An Exclusive Interview with Vladimir Varnavskii and Nermin Yurtoğlu about VRESORTS

2020 was far from being the best year for hospitality. One of the major problems it created was uncertainty. It wasn’t clear when hotels can welcome guests back, how to make sure the demand bounces back and how to distribute the already reduced marketing budget. There are some things it made very clear though. Old tools don’t work. 

NY&Co has partnered with a leading provider of a fresh innovative Sales & Marketing tool – Virtual Reality Hotel Stories. We invited the CEO of VResorts, Vladimir Varnavskii, to talk about what makes VR relevant and timely for hotels to invest in in 2021.

1) Your company is called VResorts. Does it mean you only work with resorts?

Travellers want to see all kinds of hotels and also destinations when they plan their vacation. So while working with resorts is one of our major focuses, we also work with city hotels, destination marketing companies, tour operators and travel organisations. Our sales tools offer unique ways to showcase properties and destinations helping our partners to attract travellers and boost revenue. Our sales tools offer unique ways to showcase properties and destinations and help our partners. Another major service we provide is the ability for guests to book a hotel directly in VR.

2) How can VResorts help Turkish hotels during these challenging times?

Now more than ever travellers are scrutinizing pictures and videos of hotels and resorts online and are being very careful with which properties they are going to stay at. It will take a while before travel becomes casual again in the travellers’ minds, so there will be more on stake for every trip we take. Expectations will be higher and disappointment more likely. Thanks to its ability to teleport guests to the property for them to see what it looks like as if they were there, Virtual Reality gives travellers the confidence in their hotel choice and creates expectations that will be met. At the end of the day, guests who get to pre-experience their stay book faster and are ready to pay more.

On top of that we also have our Booking Platform which is generating direct bookings for hotels and resorts in Virtual Reality.

3) Can I see any VResorts work without a VR headset?

All of our videos and social media content can be viewed on several platforms. We upload all of our VR videos to our YouTube channel and our hotel partners post the content we create for them over their social channels. Fortunately, 360° technology is compatible with mobile and computers, so VR content can also be enjoyed through these channels Therefore you are able to see our content on Mobile and Computers as well as VR Headsets.

4) What is the advantage of virtual reality videos compared to 360 tours?

There is quite a big difference between 360 images and VR Videos. 360 tours are static images that allow you to see one captured moment of one particular area of a property.. VR content allows you to experience a part of the hotel’s life through a video story, making you confident in what you get with your booking

5) What is the best timing to do VR? (all-year-round hotels vs seasonal)

Filming in VR can be done all year round, but you need to keep in mind the weather and the season conditions of the particular location. A lot of filming in resorts and hotels is indoors, such as gyms, hotel rooms, restaurants and hotel lobbies, but the outdoor facilities are subject to the weather conditions

6) VR technologies are becoming cheaper, can hotels make VR videos themselves?

While simple 360° can be captured with a low-key camera already now, this content doesn’t work for commercial purposes, where the goal is to create confidence in the customers, emotionally connect them to your property and speed up their decision making. As well as understanding the best working methods in order to prevent the user from feeling nauseous or getting bored and switching off from the VR content. We use a team of Nat Geo professional VR filmographers who have several years of experience with filming in VR and are able to produce an end product that captivates the audience, keeping their attention throughout and are filmed at certain speeds and positions for them to feel comfortable during the video.