How can I add a 360 Virtual Tour to my listing?

[Clement0]

Hi,

We have been hosting for two years now and have been doing ok with our pictures.  We found this website http://do360now.com that does virtual tours for real estate.  Here's a  Sample of 360 Virtual Tour for showing the properties   

The way it works is that they come and shoot pictures with a 360 camera and then they provide a link similar to what I have on the top where you can add to your listings or website.   

We can't seem to be able to add this link to our pictures or to our discription.  Does anybody know how we could add 360 Virtual Tour to our listing?

Thank you indvacned,

Clement

[Damir0]

Hi @Lizzie,

I almost forgot. I've been thinking of options to record a video using your smartphone or camcorder etc and using this personalized video tour where guests can see the listing and see me, their host. I think it's easier to implement, just need to have the option to upload a video file instead of access to your webcam. Who uses webcams (low video quality) these days anyway? (Profile Video)

Maybe it's something Airbnb would consider, the current option is desktop only video's made through your webcam. Means at best, you need your laptop and walk around with it 😉

[Clement0]

Hello all,

@Lizzie

I seen the google 360 views and I'm not impressed, hard to implement and costly!  We looked into it for our properties at one point.    Plus is giving more business to an already big company.

What we like about do360now.com is that it is similar to airbnb where they connect  360 fotographers with people that need the service.  Giving the business to the self employed fotographer.   It's easy to implement and its not too expensive that we can afford it for not only our higher priced properties, but also our lower ones and rentals.

Airbnb can do something similar, partnering up with do360now or a similar company, and offer their hosts to be contacted or contact a regular fotographer and a 360 fotographer or the same fotographer can do both regular and 360 pictures.  

For example, the young lady that  comes to take our pictures and do our 360 tours is an idependet fotographer that uses do360now to get business.

Plus, I like the Virtual Tours from do360now.com better.  We use their tours and are really easy to implement.   We just add a link to some of our listing's pictures.  When the viewer clicks on the picture it launches the VR Tour...

After Jen, our 360 fotographer, takes the pictures of our listings, she then emails me a link that I just add to our regular pictures in our website.  We did not need to change much on our website to incorporate the 360 Tours.  That's why I think it will be very easy to do! 

Btw, I own an Oculus Dk2 and its amazing to view properties wearing them!  We have helped several people in wheel chairs view dozens of properties using the Oculus and then picking just a couple to actually go view physically.  We have sold each one!

Here's an example of a property we just put for rent in Florida -->  http://firmre.biz/properties/newly-renovated-ground-condo-unit-in-desire-east-lake-community/

We just need airbnb to enable links to our discription area or when we click on our property to open the VR Tour. 

I believe in less than two years we will see Oculus and other Head Mounted Displays (HUD) become main stream!  There are a lot of companies pushing this technology.

BTW, Facebook bought Oculus for  $2billion dollars!   This is the way we will view a lot of things soon!

There are a lot of cameras and 360 VR Services coming out as well...

Create a great day!

Clement

[Clement0]

just a quick update... I did some searching and foud this service from google.

https://www.google.com/intl/en/maps/streetview/trusted/

tx,

Clement

[Clement0]

So, do we know if airbnb is going to consider offering 360 Virtual Tours?  Be it via google or do360now.  I'm sure they can think of a way...

[Stijn0]

Except from 360 tours and 360 photos. I think 360 video's will additional value as well.

Video's like http://www.virtualrealitytours.nl/ makes. This Dutch company is specialized in 360 video's for the real estate sector. 

Such video's are easily to watch because YouTube supports them. 

So the only thing AirBNB needs is to have a YouTube video implementation and we can all enjoy 360 live views of the listings we want to rent. 

To me this seems to be the easiest solution to implement 360 into AirBNB

Do you guys agree on that?

[Romeu0]

It's very very expensive... the google service. 
And the images on the links you've shared ( http://do360now.com/360/410EverniaSt/410EverniaStreet_Unit228.html ) are very bad. 

