How to Prepare Your Hotel or Homestay for a Photoshoot in Bir, Dharamshala and McLeod Ganj
The difference between a good set of hotel photos and an expensive one is mostly decided before anyone picks up a camera. Editing can fix light. It cannot fix a chipped bedside table or a bathroom with a plastic bucket in the corner.
Pick your best rooms, not all of them
You do not need every room photographed. Two or three room types shot properly will sell better than fifteen shot quickly. Choose the rooms with the best light and the best view, and put the effort into making those perfect.
Strip the rooms back
Remove personal items, spare keys, laundry bags, room service trays, wall calendars and printed notices.
Replace anything chipped, stained or mismatched: bedcovers, cushion covers, towels, bathroom mats.
Iron the linen on the bed. Creases show badly in photographs.
Hide cables, extension boards, buckets and cleaning supplies.
Check every bulb works and that they match in colour. One warm bulb beside a cool one ruins an interior frame.
Fix the small maintenance jobs
Touch up scuffed paint, tighten loose fittings, clean the windows properly, and check the curtains hang straight and run smoothly. Windows matter more than anything else in a mountain property, because the view is the product.
Prepare the exteriors
Sweep the approach and the parking. Clear the terrace of stacked plastic chairs, drying laundry and leftover construction material. If you have a garden, cut it a few days ahead rather than on the morning of the shoot. In Bir and Dharamkot especially, exteriors are usually let down by scaffolding and stored building material that nobody on site notices anymore.
Sort out staff and access
Block the rooms being photographed for the whole shoot day. A guest checking in mid-shoot ends the shoot.
Assign one staff member to the photographer for the full day, someone who can open doors and move furniture.
Confirm roof or terrace access if you want elevated shots.
If you want drone footage, arrange permissions in advance and flag anything local: Bir's paragliding traffic and the airport at Gaggal near Dharamshala both need checking first.
Decide who the photos are selling to
A homestay in McLeod Ganj selling to backpackers and long-stay visitors needs different images from a resort on the Bir Road selling to families booking through OTAs. Decide before the shoot whether you need lifestyle frames with people in them, because that means arranging models, styling and props on the day rather than improvising.
Food and staged detail
If your kitchen or cafe is part of the offer, plan two or three dishes that photograph well and have them prepared fresh during good light. Fresh flowers, a made bed, a tray with real cups, an open book left on a chair: small staged details are what make a room look occupied instead of empty.
Town-specific detail here: Bir Billing, Dharamshala and McLeod Ganj.
Send us your property details and we will put a shot list together before we arrive.
Comments