TripAdvisor®, the travel planning and booking site, have launched a new feature for primary property photos, which uses machine learning to auto select high-performing images for accommodation listings.
We’ve all seen the photos: a slightly blurred selfie of two hotel guests in a corridor; a close-up of the bathroom taps at a B&B; or even a picture of a non-descript road outside an inn that could be anywhere. These are just some of the images that could end up as the primary ‘hero’ photo for a hotel, B&B or resort on TripAdvisor when an owner doesn’t choose their photo. While many of these traveller photos in the gallery are undoubtedly helpful to travellers, they are not always the most representative photos of the business, nor are they the photos that an owner would choose to show off the best of their property.
The primary photo is the best way for a property to make a strong first impression to travellers – an image that draws potential guests to a property’s listing means they are more likely to choose that place to stay.
TripAdvisor has launched a new auto-select feature for primary photos for accommodations, which uses advanced machine learning technology to evaluate and select the best available primary photo for the business, taking into account both professional and traveller photos. The auto-select tool analyses a number of factors which user testing has shown to influence the impact of photos on engagement, from image resolution, orientation and sharpness, to whether there are people in the photo. The machine learning technology has been shown to select photos which drive higher levels of engagement from travellers, helping businesses feel confident they are putting their best foot forward on TripAdvisor.
Accommodation owners have always been able to select their primary photo once they’ve completed their free registration for the Management Centre. They can choose from their own management submitted photos, or those that are contributed by travellers. Accommodation owners who would still prefer to manually select their primary photo can opt out of the new auto-select feature at any time and continue to choose their own primary photo via the Management Centre.
“We know that good photos are a key part in attracting new guests,” said Martin Verdon-Roe, VP B2B Hotel Product & Marketing TripAdvisor. “According to research, 79% of TripAdvisor travellers said that photos were important when choosing to book an accommodation* and in more recent live site testing with partners we can see that optimised photo selection have been shown to increase user click through rates**. This exciting new feature capitalises on our strength in machine learning with insights from millions of professional and traveller photos across TripAdvisor to help properties make the best first impression to our global travellers.”
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