VFM and Omni Complete Study

Impact of Rich Visual Media On Hotel Bookings

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. October 14, 2008

TORONTO, Canada, October 5, 2007. VFM Interactive and Omni Hotels announced today the completion of the first comprehensive study on the impact of hotel online rich visual content on consumer hotel booking decisions. The purpose of the study was to determine whether consumers who view a hotel's online rich visual content such as hotel 360 degree "virtual tours" and videos are more likely to book that hotel. The study was also designed to compare the effectiveness of different types of media in increasing online look-to-book conversion rates.

As part of the study, VFM created virtual tours and different types of videos for ten Omni hotels and then tracked consumers who viewed the media on both the Omni website as well as VFM's network of third-party distribution partners, including major online travel agencies and travel research websites. Four of the Omni properties involved only had virtual tour images while the remaining six properties had both videos and virtual tours. Among the six video properties, three had full-motion videos while the other three had a VFM "photomontage" video (a more cost-effective video production created using a property's existing still images).

The study tracked nearly 130,000 unique consumers over a period of 34 days. Importantly, the study included a blind control group for comparison purposes. Specifically, consumers who visited the Omni website were randomly divided into a study group and a control group. Consumers in the study group (50%) were presented with links to the hotels' rich media on various Omni website pages and where therefore able to view the media if they so chose. Consumers in the control group were not shown any links to the videos and virtual tours and were therefore not given the ability to view any hotel rich media other than the hotels' photos.

The results of the study confirm that viewing rich media significantly increases the likelihood of a booking. Overall, consumers who viewed an Omni hotel's rich media were 67% more likely to book than those who did not. Importantly, the richer the media viewed by the consumer, the higher the impact on look-to-book conversion rates. The increase in conversion rate for consumers who viewed a hotel video was 2.9 times that for consumers who only viewed virtual tours. The increase was even greater (3.6 times) for consumers who viewed both virtual tours and video. Interestingly, there was no material difference in the effectiveness of full-motion videos and VFM's more cost effective photomontage videos.

The study also demonstrated the value of having a hotel's rich media distributed to third-party websites as a key customer acquisition tool. Close to 30% of consumers who viewed an Omni hotel's rich media on a third-party website to which the media was distributed by VFM then visited the Omni website, with a significant percentage of those consumers then making a booking there.

These results of the clearly demonstrate the value of rich media and its impact on the decision making process for those who are researching and/or shopping online. For more information of this study, or how VFM's services could assist your hotel, please contact Randy Lyons ([email protected] or 416-263-5672) or visit us at www.vfmii.com.