Virtual tours are a great way to market your business online with their sophisticated user interaction features and attractive visuals. These online virtual tours provide a comprehensive layout of a space that can reach clients from all over the world without having to view the space physically. As the world faces the pandemic with limited social interaction, setting up a virtual tour in Singapore has become essential for certain industries. With the growing restrictions of in-person meetings, the future is online and virtual tours can provide an effective marketing strategy to keep sales going and profits rising despite the unfortunate circumstances. However, there are many types of virtual tours available such as the Matterport 3D virtual tour and the 360 virtual tour that differ slightly in their technicalities and features. While many businesses such as real estate, hospitality and events can benefit from virtual tours, the two programs have their strengths and downsides that may be advantageous to some industries and unnecessary for others. Here is a quick breakdown of the two virtual tours for a better understanding of which is best for your business.
The Matterport 3D program can digitise any physical space into a low-poly 3D model, which can then be viewed from all angles. Its immersive 3D tours include a list of features that make it easy to navigate around the space while engaging the user. These features include the one of a kind “Dollhouse” view that zooms out to scope the entire layout and space of the property before exploring deeper. Once inside, users will be able to walk through the space and navigate around like they are physically there. There is also a floorplan view from a top-down angle to view a realistic layout of the space with added Mattertags that can embed visual notes such as photographs and videos into certain elements in the room for a more comprehensive guide. Lastly, the Matterport 3D virtual tour has a measurement tool that can calculate the length of any furniture or window, which is a great component for commercial real estate projects.
However, the Matterport 3D technology comes with some disadvantages. Firstly, the image quality is not as crisp as a 360 panorama tour. Images taken using Matterport 3D cannot be edited to remove any faces or add any objects for customisation of the space and the camera used is optimised for interior shooting only as the glaring lighting from natural light will affect the images. Unfortunately, the Matterport technology does not offer much customisation to its interface where Mattertags that outline certain features of the space cannot be modified in aesthetics or format. A big downside is that Matterport does not allow personalisation in their UI/UX. The interface design and layout cannot be tailor-made to each brand as colour palettes are fixed and users are unable to toggle between multiple languages. Matterport 3D also does not have 3D rendering or virtual staging features, unlike a 360 virtual tour.
With all these features of a Matterport 3D virtual tour, the industries that would most benefit from them are real estate as well as the tourism sector. With its immersive and realistic digital images of these spaces, Matterport 3D has the ability to streamline the selling process for prospective buyers in the real estate business and has proven to get 31% faster sales. There are also different tourism sectors that can benefit from Matterport 3D such as art exhibitions. With the new normal of a socially distanced world, bringing art to the consumers through virtual tours is needed as we evolve with the times. Matterport 3D can transport viewers to a real-life museum or exhibit while maintaining user engagement and an immersive experience. Viewers can browse through the various exhibits with detailed summaries and also appreciate the space from a bird’s eye view.
360 virtual tours are customised to each property by creating panoramic shots and stitching them together for a circumferential view of the space. They allow clients to access your property online and navigate through the rooms seamlessly. Its added navigation menu gives access to highlighted spaces in the property to zoom into directly with added infoboxes for additional details in the form of words, images and videos. The 360 virtual tours also have a schematic floor plan with “hotspots'' in the different rooms that users can click on to view that space. Integration of audio and voice overs are also available for a guided tour experience. Unlike the Matterport 3D virtual tour, 360 virtual tours are customisable to edit or blur out any faces with a high image resolution and quality. It also offers 3D rendering where spaces that are still under development can be brought to life through digital imaging. Furthermore, its virtual staging technology can furnish any empty space with decor for better visualisation and authenticity.
However, a downside to 360 panorama tours is that unlike the Matterport 3D, it does not have a “Dollhouse” view to get a bird’s eye view of the space. The 360 panoramic virtual tour has the technology to provide crisp and high-quality images of your space where buyers can roam around the room and zoom into the details before making the decision to book an event space. In the hospitality industry, hotels and accommodations are a very visual listing that attracts customers based on their interior. Before booking a hotel, travellers tend to scroll through images of their accommodation but having a 360 virtual tour can take any marketing strategy to the next level. These travellers will be able to experience a comprehensive view of their desired accommodation, instilling more trust in them to make a booking.
If you are still having difficulty deciding which type of virtual tour is best for your business, you should evaluate what your location has to offer and what details of your space are selling points that are attractive to buyers. In short, Matterport 3D virtual tours can give an expansive perspective of your space with its “Dollhouse” feature where buyers can freely roam around the room while 360 virtual tours offer a crisp panoramic view of the space that can be easily customisable. Both technologies provide many different user-engagement functions, which can draw in customers more easily.
If you are looking to set up a virtual tour in Singapore, you can view our services and enquire with us if you are still unsure of the type of virtual tour your business requires.
