5 Steps to Implementing Hybrid Floor Plan Tours for Vacation Rental Managers

October 10, 2019

TruPlace’s new Hybrid Floor Plan Tour is quickly becoming a favorite among our clients. If you’re ready to join them, we have budgets and implementation plans for any property manager. We’ll work together to create a plan that works best for you and guide you through every step of the process. Here’s what to expect.

1. Conduct a Needs Analysis

The first step to implementing Hybrid Floor Plan Tours is to note what you need – and what you don’t. Most of our clients choose to have TruPlace take care of everything – the floor plans, the professional photography, the image management, the resizing and uploading, the hosting – everything. Or, we can use your floor plans or photos. There are a lot of options – all designed to make it easy on you and your budget. We’ll walk you through customized Do It Yourself (DIY), Do It With You (DWY), and Do It For You (DFY) full-service options. What we can do for you:

TruFusion Photography: TruPlace provides its clients with a massive network of professional property photographers and top-end camera equipment, all backed by our proprietary processing technology. This means you get premium photos with vivid colors, brighter details and a better experience for the viewer. Image size matters too, so we’ll make sure all of your images are properly formatted for your website, OTAs, and every other use. We can also help with bulk projects and train your photographer for ongoing needs.

Floor Plans: If you have existing floor plans drawn from other sources, we can use those to convert into TruPlace. We can also train your staff to measure for them, or we can schedule our professional photographers to measure the property while onsite for photos.

TruFusion 3D Spins: These 360^o images are the only element of the Hybrid Floor Plan Tour that must be completed by our trained TruPlace staff. This addition is what makes the hybrid tour the best of 2D and 3D combined for the most ideal user experience (but if you prefer the signature floor plan tour, that’s an option too!)

2. Determine Your Desired ROI and Budget

Your project budget will be determined by the DIY, DWY, and DFY options mentioned above, as well as the elements you already have on hand and the number of properties receiving the tour. No matter the budget, a popular way to offset the costs is to share the costs with (or pass them on to) homeowners. (If this works best for your company, let us know. We have existing communication programs to support the strategy.)

Some property managers also spread the investment across multiple departments, such as using TruPlace visual tools as a contract signing bonus for recruiters, or implementing the tours in stages, such as focusing on luxury properties first before deploying them across other groups.

In short, we have options for every budget. And no matter what it is, your tours will deliver company-wide ROI in reservations and saved staff time. We’ll work together with you to calculate an ROI and build a plan and budget to meet your goals.

3. Scheduling to Meet Your Timeline with Convenience and Efficiency

Depending on the level of service you choose, property availability and completion goals, we’ll help you with the project timeline. We’ll work with you to plan the most efficient scheduling possible, including batching property visits and completing all tour elements in one appointment. Large projects or short time frames are not a problem, as we have trained teams who can travel to meet your needs.

4. Creation and Delivery of Hybrid Floor Plan Tours

Once photos and floor plans are completed, TruPlace will create and deliver the tours to you the next business day. You and your staff will have immediate access to a client portal to the view photos, tour links, analytics and more.

TruPlace has an API with many major property management software platforms. If your PMS is one of our partners, all photos will automatically flow to your software. If not, we are happy to discuss this possibility with your PMS.

5. Maximizing Your Tours

TruPlace and your dedicated client advocate will work together with your website company to integrate your Hybrid Floor Plan Tours with your website to maximize their exposure and benefits. We have partnerships with most VR website companies with existing bests practices already in place.

We will also provide training and resources for you to leverage the full benefit of the tours across social media, guest planning emails, and owner acquisition and retention, not to mention other industry partner uses such as Key Data Dashboard and inspection software. Through this process and beyond, your client advocate will periodically review analytics, upgrades and feedback.

To get started with our new Hybrid Floor Plan Tours, email our Team at Solutions@TruPlace.com or give us a call at 301-972-3201