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Mr. Aurand

Website / Online Mechandising / SEO

Super-Size Virtual Tours - The Next Step in Virtual Imaging

By Douglas Aurand, President, Douglas Aurand & Associates

Computers with 17 and 19" monitors have almost become STANDARD. New 108" Plasma Screen TVs (that's 9 feet diagonal) are the rage. Even the screens on cell phones are growing. The mantra of electronic viewing is "bigger is better." Scratch that, "Huge is Better."

360^0 Virtual Tours are just beginning to follow the trend.

Virtual Images started out at the postage stamp size of 160 x 120 pixels. As Dial-Up modem speeds increased from 9600bps to 56.6Kbps and computers got more powerful processors like the Pentium "ONE", they grew to 320 x 240 pixels. This is where they've remained for a few years as a few other changes in the Internet came along.

It's been worth the wait. The results are stunning!

When an interactive scene of your hotel is "near full-screen" on a 19" monitor, the phrase "virtual image" takes on a whole new meaning. Spin one of these large images around too fast they can make some people dizzy. And IPIX's slogan "Step Inside the Pictures" is nearly true.

Two producers of Hotel Virtual Tours who have "Super-Sized" versions of their images as part of their product line are ICE Portal and PhotoWeb.

Miami based ICE Portal (ICEPortal.com) focuses on mass Distribution of Hotel Virtual Tours as much as producing the Tours. They provide a "standard size" tour, similar to the one below on the left, to Online Travel Agencies (OTAs) like Expedia, Travelocity, Orbitz and their hotel customer's website. It uses a visitor friendly Java viewer. Most desktop computers have Java installed and enabled, so no software download and installation is needed to view the standard images. The following URL links to the standard tour shown below on the left, http://www.iceportal.com/brochures/ice/Brochure.aspx?did=0&brochureid=ICE802 Their Ultra Resolution virtual images, below on the right, are really Full-Screen. They use a Java viewer that specializes in Full-Screen viewing. The image takes over the whole computer screen. This URL link takes you to a thumbnail index page for the Arizona Inn located in Tucson, AZ http://showcase.iceportal.com/ultra/

PhotoWeb (PhotoWebUSA.com) has both a "standard" and "full screen" version of each image in the same URL link they host. They use a Java computer language viewer for the "standard" size. Their Full-Screen images need Apple Computer's QuickTime Player to display on your monitor. QuickTime offers a superior viewing experience over most Java viewers with the trade-off being the need to download and install the 20-megabyte program. This URL link will take you to one of their favorite Virtual Tours http://www.photowebusa.com/westin/loscabosHD

My own efforts in Super-Sized Virtual Tours are a little more modest. Until I upgrade my camera and lens, I've kept the Super-Size images display size at 640x480 pixel, with my standard images at 320x240. In the screen captures below you can see the difference the Super-Size image makes in the online viewing experience of downtown Albuquerque. One of my favorite ways to navigate a Virtual Tour is with "pop-up" windows from a building layout or floorplan as you can see by clicking the URL link to this tour or the Gold Avenue Lofts in Albuquerque, NM; http://www.goldavenuelofts.com/beta/mountainVista.html or http://www.goldavenuelofts.com/mountainVista.html

While guiding someone on this tour, there's almost reaction of disappointment when I have the viewer switch from the Super-Size version of an image to the Standard Size of the same scene.

The reason for 2 versions of each image is similar to the need for 2 versions of streaming video; bandwidth. Think of the "standard" image being for Dial-Up users and for quick "impulse viewing" by broadband users, usually with no additional software needed. The Super-Size image files begin just under a megabyte ranging to almost 2 megabytes. Even on broadband connections these large files can take 30 seconds to a minute for the file to download completely.

The benefits to a hotel using a Super-Size Virtual Tour are:

Even with the additional cost some virtual tour producers charge for Super-Size, Full Screen or near Full-Screen virtual image, just a few extra room/nights per month will quickly pay for the tour.

With the amount of "shopping the 'Net" travelers do before booking their vacation hotel, its hard to believe that adding a Super-Size Virtual Tour to your hotel's website couldn't generate one or two extra room/nights a month. After all, your hotel would stand head and shoulders ahead of your competitors in their mind just from the experience of the tour. If you add the standard virtual tour to your franchise website as well, another 1 or 2 room/nights a month is very possible.

There is a cost to distribution of the standard tour to OTAs like Expedia, Travelocity, Yahoo Travel, Orbitz, AOL Travel and Priceline, but 100% ROI is still only 1-2 extra room/nights a month. I'll cover Hosting and Distribution of Virtual Tours in a future article.

Douglas Aurand has owned his multimedia business for 10 years. He produces virtual tours in real estate and hospitality. Mr. Aurand has imaged thousands of homes for sale and created many real estate virtual tours, posting them to Realtor.com and ColdwellBanker.com, among others. His website, VirtualAlbuquerque.com is a multimedia tour and a demonstration of how to use Virtual Tours as a showcase for his virtual golf course and ski tours. Mr. Aurand has produced media for Sheraton, Hilton, Marriott, Radisson, Wyndham, Residence Inn and several independent hotels and various B&Bs. Mr. Aurand can be contacted at (505) 857-2265 or DAurandAssoc@aol.com Extended Bio...

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