What is a Custom Virtual Tour?

With technology expanding, virtual tours provide a window into your business, showcasing your space and everything you have to offer. A virtual tour uses a panoramic or 360-degree camera to replicate the experience of visiting your business or venue. You can embed these tours on your website or send them as a link to potential clients or customers.

A custom virtual tour extends a warm welcome to any visitor, enhancing your visibility as a business. High-quality, custom virtual tours can give users an inside look without leaving their homes. They can include dropdown menus, company logos and even auto-rotation features. These customization options all work together to create an immersive experience for any viewer or virtual visitor. Not only do they provide an inside look at your business, they’re also great for promoting it as well. Hotels, multi-family housing, and even museums are just a few examples of businesses that can benefit from using custom virtual tours.

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Best Industries for Custom Virtual Tours

While any business can benefit from using a custom virtual tour company, there are some industries that can best use it to their advantage. A custom tour is ideal for showing off your business’s space, whether it’s a 1000-room hotel, apartment building, a lush and expansive garden or a high-end restaurant or retail space. Custom virtual tours are great for museums and art galleries as well! A 360-degree tour of your space will allow visitors to engage with your business from their laptop, tablet or mobile device. It’s an accessible, easy way to highlight everything that your business has to offer. With virtual tours being so immersive for the viewer, customizing your tour can lend a helping hand. Showing off your newly renovated apartment building to a potential resident? You can use a custom tour to show them exactly what their new home will feel like. Want to highlight your outdoor venue’s gorgeous landscaping? A virtual tour can put a viewer right at the center of your lush greenery. A virtual tour company can create an immersive, engaging experience for your visitor that will enhance your business’s overall visibility.

Restaurants

Showcase your restaurant, diner or bar with stunning, high-quality and professional photography or videography. All of our photos go through a meticulous post-production process to make sure your eatery is shown in its best light.

Hospitality

CS3 Photography is one of the leading photography providers in hospitality photography and videography in North America and beyond. We’ve photographed more than 10,000 hotels from economy scale to high-end resorts.

Retail

Our team at CS3 provides professional photography and videography services to some of the largest kitchen, bath and flooring showrooms in the country, as well as major retailers with a worldwide footprint.

Multi-Family Housing

CS3 is the photography vendor for some of the largest multi-family management companies in the United States as well as some of the largest commercial real estate investment firms in the world.

Arts & Culture

Your space is certainly one that shouldn’t go unexplored. Whether it’s an art gallery, indoor museum or outdoor installation, a custom virtual tour can showcase your venue’s offerings in a tech-forward, visitor-friendly way. Highlight all of your venue’s unique exhibits in one immersive experience!

Large Venues & Landscapes

A business’s most valuable asset can sometimes lie in their venue or surrounding landscape. With a custom virtual tour, large-scale spaces can be captured in high-definition so virtual visitors can see for themselves the true value your space offers — all without having to be on-property to see it.

What to Look For in a Virtual Tour Company

There’s no one-size-fits-all solution for creating a custom virtual tour. There are many considerations to take into account and moving pieces to factor in. Every business has unique needs and features they’d like to highlight on their tour, not to mention a busy schedule that needs to be rearranged to accommodate a shoot. Depending on the virtual tour company, professional 360-degree or panoramic photography can include a variety of deliverables and most teams will work with businesses to understand their objectives and capture images that meet and exceed their specific goals. There are, however, a few things to definitely look for when considering different virtual tour companies for your business. From their level of expertise and experience to their post-production turnaround time, there are several factors you’ll want to consider before making a final selection for a virtual tour company. Here are our recommendations for what to look for:

Organization

One of the first things to look for in a virtual tour company is their internal organization. Your selected team should be able to provide you with everything needed to help you prepare for your upcoming photoshoot and answer any questions you might have. Your virtual tour company should be able to work with your team to find the best time to come out and shoot based on your available time frames.

Widespan Coverage

Another thing to consider when hiring a custom virtual tour company is whether or not they serve your particular area. Some companies have less coverage and may require a photographer or a team to be flown out to your business or property. At CS3, we cover customers and businesses across the United States and in 20+ countries worldwide, as each location has local photographers ready and available. This ensures no additional travel charges are necessary.

Experience

Any company you’re considering should have the expertise needed to produce top-quality results, and this is especially true if you’re looking for a custom virtual tour. Our vast network of professional photographers and long-standing partnership with Google has helped us become one of the largest and most experienced photography companies in both North America and abroad.

High-Resolution Photo and Video

Custom virtual tours require high-quality panoramic or 360-degree photography. At CS3, we take high-definition photos and rigorously edit them to make sure your business puts its best virtual foot forward for potential visitors.

Flat-Rate Pricing

Some companies will offer dozens of different price points for countless package options. What’s important to look for is consistent pricing that doesn’t put your business out financially because of your location. With CS3, you’ll have one point of contact and one price no matter where you’re located.

