What to commission first for hotel pre-opening marketing visuals

1. Start from what is already decided

Pre-opening imagery is usually commissioned while the design is still moving. Before choosing any format, sort the spaces you want to show by how settled they are. That one list decides what can be shown now and what should wait.

Conceptual imagery can be produced from a written brief and references, and plans or drawings help when they exist. What matters is that everyone knows which parts of an image are confirmed and which are an interpretation of an idea.

• Confirmed: an approved design, supplied plans or a model. These spaces can be shown in detail.
• Provisional: the direction is agreed but finishes, furniture or views are still open. Show the atmosphere and the setting, not the details that may change.
• Open: not designed yet. Leave these spaces out, or present them clearly as a concept rather than a feature guests can expect.

2. The first commission: one destination story

The question every early audience asks is the same: what will it feel like to arrive and stay here? A short film that connects the setting, the arrival, one shared space and life around the property answers it in one piece, and stills taken from the same scenes let the website, a sales deck or a press kit stay with one view at a time.

Commissioning the film and the stills from one production keeps light, materials and mood consistent across every channel. Buying them separately from different suppliers often produces a website and a presentation that describe two slightly different hotels.

Leave close-up room views until the room layout and finishes are approved. A guest reads a room image as a promise about what they will get, so it should show the room type most guests will book, not an idealised version of it.

The guide to concept films, walkthroughs and stills compares what each format does well.

3. Plan the channels before the cameras

The same scenes will appear in very different places during the pre-opening period. Name those places in the brief, because each one changes the framing, the aspect ratio and the length of the edit. A horizontal film cropped later into a vertical post rarely reads well.

• The hotel or resort website and its booking page: a hero film or loop and a small set of wide stills.
• Operator, investor and partner presentations: the full film plus stills that can stay on screen during discussion.
• Travel trade, sales and press kits: individual stills with captions that say which spaces they show.
• Social channels: short vertical edits built around one moment rather than the whole property.
• Third-party listing and booking platforms: check each platform’s current image policy before using visuals of a property that is not built yet.

4. Keep conceptual imagery honest

Concept visualization is illustrative. Generated interpretation can change geometry, materials, furniture or views, and modelled geometry only becomes a reliable reference when the scope includes controlled 3D output or a validated process, with the client or architect checking design-critical details.

Guests compare pre-opening images with the property they eventually visit. Keep a short label with every image wherever it travels, for example “Concept visualization. Design, finishes and views may change.”, and keep the conceptual elements separate from supplied or approved design in the files you hand over.

Be careful with outlooks. If a sea view, a private terrace or a pool position is not confirmed by the design, do not let an image promise it. Where units or suites are sold before opening, ask your own advisers which rules apply to marketing imagery in that market.

5. A commissioning order that limits rework

Ordering views before the design behind them is settled is the most common way to pay for the same image twice. A simple sequence follows the design rather than the launch calendar.

• Concept or early design: a destination film or a pilot sequence, plus hero stills of the setting and the arrival. Use them in operator and investor conversations and on a first website.
• Public spaces and one room type approved: add stills of those spaces from the same scenes, so the image set grows without changing its look.
• Channels confirmed: commission the cutdowns, vertical edits and website loops each channel needs, scoped as separate deliverables.
• Opening: replace conceptual imagery with photography of the finished property where it exists, and retire any image that shows a feature that changed.

The architectural animation cost guide explains what moves the price of each stage.

6. Where Predella fits

Predella Studio makes vision films and imagery for hotel and resort developers, for investor presentations, operator conversations and pre-opening communication. The vision film package starts from €7,500 and includes a 60 to 180 second MP4, at least 20 finished images for the agreed spaces and experiences, and direct Blender render images or video sketches.

When the design is still moving, a focused pilot from €2,500 tests the visual direction with one short sequence and two matching stills for a single space or experience. Reusable pilot work is credited toward a larger production on the same approved scope. Starting prices exclude applicable taxes.

The agreed scope can be delivered in five working days once the brief, inputs, deliverables and direction are confirmed and the first payment has been received, with client review time on top and two consolidated feedback rounds included. Vertical edits, cutdowns and website loops are scoped separately, and a complete investor deck, editable presentation files or source models are not included unless the proposal says so.

Tidecourt, Predella’s self-initiated fictional resort film, shows the approach: a 75-second edit connecting coastal architecture, rooms, dining and life by the water. It is a demonstration, not a commissioned pre-opening campaign or evidence of bookings.

The Tidecourt production breakdown shows how the Blender scenes and the generated atmosphere fit together.