360° Virtual Tour for Hotels in Malaysia | Marketing Trends 2024

360° virtual tours provide an interactive medium for hotels to present their spaces and facilities to potential guests and corporate clients. Here's all you need to know about this powerful marketing tool and how it can be used to promote hotels, resorts and homestays in Malaysia

What is a 360° Virtual Tour?

A 360° virtual tour, also known as a virtual reality tour or digital twin, is a 360-degree digital environment that resembles a physical space. The imagery consists of panoramas that are 'stitched' together so that it can capture every angle within the space, allowing people to explore the property using their laptop, mobile and VR devices without actually being physically there. It typically comes with an intuitive interface that can contain different forms of multimedia like text, photos, videos, audios and PDF files.

Click to view: Sheraton Hotel Petaling Jaya Virtual Tour

For hotels, it is typically used as a premarketing tool, whereby customers can have a look at the spaces before making their decision on which rooms or event spaces to book. 

Looking for a virtual tour vendor for your property? Get in touch with Actsugi.

Benefits of 360° Virtual Tours for Hotels, Resorts and Homestays

Whether you have a hotel in the city centre, a resort by the sea, or a local homestay in a small town, a 360° virtual tour can do much more than you imagine! Here's how:  

Hotel industry players benefit from:

• Greater reach across the globe: Having a 360° virtual tour allows people from anywhere in the world to explore the hotel rooms, amenities and leisure activities - an added advantage for international brands or those who want to tap into the wider market.
• Secure corporate or esteemed clients: Your sales team can easily bring the hotel to corporate clients or exhibition visitors on a tablet or mobile device through a virtual tour. Reducing the need to arrange physical sales visits also lowers cost. 
• Faster and streamlined communication: When customers have a query about the hotel, you can easily send them the link to the 360° virtual tour so that they can check it out themselves.
• SEO optimed website: By integrating it in your website or platform, a virtual tour can help keep visitors on your site for 5 to 10 times longer.

Potential guests or corporate clients benefit from: 

• Fast and convenient pre-visit planning: Virtual tours do not replace hotel visits. Instead they can help guests understand more about the space and what the hotel can offer before they book. It can also help them plan their trip better, such as deciding where to eat or what to do during their stay.
• Better decision-making: For potential guests, a virtual tour can help them get to know the hotel with their own eyes, which can lead to conversion. Meanwhile, corporate clients can benefit from learning about the event spaces such as the ballrooms or meeting venues, so that they can make better decisions for their events. 
• Sharing is caring: The virtual tour link can be shared with family, friends or their team mates to help them get a better idea of your hotel - plus it can spread awareness on what you have in store!

Looking for a virtual tour vendor for your hotel? Get in touch with Actsugi.

How Do Hotels Use 360° Virtual Tours?

• Digital Marketing: The virtual tour can be integrated into websites, booking platforms, marketing materials and social media. Here's how Sama-Sama Hotel KLIA included their virtual tour into their main website.
• Virtual Site Recce: The sales team run virtual site recces as an alternative to physical ones. For example, our hotel client in Langkawi uses the virtual tour to present to MICE clients and event planners who do not reside on Langkawi island, thus reducing the need for them to fly in for a site visit.
• Exhibition: A virtual tour can be a great complement for an exhibition or event, such as travel fairs, wedding fairs, and MICE fairs. Customers can get the experience of being at the hotel, even though they are not physically there.
• Enquiries and FAQ: Some hotel clients directly send the link to potential guests, event planners, and team building clients. It is a simple yet effective way for people to truly understand the hotel.
• Marketing Emails: Your virtual tour link can be placed within their booking confirmation email so that your customers can plan their stay and journey. It is the little details that count!
• Virtual Reality (VR) Experiences: Virtual tours that are compatible with VR headsets can be used during sales presentations or exhibitions.

Click to view: Cheong Fatt Tze's Blue Mansion Virtual Tour

What Sectors Use 360° Virtual Tours? 

360° virtual tours are an effective marketing tool for a myriad of industries such as hospitality, property, education, medical, dining, retail, industrial and more. 

What Features Do Good 360° Virtual Tours Have?

• Intuitive and User-Friendly Layout: Makes it easier for customers to navigate through the virtual tour.
• Multimedia Integration: A good virtual tour has the flexibility to include videos, photos, audios, or brochures.
• Destination Labelling: Tell your customers what are the key attractions and best neighbourhoods within the vicinity, by having aerial labels within the virtual tour.
• Titles and Subtitles: Include important information such as the room size, capacity and key amenities in the hotel. You would also want to inject some of your personality with lifestyle text to tell the story about your hotel.
• Google Map Embed: Enable users to see where a property is located on a map.
• Custom Hotspots: Allows you to move to different rooms by clicking on the hotspot, and can be customised to include special icon designs. 
• Call to Action: All good virtual tours must have a call-to-action button to move interest buyers into the next buyer stage.
• Multi-Platform and VR Compatibility: A good virtual tour is fully optimised for websites, mobile and VR devices, which ensures a better user experience.
• Other Features to Highlight Unique Selling Points: The possibilities are endless! For example, the walkthrough can include a day-to-night timelapse to show breathtaking sceneries at the hotel, dynamic media viewing to highlight key features, and floor plans with radar for seamless navigation.

Looking for a virtual tour vendor for your property? Get in touch with Actsugi.

Hotel Virtual Tour Marketing Trends 2024

Here are some virtual tour marketing trends that are leading the hospitality sector in Malaysia.  

• Mobile First: According to Statista Research, smartphone users in Malaysia have reached about 29 million in 2021, and is expected to increase by 1.74 million until 2025. 360° virtual tours that are optimised for mobile phones on top of websites make it more convenient for the users today to check out properties on their smartphone or tablet. 
• Brand Perception: Building your brand is an important part of marketing. You would want your customers to see you as an innovative and reputable hotel brand who value customers and is committed to sustainability. When done with the right quality and features, 360° virtual tours can enhance and elevate your brand perception. 
• Exhibition Ready: Ever since the pandemic ended, it seems that exhibitions are quickly coming back into popularity. As a hotel, you would likely be exhibiting at travel and tourism fairs, wedding fairs, and MICE related events. 360° virtual tours help you stand out among your competitors, as you can let them see for themselves what the hotel looks like, even though they are not there.
• Data Analytics: Understanding user behaviours and demographics is a great way to see what customer segments you should focus on, and what strategies you should adopt next.

How to Start Your Virtual Journey

Actsugi is a virtual tour and digital content creator based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. We create immersive 360° virtual tours for property with user-friendly layouts, high-quality 11K photography, true-to-life 3D renders, and a variety of storytelling features. Our virtual tours are optimised for web, mobile, tablets and VR devices - so they can be viewed anywhere and anytime across the world.

Get in touch with us to learn how we can support your team with a virtual tour.