A significant part of any good event is choosing the right venue. Typically, you would walk the venue in order to get a sense of its size, unique features, and overall charm. It provides you with confidence that it is capable of meeting the needs of your clients prior to completing the booking.
Unfortunately, it’s not always possible to visit a location. You could be sheltering in place for the pandemic or the venue could be located on the other side of the country. Whatever the reason for being unable to tour in person, you can choose to use virtual site visits. The technology that makes this possible has improved drastically over the past few years.
More importantly, virtual site visits can be beneficial to you if you’re an event planner with a particular venue, such as a hotel or convention center. Further, it can be beneficial to your clients if they are going to be exploring your venue before moving forward with booking.
What are virtual site visits?
A virtual site visit allows for the ability to stay within the comfort of your home while being able to explore something on your internet-connected device. This concept has been around for a while and virtual tours make it possible to tour museums, national parks, and more without ever having to leave the house.
Particularly with the COVID-19 pandemic preventing many people from leaving their homes, it begs the question of how event planners are supposed to get their jobs done.
Technology responds by providing you with the ability to view the venue on your computer or mobile device. Instead of simply looking at photos, you can be given a full walk-through tour. It allows you to see the entire flow of the building, understanding the dynamics every step of the way.
Seeing as how some venues look better in photos than they do in person, the virtual tours answer the questions. It can identify the full layout. You can pivot at any point of the tour in order to see a 360-degree view from where you’re virtually standing in the room.
What are the benefits of virtually visiting a site?
There are quite a few benefits of virtually visiting a site. Perhaps the most obvious is that it allows you to explore a venue without having to go anywhere. This is convenient during the pandemic as well as when it’s simply not geographically possible for you to walk a venue.
Another benefit is that you will have access to the virtual tour 24/7. When scheduling can be problematic, you have the ability to tour the venue when it’s convenient for you. This can also allow you to share the virtual tour link with others who may not have been able to go on the tour with you but who are still invested in what the venue looks like.
You also have the ability to view the site for as long as you wish and as often as you wish. If you have ever toured a facility and realized later that you forgot to take a measurement, forgot to look at how far the nearest restroom was, or forgot to take note of lighting, you know what a pain it can be. Additionally, when you have to make appointments to tour a venue, you may be left feeling rushed to see it all in 15 or 30 minutes. If you want to tour the site several times before making a decision to book it, virtual tours provide you with a higher level of convenience to do so.
How Virtual Site Visits Can Secure More Business
When you’re a venue, you have to make it easy for your event planners to show off the property. You also have to make it easy for clients to see the property. Regardless of what events may be held at the location, there are a lot of details that need to be considered.
No one wants to spend thousands of dollars to rent a venue “sight unseen” because it can lead to problems during setup and throughout the event. It can lead to unhappy clients and bad reviews. As such, you want to make it easy for people to see the property so they know exactly what they’re getting.
Virtual tours are made possible with 3D renderings and other technology that truly paints a three-dimensional view of every corner of your property. You can choose to leave the venue empty or you can even render in various details to show what the venue would look like decorated for a conference, a wedding, or another type of event.
3D Renderings for Realistic Expectations
You will be able to discover the many benefits of 3D rendering within a virtual site tour. Perhaps one of the most important aspects is that it can offer accuracy along with precise measurements. Many event planners and clients want to know how the space can be set up for their wedding, reunion, conference, or another event. You have the ability to give that to them with your 3D rendering.
By working in a digital atmosphere, it can also save you money as you paint a picture of what people can expect. Many venues spend thousands of dollars decorating their venue. They want to show off what it would look like for a wedding or a convention. Then, they hire even more for a photographer to take photos. Those are, then, used on the website for marketing purposes.
The problem with staging your venue is that it still doesn’t answer the questions that many people have. What are the lighting options? How far do guests have to go to use the bathroom? What size table will fit against the wall?
3D renderings and virtual tours allow you to have the best marketing tool so that common questions are answered. It’s also the most economical option because of being able to create digital renderings of a staged venue instead of making an investment in furniture and props.
Embracing the Technology That Makes It Happen
Successful virtual site visits depend on technology. Real estate agents have been using “virtual” tours for years, though there are problems with virtual tours. Many agents use the wrong terminology, which means they over-promise and under-deliver with “tours” that are no more than a slideshow of photos. Additionally, the tours are incapable of representing the 3D space and allowing people to see all that the property has to offer.
How Does it Work?
A variety of technologies are leveraged in order to let your venue shine. The more videos, drawings, and photos you have of your property, the easier it will be to incorporate every angle. Additionally, you have the ability to use 3D Warehouse and other 3D drawing tools in order to provide even more details — including “virtually” decorating your venue.
Concept3D embraces the latest technology in order to overcome the problems found in some of the virtual tours being offered. This includes ensuring that the virtual tour is truly interactive while being able to explore the venue in a three-dimensional way. We use a blend of 3D, location mapping, and physical data to offer a full visualization. It ensures that people have the ability to “walk” the space on any digital device to understand more about what the venue feels like.
Perhaps the most important aspect of our platform is that it is compatible with a VR Viewer. This allows people to truly immerse themselves into your venue rather than looking at 2D photos. Photos fail to give an understanding of how the photos are ordered based on getting from the entrance of the building to the venue space and every corner within it.
Meet (and Exceed) Expectations
Customers demand more in today’s day and age. They already know that virtual tours exist because they’ve used them — especially during the pandemic. Many businesses and organizations offer virtual tours of Disney World, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and other locations around the globe. When it comes to wanting to tour a venue, they’re going to expect that you have this technology in place.
Your customers demand convenience more than anything else. They want to conveniently tour a location, and that means being able to do so at any time of the day or night from the comfort of their home. If you’re unable to provide them with virtual tours, they may choose to eliminate your venue from their list of options.
Creating a virtual site visit is easier than you might think, especially since you’ve already been taking photos and videos. By incorporating more technology, you can ensure that your venue is accessible even when people cannot tour it in person. With an easy-to-use platform, you have the ability to build and edit a virtual experience of your property, allowing you to offer virtual tours of your event space 24/7.
Interested in learning what our 360° tools can do for you?