New slideshow feature brings photos to life

On TripAdvisor, rave reviews, thoughtful management responses, and a lovely business description will get you far. But a stunning photo is worth a thousand words.

Site research has shown that travelers are 150% more engaged with listings that have 20+ photos than with those that have only a few. This means that the more visual proof of your inviting amenities you give to travelers, the more interested in your business they become. And quality matters!

Your TripAdvisor property page gets a makeover

 The property page on TripAdvisor is a very important one:  it’s where travelers go to get the details they need in order to make their booking decisions.  So when travelers told us that this page was so full of information that it was often hard to find the most important parts, we made some changes.  We’re happy to introduce a new, streamlined property page that puts your critical information front and center. 

Creating a TripWow slideshow for your listing

TripAdvisor data shows that travelers love photos and the more a listing has, the more engaged they are with that property. A great way of adding more photos to your listing and differentiating them from candid traveler shots is to create a slideshow and upload it to your TripAdvisor listing as a video.

TripWow is a free tool that allows you to create professional looking slideshows with captions, maps, etc and set them to music. Though originally developed as a way for travelers to display and share their vacation photos, TripWow is also a great alternative to an expensive video for property owners. You can showcase your property using handpicked photos to give potential customers a taste of what to expect when they book with you.

There are a selection of different themes to choose from which allow you to reflect the type of property you manage. If you are a beach resort property there is a seaside theme suitable for you; there are also themes that compliment countryside locations, cruises, boutique properties and even backpacker hostels. There are also several themes where you can customize the color to match your branding.

Take some time to explore the different themes and decide which one is right for your property. Then choose high quality photos that you think best represent your business and save them into a folder on your computer. Don’t use scans or low resolution photos – they won’t display well in your slideshow.

Once you have uploaded your photos you can add your property name, choose the order of photos, add captions and select music, and then preview your slideshow until you are happy. You can choose to post the slideshow on Facebook, share it with your friends or embed it on your site or blog. Once 10 people have viewed your slideshow you will also be able to download the file to your computer.

To add the video to your TripAdvisor listing go to the ‘Manage your Listing’ tab on the Owners’ Center and click on ‘Post a Video’. Fill in all the details, being sure to add some tags so your video can easily be found, upload the file and it’s ready to be viewed!

Rated on TripAdvisor and proud of it!

Accommodation owners are understandably very proud of their ratings on TripAdvisor and they aren’t shy about telling the world! We regularly receive photos from around the globe featuring examples of businesses showcasing their rankings with imaginative and resourceful marketing.

How are you letting travellers know about your rating? Let us know in a comment as we’d love to hear what other creative and original things people are doing around the world to advertise their position on TripAdvisor.

A photo speaks a thousand words – Accommodation Owners’ Survey 2011

When we asked accommodation owners what they were planning to do to attract visitors in 2011, one thing was very clear: social media initiatives are definitely on the list!

Most hoteliers have realised that they have to have a presence online, and that presence needs to be moderated, updated and enhanced regularly.

One easy way of doing this is to add photos to your TripAdvisor listing. Potential guests want to see photos– the more the better! In fact, our data shows that travelers are 150% more engaged on listings with 20+ photos than they are on those with only a few.

According to our survey, the majority of owners posted 1-10 photos to their listing last year, with less than 1% posting more than 20. This year, owners who took our survey plan to add at least as many, if not more photos than in 2010.

You don’t need to be an IT whiz kid to add photos to your TripAdvisor listing or update your primary photo. We have recently upgraded our tools to make it easier, so start optimising your listing right away!

With the new photo view on TripAdvisor’s hotel search pages, selecting your best primary photo could make all the difference to a potential guest’s decision.  Now your primary photo will be bigger and more visible, right up there next to those of your competitors when a potential guest is searching in your location.

Click here to see the full results of the TripAdvisor Accommodation Owners’ Survey 2011.

“How To” guide details new photo management tools for owners

Photos are an important part of how travelers evaluate your property on TripAdvisor — our data shows that travelers are 150% more engaged on hotel listings that have 20 photos or more! In order to help owners best manage and showcase your photo content, we’ve created a few new tools.  Those tools, along with an explanation of the basics of photo display on TripAdvisor, are detailed in our new “How to Make the Most of Photo Content & New Photo Management Tools on TripAdvisor” guide which can be accessed here.   Check it out, and make sure that you’re doing all you can to enhance your listing with photo content. 

One of the new tools we discuss in the guide is the ”Manage your property photo” page that has been added to the Owners’ Center. This page allows you to:

• Designate which photo you want to have serve as your primary photo
• Change your primary photo frequently, updating it for a new season, event, or property renovation
• Delete old photos
• Update photo captions

To use this feature, you need to go to your Owners’ Center and select “Manage your photos.” Please note that you will only see this page if you have uploaded photos for your property; you will not see it if you just have traveler-uploaded photos.  Once you are on the “Manage your photos” page, you will:

• See a display of all owner-uploaded photos, sorted by upload date
• Be able to select a primary photo, delete photos, and enter captions
• Need to hit save to have changes take effect
• See your changes on TripAdvisor in approximately 48 hours

Check out this new tool, along with the rest of the tips in the guide, and let us know what you think!