Branding photography for hotels can take many forms. Your immediate thought of hotel photos is probably the guest rooms, reception and other public areas – the places that the public see. However, anyone who networks, attends conferences or goes to seminars will tell you, hotels are frequently used for business meetings. So, I’ve been asked recently to visit a couple of hotels in central Manchester to photograph their conference facilities.
The Townhouse Hotel Manchester is a Grade II listed Victorian building, originally a cotton warehouse, which has retained much of its charm. So, part of my job was to show that industrial heritage while also highlighting the room sizes and potential that the meeting rooms have. The general manager Paul had prepped all the rooms in advance, so that on the day I could concentrate on lighting and angles – the keys to good interiors photography.
There are numerous businesses, organisations and groups all looking for spaces. Whether that’s for a one-off event, a convenient central location to meet, or a regular venue for monthly meetings, there’s a tremendous demand for places that can provide the room, and as importantly the equipment and facilities needed to host a range of business events. What that boils down to is there’s an awful lot of bookings to be placed, and money to be made. So you can see how important high quality, up-to-date photos of the conference areas are.
I also took the opportunity while there to take a couple of general marketing images, using the branded materials that had been set out on the tables. I’ve included plenty of negative space in those last two images, as you can see, so they have multiple uses. That space is great for dropping in a special offer, information about pricing, answering a query about availability, and so on. It’s nice to give something unexpected alongside the requested interiors photos.
