A Virtual Tour to increase bookings?

Up, down, could be better? How to get more bookings is our number one obsession. Talk shop here.
Tom Greveson
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A Virtual Tour to increase bookings?

Post by Tom Greveson »

Hi,

I am genuinely interested as to whether anyone has used or considered using virtual tours, what kind of prices people are prepared to pay and what the general level of understanding is when it comes to panoramic technology. I run a company that specialises in creating Virtual Tours for properties and believe such imagery can help increase bookings, but please let me know if you think I'm flogging a dead cheval!

In return for your suggestions I am happy to answer any questions you may have about VR photography. I will be respecting the wishes of Paolo and abide by the rules (hence no website/co. plug) so you'll get straight answers, not a sales pitch!

Cheers, Tom.

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vrooje
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Post by vrooje »

Tom,

Welcome to the forums!

We don't have a virtual tour of our property -- just photographs. Is it a 360-degree photo animation type thing, or is it like someone walking through the property with a video camera? I think the latter might be more useful.

Sorry, I don't know much about it -- I actually almost never click the link when it's available, because much of the time the software can't be downloaded in Linux, which is what I use. I have always wondered what it's like, though -- does it give a true sense of the property, or is it distorted as a photo is through a fisheye lens?

In any case, welcome!
Brooke
PeeJay
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Post by PeeJay »

Have been interested in something like this for a while. Later this year we are opening a brand new luxury 2 bed apartment and would be very interested in using this as a selling feature.

Could you PM me your details including a contact address (we live in Leeds)??
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tansy
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Post by tansy »

My friend in UK sold her house recently - the estate agents use virtual tours for houses in this price bracket....she swore by it...I would be interested - pm me please - our house on the west coast is a tardis... to look at it there is no way could it be thought as a 5 bedrooms & 3 bathrooms!!
sazzleevans
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Post by sazzleevans »

Hi Tom

I think anything that can help you "sell" your accomodation is worth a go if it an affordable price.

Could you let me know how much this sort of software would cost.

SARAH
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Tom Greveson
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A few answers

Post by Tom Greveson »

Thank you for the warm welcome Brooke and for the interest from those who have posted replies.

To answer Brooke's Q about “movies or 360 photographs� it is the latter of the two that I specialise in, they allow the user to click, drag and look around a room as if they were there. You can also click on doors to access other rooms in a property and click on a floor plan for direct access to any of the rooms.

Aside from the interactivity, the beauty of using 360 panoramic tours is that download speed is fast so they can be used on-line to market property (typical file size is 100-150kb for the 360 movie of each room). I had to drop the idea of using a video camera to create such tours a while back as a 10sec clip of one room is around 1MB, to the user this means waiting 10 times longer to see each room on-line.... not acceptable!

I believe you should be able to access tours with Linux Brooke, if you'd like me to PM you I would be happy to send you the address of a website where I can at least guarantee the tours work on all windows and OSX operating systems.

Fisheye lens' give distorted images, whilst they are quicker for the VR photographer to use, the end result often suffers. I personally use a wide angled 14mm or 18mm lens.

I think that's enough from me for now, keep the questions coming and thanks again for the interest.
spanishvida
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We do it

Post by spanishvida »

Hi,

I just thought I'd mention as you were asking about prices etc, we create 360 degree virtual tours for people and charge between 50 and 150 euros, depending on the size of the property etc.

We take all the photos, do the (digital) processing and create the tours. We can then EITHER host it on our own servers and just send you a link to post on places like this, OR we send you the entire files and code to put on your own site.

However, you should be warned that a lot of people charge a lot of money for the service, but it is NOT as difficult as they might tell you. The only issue is in the processing and stitching so shop around.

Hope that helps.

[Post edited to comply with forum rules]
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rich_sipe
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Post by rich_sipe »

Hmmm Spanishvida isn't abiding by the spirit of things, look at the previous posts for how it should be done. Looks like somone was waiting to pounce on this one for a LITTLE plug... :roll: :roll:
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Alan Knighting
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Post by Alan Knighting »

I, for one, thoroughly approve of professional people being members of the forum, subject to some conditions.

