Tag Archives: hotel photography

At one time I was the “Director of Internet Technology” for a hotel franchising company. What that meant in real life wass that I was the sole person responsible for creating the words and pictures you see on the websites of four brand and 200+ property websites. When I was hired, I brought along another talent – my photography skills. Those skills were put to use to take pictures of hotels to use on the aforementioned websites as well as on the various travel websites.

As a sometime-photographer-of-budget-hotels, I believe it is important to be truthful in representing the property realistically, even if that representation isn’t always flattering. I always try to find the best way to show even a bad hotel, but it isn’t always successful.

I won’t unrealistically stage a photo. I won’t add flowers to a room if flowers aren’t in rooms. I won’t add bottles of champagne next to hot tubs (you don’t want glass near your tub anyway!). I don’t hose down pool decks, or replace bed linens. When I show up to photograph a hotel, I photograph it as it is – most of the time. I have been known to add a pretty girl or two to a photo, as you can see. I carry a supply of properly white balanced light bulbs to put in place of the burnt out bulbs I frequently run across. I will re-arrange the chairs by the pool, and I have been known to re-arrange pillows on a bed. But what you see in my hotel photography is what you’ll see when you show up at that hotel.

Tricking the customer with hotel photos is something that even very high end resorts and hotels do – frequently! The folks over at oyster.com have an often humorous collection of photos that show the marketing vs. the reality. Though very few of the photos out-right lie about their hotels or resorts, the truth is often obfuscated with angles, lighting, cropping, and set decoration.

This is one of my favorite examples of lying by set decorating.

This is the marketing photo of the king red bedroom done for/by the Ayre’s Hotel in in Los Angeles:

Ayres Hotel Los Angels

This is the real photo of the king red bedroom done by one of Oyster’s investigators:

The Real Ayres Hotel Room - by oyster.com

It is still a nice room (and, by all accounts and reviews, a very nice hotel), but you won’t get the room you see in the marketing photo.

When shopping for a hotel on-line, be cynical when you see the pictures (unless you know that I took them ).