How to make a virtual tour for a restaurant or venue

What a tour does for a restaurant or venue

A diner or an event planner decides from what they can see. A 360° tour on your own website lets them walk in: the dining room with the tables laid, the bar, the terrace, and the private room they are thinking of booking. For a wedding or a conference, the room set up as on the day answers most of the questions before anyone calls.

You need a 360° camera on a tripod (or a 360° photographer, listed in Panoramr's Hire a Creator directory) and a tour maker. This guide uses Panoramr, which runs in the browser and is free to make tours with.

What to photograph

Take one 360° photo for each place a guest would stand, when the room is set and lit, before guests arrive:

• the entrance and the front of house
• the main dining room, tables laid
• the bar
• the terrace or beer garden
• private dining and function rooms
• each room set up for a wedding or a conference
• the ceremony space and the dance floor
• the open kitchen or chef's table
• the accessible entrance and toilets
• the car park and the approach

A restaurant usually needs 5 to 10 photos. A wedding or conference venue needs 15 to 40, because each room is shown in each set-up. The restaurants and venues page has the same list.

Set the room, then shoot

• Set it as a guest should see it. Tables laid, candles lit if you use them, blinds open, doors between spaces open. For a wedding room, shoot it dressed for a wedding; for a conference, laid out theatre-style.
• Camera on a tripod in the middle of the space, at about eye height. Keep it level and at least a metre from tables and walls so nothing looks broken where the two lenses' pictures meet.
• Stay out of the shot. Fire the camera from its phone app from another room, or use the self-timer and step out.
• Shoot a room more than once if it is set up more than one way. One photo per set-up is how a planner compares a banquet layout with a theatre one.

How to take 360° photos for a virtual tour covers the camera height, the light and the shot itself.

Build the tour

1. Export each photo as a 360° JPEG, twice as wide as it is tall. How to choose a 360° camera says which cameras save one straight away.
2. Upload them in Panoramr: click Create Tour and drop the photos in.
3. Link the spaces, so a guest walks from the entrance to the dining room and on to the private room, as they would on a visit.
4. Group them. Put the spaces into groups, such as Restaurant, Weddings and Conferences, so each guest goes straight to theirs (panorama groups).
5. Add a booking button. A button in the tour's top menu, or a link in a room, sends guests to your own booking page: book a table, enquire about a wedding, download the menu (buttons). The tour has no booking form of its own, so the booking stays with you.
6. Show the menu or the set-ups. Put this week's menu on a wall or a screen in the photo with Surface Media (Surface Media), and change it in the editor without a new photo. A gallery badge can open pictures of the room set up for different events.

Put it online

Copy the embed code from the tour's Publish tab and paste it into your website's page for the venue, in WordPress, Squarespace, Wix or any other site that takes HTML (embed a tour). Guests never leave your site, and the tour works on phones, tablets and computers. You can also share the tour's link in emails, on your social pages and in a wedding enquiry reply.

When a room is redecorated, replace its photo and the tour keeps its hotspots and links.

What it costs

Making a tour is free. To put it online with your own branding, a small restaurant fits the smallest Vault, £19 for a year or £75 for five, for up to 10 panoramas. A venue with many rooms and set-ups needs a bigger one: up to 36 panoramas is £36 for a year or £99 for five. A Vault keeps one tour online for the years you pay for, on any plan. A tour with Panoramr's branding can also be published free. How much a virtual tour costs sets out the camera and the other routes.

Questions

How many photos does a restaurant tour need?

Usually 5 to 10: the entrance, the dining room, the bar, the terrace and any private room. A wedding or conference venue needs 15 to 40, because each room is shown in each set-up.

Can guests book a table from the tour?

They can click through to your booking page from a button or a link. The tour has no booking form of its own, so the booking stays on your system.

Can I change the menu shown in the tour?

Yes. A menu put on a wall with Surface Media, or linked from a button, is changed in the editor without a new photo.

Does a restaurant tour work on a phone?

Yes. Guests drag or turn the phone to look round and tap to move between spaces. The same tour works on tablets and computers.