Best Western Goes All In on Its Virtual Reality Marketing Move
Photo Credit: The Best Western Plus Island Palms Hotel & Marina. By mid-year, all of Best Western's North American properties will have 360-degree/virtual reality tours showcasing each individual hotel. Best Western Hotels & Resorts
Skift Take
Everyone in travel and hospitality seems to be jumping onto the virtual reality (VR) bandwagon, but does VR really have the power to be as powerful a marketing tool as everyone thinks it is?
Best Western Hotels & Resorts is the latest in a slew of hospitality brands to enter the realm of virtual reality in an effort to step up their marketing efforts.
By summer, all 2,200 Best Western-branded hotels in North America will have a "Best Western Virtual Reality Experience" whereby travelers can see each property's rooms, lobbies, and amenities virtually online before they even arrive at the hotel.
Phoenix-based Best Western has been working with Google Street View to develop this product for the past three years, gathering some 1.7 million photos of its North American properties. With Google Street View, Best Western has taken those photos and added customized narration and music to them to create 360-degree videos that transform into VR when viewed with a headset device like Google Cardboard, Oculus Rift, Samsung Gear VR, and the like. The videos will be made available on platforms that include Google Maps, Google Search, YouTube, and Facebook.
The Best Western V
