it. But there will also be a lot of bad video sout there.

One reason is when the videographer is panning an area, he will frequently do it too fast and the final product is almost a blur. That by itself will be a sign of an amateur. But also his amateurness may carry over to his observations as well. So as usual, we will have to compare and contrast video revues as we do written ones.

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