[Dj1]

I'm a 360 photographer and the tours are certainly not overly expensive unless you are a person who has never paid to have a professional do photos for you. It isn't free photos you shoot with your smartphone, that is for sure. I'm sure you can find someone who wants to charge an arm and a leg but search around and you should find someone who can do good work for a fair price. There is significant time and specialized equipment and skills invloved in making good looking 360 images. There are many many different options for hosting and displaying 360 photos and like with anything the quality varies.  Someone else mentioned the example listed above is unimpresisve in its quality but that certainly doesn't reflect the quality of 360 photos in general. That looks like it was created with one of the new generation of all-in-one cameras that capture and stitch the imagery and really doesn't require any skill. The quality reflects that. So it comes down to good quality at a higer cost or bad quality at a low cost. It all depends on the preference of the individual and some folks will choose one option, others will choose the other.

FYI Google virtual tours are for businsses only and Google will not host virtual tours shot in residential properties. Those are private spaces, not open to the general public so people would need to use a different option such as www.Spinattic.com or any number of other hosting platforms. 

Having said all of that, the reason I got into 360 photography is I love to be able to put a viewer into a space. They can full experience being there before beign there. Photos show only what you want them to see, 360 photos show EVERYTHING - for better or for worse! 

[Mark123]

Dj - you did a great job explaining what can be done, and what expectations to have based on the experience and skill the photographer has. It isn't always "you get what you pay for", since I have seen expensive tours that didn't inspire me at all. Find a photographer, look at their work, get competitive quotes, and you should be pleasantly surprised at the level of quality and service you can get.

It's great to see so many people looking to add virtual tours to their listings. I am a VR photographer with 18 years experience in the field, so I am a "little" biased...  I've used AirBnB a few times as an end user, not listing my home, and really wish I could have seen virtual tours of properties, since it really does put you in the room more than any video or still images can.

Mark

[Michele194]

Have a look at the Virtual tour I built of my listing: http://superviewvirtualtours.weebly.com/virtual-tour.html.  If unable to view the link, search for Superview and go to the Virtual Tour page

[Bill85]

Hi Michele...

I saw your virtual tour. I noticed plugins are required and not suitable on mobile phones

Wondering if you are keen to take a look at something that is 

1. Ridiculously simple to use

2. Mobile First and Friendly

we have something way simpler
panaroo [link removed]

or as a whole iframe

[link removed]

We built this because we use the Air bnb and could not find something to show case the house. Rather than wait for someone to do it ,we built it and made it really simple for people who need to show 360 panorama who are NOT tech savvy. If you are keen its free for the first few trials!

sign up here

[link removed]

[Isabel-De-Wet0]

What is the format for 360 photos if you want to use on Airbnb 

[Clarence5]

. .....thats me!!! gtp!!!

Will make you 360 vr for discount stays while I work on my time-lapse film project.

[Debbie170]

Do you do Airbnb drones flights  We are in Lake Elmo MN  6517777923

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@Clarence5 wrote:

. .....thats me!!! gtp!!!

Will make you 360 vr for discount stays while I work on my time-lapse film project.

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[Denis15]

@Lizzie0 I too have a Virtual tour on a website link AND a YouTube Drone video. It has the VR technology, but I have yet to personally view that. It's all new. I am able to post a link on VRBO. When will Airbnb be adding this type of additional marketing?

[Clarence5]

"Going back to your listing, how would you like the 360 video to be displayed on the site? "

I imagine the 360 photos would be allowed to post through airbnb's end in the website features. Generally on other platforms such as google maps or fb our device can simply recognize its a 360 type file and will allow for VR use at that point. These 360 or sphere images/videos are viewable to normal users, I would recommend using yt to embed the VR videos.

That is the simplest way about going about it, of course airbnb could work on some more features. I believe all the VR platforms share their web protocols for coding development when dealing with VR images / videos to easily code into websites.

I only shoot for google maps, so I know only bits of info I've heard here and their on ways to approach this.