Hotel virtual tour: what to include, cost and where it goes

A hotel virtual tour is worth doing if it shows one room of each type and the spaces guests pay for, and if it sits where people decide: your direct-booking site, your replies to enquiries and, as individual 360° photos, your Google listing and Booking.com. You don't need to tour every room or pay for a 3D scan unless you run a large or luxury property. Below are the list of spaces, reference costs and each platform's rules, taken from their own documentation.

What the research says about virtual tours and bookings

Plenty of figures about virtual tours and hotel bookings are passed around, and most trace back to blogs from companies that sell tours. The ones we could check at the source are academic studies, and they say something more modest but useful:

A study of 569 participants in the Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Technology (Israel, Zerres and Tscheulin, 2019) used a hotel tour built from static panoramas on a smartphone. The sense of "being there" made the presentation feel more useful and enjoyable, and that raised booking intention.
A paper in the Journal of Travel Research (McLean and Barhorst, 2021) compared VR headsets, a 360° tour and a website with photos. In a lab experiment with 270 people, VR helped people learn about the hotel and raised visit intentions. In a survey of 409 tourists after their stay, it helped what they found match what they expected.

Note what they don't say: they measure booking intention under study conditions, not real bookings in your engine. Be wary of any "X% more bookings" claim without a study behind it. The second finding, about expectations, matters most for a small hotel: a guest who has seen the room as it really is gets fewer surprises, and that tends to show in reviews.

The short version: tour one room of each type and the spaces that justify your rate, put the tour on each room type's page on your website and send it to people who enquire. For Google and Booking.com you need individual 360° photos, not a link.

What to include in a hotel virtual tour

Booking.com's photography guide for partners is a good starting list, because it reflects what guests look for before booking. Adapted for a tour:

One room of each type. Not all of them: standard double, superior, family room, suite. If two rooms of the same type are very different (one with a terrace, one facing the courtyard), treat them as separate types, because guests will compare them.

Each type's bathroom. Booking.com stresses that bathrooms matter as much as bedrooms because they signal cleanliness. A 360° view shows everything, so clean mirrors, towels in place and the toilet lid down.

Arrival. The entrance and reception. It helps anyone arriving late or with luggage recognise the place.

What guests pay for. Pool, terrace, spa, garden, breakfast room, bar. If one of them is the reason people pick you over the hotel next door, it goes in the tour.

Function rooms. If you host weddings or meetings, show the room empty and, if you can, set up. This is where a tour saves the most show-rounds.

For a B&B, guest house or country inn the list is shorter: every bedroom (there are usually few and they differ), the shared kitchen or dining room, the garden or patio.

How to prepare and when to shoot

Shoot when the hotel is quiet, first thing in the morning, before guests reach the shared areas and with rooms freshly made.
Daylight plus every light on. Curtains open so the view shows, because it's the first thing guests look for.
No sign of operations: housekeeping trolleys, laminated notices, cables, laundry bags.
Stand in the middle of the space at eye level. In a small room, between the bed and the window usually works best.
Redo it when something changes. A pre-refurbishment tour works against you.

How much does a hotel virtual tour cost?

We found no published rate cards from UK photographers aimed at hotels; most quote per job. What is published is home pricing and tool pricing, which give you a reference (prices checked October 2026; full detail in what a virtual tour costs):

Hiring a photographer: UK rate cards for a Matterport scan of a home run from about £249 (Property Photo Guy) to £574 for six bedrooms or more (Houses and Properties). A hotel has more spaces than a house, so ask for a quote per space and check how many months of hosting are included.
Matterport yourself: Professional 10 is £86 / $108 a month for 10 active spaces, per Matterport's price list, and the Pro3 camera is £3,195 / $3,995 per its hardware price list. It makes sense when you sell on floor area and dollhouse views: large or 5 star hotels, event venues. That is the "hotel virtual tour Matterport" route.
Your own 360 camera: the Insta360 X5 launched at £519.99 / $549.99, according to road.cc, plus a platform to build the tour. It has one advantage the phone route lacks: you get 360° files you can upload to Google and Booking.com.
With an iPhone: the cost is your time, a few minutes per space.

Where to put your hotel virtual tour

On your website, on each room type's page

This is where it works hardest. Embed the tour with an iframe next to the description and the book button for each room type. It's a reason to book direct: guests see the exact room they're paying for.

In your replies and at reception

Paste the link into every email or WhatsApp reply, especially for groups, families and events. At reception or by the function room door, a QR poster lets someone viewing the space show it later to whoever decides with them. We cover the idea for estate agents in QR codes for window cards; it works the same way.

On your Google Business Profile

We found no field in Google's help for linking an external tour from a Business Profile, but Google Maps does accept 360° photos. Per the Google Maps help, you publish them like a normal photo, from Google Maps in a browser or the Android app, and they need at least 7.5 megapixels (3,840 × 1,920 pixels), a 2:1 ratio, a maximum of 75 MB, no gaps at the horizon and no major stitching errors. Google suggests a 360 camera or a DSLR with stitching software, and says processing can take up to 4 days. The old Street View app stopped working on 21 March 2023 and photo spheres moved to Google Maps, per Android Central.

On Booking.com and other OTAs

Booking.com's partner help accepts 360° photos in the gallery at a 2:1 ratio and at least 1280 × 900 pixels. In other words, individual panoramas, not a linked tour. We found no field in its documentation for pasting a tour link, and the same guide asks you not to upload watermarked images or ones that mainly show contact details.

For Expedia we found no official public documentation on tours or 360° photos. Third-party guides describe a process through approved vendors, but we couldn't verify it. Ask your market manager before paying for anything aimed at that platform.

Doing it with RoomTour

RoomTour is our app, and it covers the website, messages and reception part:

Capture each space on your list with an iPhone: the screen guides about 30 shots per space and the phone stitches the 360° panorama. No 360 camera, tripod or LiDAR.
Name each space ("Superior double", "Bathroom", "Terrace") so the tour makes sense.
Embed the tour on your website with the iframe and share the roomtourapp.com/t/… link in your replies.
Print the A4 QR poster for reception, in English or Spanish.
Check the views on each tour in the app to see whether people open it.

The limits, plainly: the floor plan it produces is approximate (roughly 10–20 cm out), RoomTour doesn't publish to Google or Booking.com or export panoramas as files yet, and it doesn't connect to your PMS or channel manager. For 360° photos on those platforms, a 360 camera is the better choice. More on our hotel virtual tour page, and see the result in the example tour.

Frequently asked questions

What should a hotel virtual tour include?

One room of each type with its bathroom, the entrance and reception, the breakfast room, and whatever justifies your rate: pool, terrace, spa or function room. You don't need to tour every single room.

How much does a hotel 360 tour cost?

We found no published hotel-specific rate cards. As a guide, UK photographers charge roughly £250–£575 to scan a home with Matterport, and Matterport's own Professional 10 plan is £86 a month for 10 active spaces. For a hotel, ask for a quote per space.

Can I add a virtual tour to Booking.com?

Booking.com accepts 360° photos in the property gallery, 2:1 and at least 1280 × 900 pixels, per its partner help. We found no field in its documentation for linking a full tour.

How do I add 360 photos to my hotel's Google listing?

Upload them like any photo from Google Maps in a browser or the Android app. Google asks for at least 7.5 megapixels (3,840 × 1,920), a 2:1 ratio and no gaps at the horizon, per its Google Maps help.

Hotel virtual tour vs Matterport: do I need a 3D scan?

Only if you sell on exact dimensions or want a dollhouse view, which suits large or 5 star hotels and event venues. To show guests what each room type looks like, linked 360° panoramas are enough.