1. They make it quite clear that are professionals.
2. That they freely and openly share their expertise.
3. That they don't indulge in the hard sell.
4. They don't adopt a superior attitude towards the rest of us.

I really don't think that spanishvida has gone too far. I understand what rich_sipe is saying but I think that "somone was waiting to pounce" is on the strong side.

Alan
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rich_sipe
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Post by rich_sipe »

Yeah but in this case Tom Greveson has been handling it in a certain way and it didn't seem fair under THIS topic for spanishvida their competing goods when he is looking for feedback and market research. I would have no problem with spanishvida posting ANOTHER TOPIC that has a title of "Virtual Tour Companies Prices and Services" or something similar in which both/all companies can post. In this case he offered NO constructive comments on the topic of interest OR helpfulness.

Ohh and I just noticed that the post has been edited to comply with forum rules so it doesn't currently look like when I read and responded to it so my comments might seem a little harsh now :oops: .
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paolo
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Post by paolo »

I edited the post down because it was 'crossing the line', so the post that Rich remarked on is not the edited one Alan may have seen.

As far as I know neither Tom nor Spanishvida are rental owners, but I think their posts as they stand may be useful to rental owners, without promoting their own services. It's a grey area - what can and can't be posted on the forum - and this thread is right in the middle of it.

Personally I think that mpegs are the jpegs of the future, and as bandwidth grows we will all have virtual video tours of our properties on our sites and ads.

I'd be interested to know how the 360 degree virtual tour of a room is done. Is there a special device you mount the camera on which rotates it? And how do you get the pictures so seamless?
Paolo
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vrooje
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Post by vrooje »

Strangely enough, I actually clicked on the link that was previously posted, but couldn't view any of the tours because I didn't have the plugin. The plugin was java-based, but I believe it requires that I have root access to this machine, which I don't. More evidence of anti-Linux bias! :) I could probably get it working on my home machine, though.

I have seen the tours a couple of times on Windows machines. I like the idea of being able to click on a door to go into the next room! That would sort of have a walk-through tour feel to it without having to hog bandwidth.

We just had an inquiry for two months starting next February (Tansy, if I get this booking, will I break your record?), which I believe is genuine. They are staying in Paris right now and asked if they could tour the property. I immediately thought of this thread!
Brooke
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roxytoo
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Post by roxytoo »

rich how can you say he offered 'NO constructive comments on the topic of interest OR helpfulness. '

He was merely pointing out, (as someone mentioned prices) what his company charges, how it's done, that it's something that is already offered comercially and that a lot of other companys can stitch you right up on the charges! How can that not be helpful?
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rich_sipe
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Post by rich_sipe »

We used to do virtual 360 tours with the iPix software at another place I worked. You had a special tripod on which you mounted a digital camera with a 151 degree fish eye lens. You took one picture then rotated the camera 180 degrees using the click stop on the tripod and then took a second picture. Since it is a 151 degree lens the iPix software would meld the 1 degree together and un-warp the fish-eye lens effect.

That said, I would not recommend it because at least a couple of years ago it was expensive to do because iPix required a key for each picture which was kind of pricey and their setup was about $800-$1000 (including the camera) to get started.

My digital camera came with some Nikon software which allows you to take a couple of pictures and stich them together and then output it to a quick time rotating file. I haven't had time to do it yet but will let you know if I do.

There are also JAVA based solutions which I haven't made up my mind on yet. Some require plug-ins which can be a pain.

Hope this helps.
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vrooje
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Post by vrooje »

Before this turns into an argument over whether previous postings were appropriate, it's important to point out (as rich and paolo also noted) that the post in question was edited after the fact. Thus, it now follows forum guidelines and is completely benign, even helpful with good advice.

At first, though, the good advice was sort of thrown in to a self-promotional post. So it's kind of silly to argue about it now, since no one can see the original post anymore.
Last edited by vrooje on Thu Apr 07, 2005 9:20 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Brooke
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