Virtual tours for holiday lets and short stays
Let guests walk round the cottage before they book: which bedroom has the view, how big the kitchen is, where the hot tub sits. Fewer questions, fewer surprises, more direct bookings.
In short
A holiday let virtual tour is a 360° photo of each room and outside space, linked so guests can walk through the property on your own booking website. You can take the photos yourself with a 360° camera in one visit, upload them to Panoramr and embed the tour. Making it is free; hosting one tour without Panoramr’s branding costs from £19 a year, in a Vault of up to 10 photos.
- Photos needed
- Usually 8 to 20: each room, the garden and the view
- Who takes them
- You, with a 360° camera, or a 360° photographer
- Hosting
- From £19 a year, in a Vault of up to 10 photos
- Several properties
- The Pro plan hosts them all on one bill
Why owners add a 360° tour
Answer questions before they are asked
Is there a bath? How steep are the stairs? Where do the dogs sleep? Guests see for themselves.
Sell the setting
Stand in the garden, on the balcony or by the lake: the view sells the stay as much as the rooms.
Book direct
Put the tour on your own website beside your booking calendar, with a button that takes guests to it.
Show accessibility honestly
Guests who need step-free access can see the doorways, the shower and the route from the car.
What to photograph
One photo from the middle of each space, dressed as guests would find it.
How to take the photos- The approach and the front door
- The living room, with the fire lit
- The kitchen and dining area
- Every bedroom, beds made
- Bathrooms and the shower room
- The garden, terrace or balcony
- The hot tub, pool or games room
- The view, from its best spot
- Parking and the route to the door
- Any annexe, boot room or utility
Two ways to get the photos
A tour is a 360° photo of each space, linked together. Who takes them is up to you.
Hire a professional
A 360° photographer shoots each space and hands you the photos. Many build the whole tour in Panoramr too, and hand it over to your account, ready to publish.
Best for a portfolio of lets, or a premium property.
Take your own
With a 360° camera and a tripod, one press takes a whole room. Export the photos from the camera’s app and upload them.
Best for owners: a pocket 360° camera covers a cottage in one visit.
What holiday lets use most
Booking and shop buttons
A Book Now button in the top menu or in a room sends guests to your booking calendar. The tour has no booking form of its own.
How it worksNotes, pictures and links in the room
Notes in the room: the Wi-Fi, the wood burner, the hot tub rules, which bedroom has the view.
How it worksFloor plan with a live map
Upload a floor plan and pin each room on it. Visitors see a small map in a corner, with a cone that shows which way they are looking.
How it worksA map of where it is
Show where the property is on a map, from the photos’ own GPS or a click.
How it worksFive more languages
Translate the tour into Spanish, French, German, Chinese or Arabic. Visitors switch with one click on a paid plan or a hosted tour.
How it worksOpen on the best view
Choose where visitors are looking when each room opens: the view from the window, the stage, the bed.
How it works
How a tour is made
- 1
Upload your photos
Open Create Tour, give the tour a name and drop your photos in. No sign-up and no card. They are prepared in your browser, and the tour uploads by itself when they are ready.
- 2
Design it
Choose a theme, then make it yours: colours, menus, buttons and the look of each hotspot. Choose where visitors start looking in each room.
- 3
Link the rooms
Add hotspots so visitors can walk from one room to the next, and add text, pictures, video or a floor plan where they help.
- 4
Keep it
Create a free account and the tour is yours. A guest tour is deleted after 2 days.
- 5
Put it online
Publish it free with Panoramr’s branding, or buy a Vault for it to take the branding off.
- 6
Share it
Paste its embed code into your website, and send its link by email or post it on social media.
What it costs
Making the tour is free. You pay only to put it online without Panoramr’s branding; one Vault per property, or a plan for several.
Free
£0
Publish up to 10 tours, 250 photos in all, with Panoramr’s branding.
- The free Default Theme, in your colours
- A Panoramr start screen and badge over the tripod
- Listed on Panoramr’s Explore page
- Embed it on your own website
Vault 10
Suggested£19 a year
Hosts one tour of up to 10 photos. Pay once for one, three or five years, or yearly until you stop. You need no plan.
- No Panoramr branding: no start screen and no logo
- Your own design in any theme, Pro themes included
- Your logo and words on the patch over the tripod
- Private, by link only, or listed on Explore
Pro
£99 a year
Several tours? Pro hosts 250 photos at once with no Panoramr branding, shared by all of them, on one bill.
- Upload up to 1,000 panoramas
- Host up to 250 panoramas with no Panoramr branding
- Every Pro theme on your tours
- Your tour in other languages, with a switch for visitors
- Download your tour as a ZIP, in your own design
- Your own branding, private or published
- Hand a tour over to your client
Questions
How much does a virtual tour of a holiday let cost?
Making it in Panoramr is free. Hosting it without our branding costs from £19 a year, in a Vault of up to 10 photos. If you own several properties, the Pro plan hosts them all.
Can I take the photos myself?
Yes. A pocket 360° camera on a tripod takes each room in one press. Most cottages need 8 to 20 photos.
Can guests book from the tour?
They can click through to your booking page from a button or a link in a room. The tour has no booking form of its own.
Can I put it on my website?
Yes. Paste the embed code into your page, in WordPress, Squarespace, Wix or any other site, and send the tour’s link to guests.
What if I redecorate?
Replace the photo of the room that changed. Its notes and links stay where they were.
Ways to share it
On your own website
Copy the embed code from the tour’s Publish tab and paste it into your page. It works with WordPress, Squarespace, Wix and most other sites.
How to embed a tourBy its link
Send the tour’s address by email, put it in a booking confirmation or a newsletter, or post it on social media.
On Explore
Panoramr’s gallery of tours, with buttons to share yours on X, Facebook, LinkedIn and by email. A free tour is always listed there; a hosted one only if you want.
Only with your team
Keep it private while you work on it, and invite colleagues or your web designer to view or edit it with you.
Related industries
- Hotels & ResortsLet guests walk through rooms, suites, the spa and the restaurant before they book direct.
- Attractions & TourismGive visitors a taste of the place before they travel: attractions, destinations and days out.
- Parks, Gardens & CampsitesWalk the trail, the garden or the pitch before the trip, with every photo placed on a map.
Let guests look round first
Make the tour free. Pay only when you put it online without our branding.