For those in the hospitality industry, the end of the summer marks the closure of one of the busiest times of year, as the last of the school summer holiday guests leave.
For many holiday accommodation owners, this is a great chance to take stock and refresh – repaint a couple of rooms perhaps. Replace items of furniture. Accessorise the properties for that cosier, in-front-of-the-log-burner look as the colder months approach.
Autumn is also presents the perfect opportunity to refresh your visual look too – both inside and out. And perhaps update your on and off line photography. Or introduce some new perspectives, such as a dusk shoot or drone photography.
Leading UK hospitality photographers, ACT Studios, takes a closer look.
When is the best time to refresh my holiday cottage photography?
The short answer is now. Because if you are considering refreshing your hospitality photography, then there is no time like the present.
However, for most holiday cottage owners, August is one of the busiest times. And whilst ACT Studios is long used to holding photoshoots during changeover days, it can make the process a little less rushed if we can take a full day to photograph your premises.
Which makes autumn one of the best times of the year to take stock of your marketing and consider updating your brand image both on and off line, because there may well be more gaps in your occupancy.
Why is autumn such a good time to redo my holiday cottage photography?
Considering the four seasons as a whole, winter is probably one of the most challenging to capture the feel of the exterior of your property. Gardens tend to be sparse and lifeless and no one wants to book a holiday cottage for the summer if the photos show the lawn covered in frost!
Of course, that doesn’t stop us photographing the interiors – it makes up the vast majority of our work during the colder months.
Spring, by contrast is a great time for exterior photography, as the plants and trees come into leaf. Lots of bright green, vibrant foliage. As they say, there’s nothing like a spring clean and this can include your visual imagery too.
Summer is perhaps optimal, given the longer days, if you wish to photograph both the inside and outside of your property at the same time – which is standard procedure for us, weather permitting. Gardens tend to be in full bloom, with a whole spectrum of colour.
But of course, the challenge is getting access to a property during the summer, when that’s precisely the time you’re most likely to be fully booked.
So that leaves autumn, which, once the schools have started back, can still offer long enough days, plenty of warm light and lots to capture in a garden, as the plants tend to move to burnt oranges and reds – perfect for stand out exterior photography.
Dusk shoots: capture your property in low light for a stunning effect
Here at ACT Studios, we have seen a real increase in demand for what we call ‘Dusk Shots’, which are essentially high quality, digital photographs of the outside of a property, taken as the light fades for the day.
These low light conditions offer the perfect opportunity to showcase your accommodation in a more dramatic way, with the lights from within really standing out against the darkening exterior of the property and perhaps a lovely sunset.
From a marketing perspective, dusk shots really get your property noticed. As well as suggesting to the prospective customer that there is a lot more to be enjoyed in a stay at your location than just sitting outside in the garden during the daytime.
Drone photography: aerial photography to make your property stand out from the rest
Another way to increase the standout of your holiday cottage accommodation against the competition is to consider aerial photography, using a piloted drone.
Our skilled and qualified photographers are able to capture a whole new perspective on your location by piloting a drone to take high resolution imagery from several hundred feet up in the air.
Drone photography can be especially helpful in adding context to your holiday rental, particularly if your accommodation is set in expansive grounds. Or you have more than one property in a location and wish to convey the proximity between each building, from above.
Call ACT Studios to refresh your hospitality photography this autumn
If you would like to book in one of our expert photographers, then please just contact Ursula in the office for more information.
We are a small and extremely friendly team and would love to help answer any of your questions before you make a booking.
This may include whether or not 3D virtual tours could help market your property. Or if it’s possible to capture a dusk shot of the exterior of your accommodation.
Ursula can also advise about the suitability of our drone photography for your location.