One shoot, a year of content: planning photography for a hotel
A hotel needs new images every week, and can usually afford a photographer for only a few days a year. Planned well, one shoot can carry the website, the social channels and the press for the whole year.
Plan the year before the shoot
Start with the marketing calendar. List the moments the hotel will talk about over twelve months: the opening of the season, the restaurant’s new menu, the spa, weddings, the quiet months, the holidays. Each moment needs a handful of images, and most of them can be made in the same few days, if they are planned.
Shoot in sets, not single frames
For each moment, plan a set rather than one hero image: a wide frame for the website, a vertical one for social, two or three details and one with people. A set gives designers a sequence to work with, and lets one story run across channels for weeks without repeating itself.
Photograph the day, not only the rooms
Guests do not book a room; they book a day. Coffee on the balcony, a swim before breakfast, the hour before dinner, the bar after midnight. Build the schedule around the hours as they are lived at the hotel, and the images will read as an invitation rather than an inventory.
Be honest about the seasons
A shoot in late spring can cover more than one season with care: lighter and darker table settings, a fire lit in the evening, linen and wool. What it cannot do is show a garden in flower in October. Show only what the images can truthfully show, and plan a short second shoot for the season that matters most.
Film on the same days, with its own crew
If short video is part of the plan, give it a separate operator and its own schedule within the same days. A photographer asked to film between frames will do both jobs halfway.
Leave with an archive, not a folder
Ask for the selected images to be named, captioned and tagged by room, moment and season before the files arrive, with the usage rights written down. A well-kept archive is what allows a small marketing team to publish every week without asking for new photography.
The studio plans and directs hotel shoots, from the shot list to the archive. See photography & content direction.
