How much do your hotel website photos matter? When it comes to brand trust, which leads to online reviews and repeat purchase behavior, quite a lot. Travelers don’t want outdated photos or perfectly staged and retouched photos. They want to know exactly what they’ll get – or else you may be reading online reviews about it later.

In a new study published in the International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, misleading hotel website photos were studied for the effect they have on guests. They found that photos are an “explicit service promise that sets expectations,” and failing to live up to those expectations causes distrust. Distrust leads to anger, anger leads to retaliation – in the form of negative word of mouth, both in person and online. Specifically, when hotel website photos were misleading, participants were more likely to spread negative word of mouth.

On the other hand, brand trust leads to repeat purchase behavior. The more a person trusts a brand, the more loyal they will be to that brand. You can build brand trust by setting expectations with your hotel photos. Here are a few ways you can do present your hotel well, but also represent your hotel accurately:

• Avoid over-staging or excessive editing to make your photos “perfect.”
• Colors and brightness of the photos should be close to reality.
• If you’re renovating, wait to post new pictures until all rooms are complete.
• Share guest photos on social media – search Instagram for hashtags of your hotel name and encourage guests to share their photos on Facebook.
• Make your hotel’s standard of cleanliness match the spotlessness of the photos.

Travel Media Group offers two solutions to help you satisfy guests before, during, and after their stay. Professional videos and photography are more affordable than you think and allow future guests to see up-to-date photos of your hotel with a helpful voiceover that informs the viewer of key features. That way, when they arrive they’ll be pleased with what they see. Following their stay, we can encourage reviews so that you can share positive reviews and receive helpful information from negative feedback.