When choosing a hotel, guests have more choices than ever before, and the ability to compare these choices in seconds. Whether booking a quick business trip, a family holiday or a once-in-a-lifetime event, they expect to see enough detail online to feel confident before making a final decision or contacting you for more information.  

In a very crowded market where many hotels can look similar on paper, Matterport 3D virtual tours provide businesses with a powerful way to stand out from the crowd, build trust with prospective guests and turn online interest into confirmed bookings.

What are Matterport 3D Virtual Tours?

A Matterport 3D virtual tour is an interactive digital copy of your hotel that guests can walk through online as if they were physically there. Using specialist cameras and scanners, our team at Surveyhands Engineering captures every element of your spaces and converts them into a 3D digital twin that works on desktop, mobile, tablet and VR.

Within the virtual tour, users can move from one location to another, turn around in any direction and zoom in on the details they’re interested in. The same digital copy can also be used to generate floor plans, 4K still images, and even guided tours, so that the scan information can produce multiple pieces of marketing content.

How Hotels Use Matterport 3D Tours in Marketing

Matterport 3D virtual tours play a key role in a hotel’s digital strategy. They can be embedded on your website, shared on social media, linked in email campaigns and used by sales teams when responding to booking enquiries.

Smart tags also allow you to highlight key features throughout the 3D tour with pop-up notes or links, such as spa facilities, refurbished rooms, event spaces or specific details. You can also publish your 3D Matterport virtual tour to Google Street View, helping potential guests explore your property directly from Google Maps.

Since everything is hosted in the cloud, updates can easily be made and published to the same URL, so you are always showing the latest version of your spaces without needing a new link each time. For hotels running multiple campaigns across different channels and markets, this simplifies content management.

How 3D Tours Impact Guest Decision-Making 

Creating and sharing 3D virtual tours of your hotel can influence decision-making at every stage of the guest journey, from initial research through to final booking.

Bringing Rooms to Life

Standard photos often struggle to show the real size, layout and character of hotel rooms. A Matterport 3D virtual tour experience lets guests see the room from anywhere in the world, as if they were actually there. They can walk through the space to see exactly how it flows. 

At The Ritz-Carlton, Surveyhands Engineering captured more than 1,500 scan locations, allowing visitors to walk through bedrooms, corridors and communal spaces in high detail. This helps guests choose the right type of room for their stay, reduces uncertainty and supports higher-value bookings such as suites or premium views.

Supporting Visualisation for Events

For weddings, conferences, and other social events, choosing a hotel goes beyond the rooms it offers. Event planners need to see how ballrooms, break-out spaces, pre-function areas, terraces and circulation routes all work together for their guests. A 3D Matterport virtual tour lets them move through these spaces, switch viewpoints and understand how people will flow on the day, long before they even book a site visit.

Interactive smart tags can highlight everything from room capacities and AV options to staging positions and catering setups at exactly the right time planners need that information. This makes it easier to visualise your event in the space, encourages early conversations, reduces the number of in-person show-rounds, and gives event planners the confidence to recommend your hotel as an ideal choice to their clients.

Comparing Hotels Side by Side

Guests often browse several hotels before making a final choice. When each option has similar room rates and star ratings, the ability to take an online 3D walk-through becomes a strong differentiator. Matterport virtual tours let people compare room facilities, breakfast areas, pool decks and gyms in a way that standard images can’t match.

This is particularly beneficial in competitive destinations such as central Istanbul. Swissôtel Bosphorus worked with Surveyhands Engineering to create a comprehensive 3D tour using more than 3,000 scan locations, covering both hotel rooms and living apartments. Guests can explore every part of the hotel, making it easier to choose the right long- or short-stay option.

Showcasing Refurbishments

When reopening after refurbishment, hotels need to show what has changed and why it’s worth booking a room with them. A 3D Matterport virtual tour gives potential guests an insight into the updated spaces, helping overcome common hesitation around “unknown” hotels.

For brands such as Swissotel Bosphorus, where consistency and value are essential, Surveyhands Engineering created 3D digital twins by scanning the hotel at more than 500 locations. These tours then provide transparent, up-to-date views of bedrooms, public spaces and meeting rooms, reassuring guests that what they see online is what they will find on arrival.

Enhancing the Pre-Arrival Experience

Once a guest has booked their stay, a 3D virtual tour link can be used in pre-arrival emails to help them familiarise themselves with the hotel. They can explore spa areas, restaurants and optional upgrades such as higher-category rooms or private event spaces.

By seeing what’s available and exploring the spaces in detail, guests are more likely to pre-book extras and upgrades, increasing revenue before they set foot in the hotel. The 3D tour can also answer lots of practical questions upfront, reducing pressure on reservations and front office teams, and enabling them to focus on guests at the hotel. 

Stand Out With 3D Matterport Virtual Tours

All in all, guest behaviour is changing, and people now expect to be able to explore a hotel online before they book a stay. They want to see as much as possible and get a real feel for the hotel, rather than just flick through a few photos and hope for the best. Matterport 3D virtual tours make that possible while also giving businesses practical benefits like reusable content and fewer show rounds because guests know what to expect. 

As more hotels start using 3D Matterport virtual tours, the bar for online marketing keeps rising, so investing in high-quality, professional tours can help you stand out in search results and turn website visitors into direct bookings. At Surveyhands Engineering, we combine careful on-site scanning with expert processing to show your spaces at their best and we understand how hotels sell and what guests really want to see.

If you are looking to use a Matterport 3d virtual tour to set your hotel apart, support bookings and give guests more confidence, our team at Surveyhands Engineering can help you plan an approach that works hard across your marketing. Get in touch to talk to our experts and turn your hotel into an online experience that makes guests choose you first.