Quick Turnarounds

Most professional photographers understand that businesses might have tight deadlines that require fast turnarounds. At CS3 Photography, our team ensures the final products are always delivered as quickly as possible without sacrificing quality. Turnaround times can vary depending on the project, but in most cases we can have your imagery to you in about a week or less.

Madison Square Garden

The World’s Most Famous Arena

A custom virtual tour extends a warm welcome to any visitor, enhancing your visibility as a business. High-quality, custom virtual toys can give users an inside look without leaving their homes.

Visit the Experience

We also provide Google virtual tours.

Frequently Asked Questions

Have questions about custom virtual tour services? When it comes to investing in a company for creating your virtual tour, having the answers to your important questions is essential to making the most informed decision possible. Browse these Q&As to learn more.

Q: Who are the photographers?

A: Every virtual tour team is structured differently and can have varying levels of certification and experience. Some companies are smaller and offer more local-only services. At CS3 Photography, we have a vast network of professional photographers located across the country, as well as Canada and Mexico On top of that, our in-house editing team of experts who are all experienced in creating high-quality tours that will engage your potential customers. There are no hidden fees for flying out any of our photographers — we have nationwide coverage so our team can come to you. Request a quote and get started with your own custom virtual tour!
Q: What kind of camera equipment is used?

CS3 only uses high-quality DSLR cameras and professional panoramic lenses for our virtual tours.
Q: How long does the photography process generally take?

A: Depending on the photography company, the actual creation of the virtual tour may be structured in various ways. Therefore, the time it takes to receive the end product may depend on how their business is set up. At CS3 Photography, we believe your time is best spent running your business, not working all day with a photographer to get the perfect shot set up. That’s why our goal is to use less time on-site and more time in post-production. Once we’ve completed our shoot, our team’s post-production process is fast and unmatched, letting you focus on managing your business while we touch up your images without taking up too much of your time on-site.
Q: How should I prepare my property for the virtual tour?

A: Preparing your property is an essential step for creating your virtual tour. Depending on your specific needs, you may need to inspect your property from top to bottom. For those also seeking aerial photography in addition to a tour, it’s important to clean and repair everything necessary on your property’s exterior, including your roofs (look for damage or discoloration), walls (look for chipping paint, graffiti or cracked windows), pavement (look for cracks or potholes), gardens/landscaping (look for unkempt grass or messy flowerbeds), etc. You may also need to do some day-of preparations in order to reduce the amount of time inconvenienced for customers, guests or employees, as well as to optimize the degree of cleanliness. These preparations may include removing items like temporary/seasonal signage, parked vehicles, maintenance equipment or anything else that could be a distraction from your property in your photography.

If your property has any imperfections you’re unable to fix prior to the photoshoot, many companies offer services to edit them out, depending on certain factors. Contact CS3 to learn more about our editing services and how you can prepare for your upcoming photoshoot.
Q: How much do custom virtual tour services cost?

A: Some photography companies charge based on distance, flight time (for aerial photography) or other factors. At CS3, it doesn’t matter where your locations are — we offer flat-rate pricing on all photography packages so there’s no negotiating required. Learn more about specific pricing based on your needs by requesting a quote today.
Q: What type of weather is best for an outdoor virtual tour?

A: When it comes to outdoor photoshoots, the weather can play a pivotal role in the overall quality of your photos. While it may not be possible to schedule photoshoots on days with ideal weather conditions, it’s important to know that many photographers actually prefer to shoot in partly cloudy weather over highly sunny weather to avoid overexposing the images. If it’s at all possible, try to schedule your photoshoot on a day that could be slightly cloudy. Or, if you’re looking for images with a nice warm glow, try to schedule your photoshoot during “the golden hour” (the first hour before sunset or the first hour after sunrise).
Q: What is the typical turnaround time for a custom virtual tour?

A: Businesses tend to run on a tight schedule, so the sooner you can get your photos, the better! At CS3, our team is committed to providing your photos quickly. In most cases you’ll receive your imagery within a week of the shoot. There may be some instances that require additional services, which could extend the delivery slightly. You can get started by requesting a quote or more information for your particular project.

How to Get Started

Getting started with your business’s custom virtual tour is easy when you have the right partner. The first step is to set your goals and expectations for the finished product and research companies that can best help you meet them. From there, you’ll want to find the virtual tour company that can best meet your needs. You should be able to easily reach out and request a quote from their team to see if their pricing falls within your budget. If it’s a good fit, you can move on to schedule your custom virtual tours appointment and start preparing your business and staff for the upcoming shoot.

At CS3 Photography, we have a wide network of photographers across the U.S. and 20+ countries worldwide, ready to showcase your business property and its surrounding area in the best light possible. Request a quote to see if our custom virtual tour services suit your needs today.