How to take good photos of your hotel with a phone

You do not need a camera. You need three things that cost nothing: the right hour, a tidy room and an honest frame.

The hour rules

In the Caribbean, between 10 AM and 3 PM the light is harsh and burns the sky. The two good windows:

• Early (6 to 8 AM): soft light, beach and pool without people, colour in the sky.
• Late (5 to 6:30 PM): golden hour. This is when you shoot the footage people share.

Indoors, open the curtains and switch off warm bulbs: mixing daylight with tungsten gives that orange cast that makes a room look dirty.

Prepare before you shoot

1. Bed made with corners pulled tight and pillows standing.
2. Remove cables, remotes, bins, signage and cleaning products.
3. Towels folded the same way in every room.
4. A plant, a fruit or a book so the frame is not empty.
5. Curtains even and mirrors without your reflection.

Ten minutes of tidying beats any filter.

Framing: four rules

• From the corner of the room, at chest height: it shows the real space.
• Straight lines. Turn on the phone grid and level: a tilted photo looks amateur instantly.
• No extreme wide angle. It makes small rooms look big and guests complain in reviews.
• Include the view. If you can see the sea from the bed, that is the photo.

Which photos you need, in order

1. Façade and entrance.
2. Each room type: wide, bed, bathroom and view.
3. Pool and common areas, with people if possible.
4. Breakfast served.
5. The team at work.
6. The surroundings: beach, river, street, sunset.

That covers your website, your Google listing, the OTAs and a month of social media.

Minimal editing

Lift exposure slightly, pull highlights down to recover the sky, lift shadows a little and straighten. Nothing else. Heavy saturation and blue filters make the photo look unlike the place, and that always comes back as a review.

Reels

31,5 milGuachaca at golden hour · 0:15

Video: three rules and that is it

• Vertical and steady. Brace the phone or move your whole body, not just your hands.
• Clips of 5 to 8 seconds. Ten good clips make a reel; one long take does not.
• Start with the best bit. The first second decides whether they stay.

Always shoot more than you think you need: half an hour of good material lasts weeks.

With people or without

Photos with people connect more, but you need permission. The practical approach: use your team and family, and when it is guests, get written consent (a WhatsApp message is enough). Never publish a recognisable person without permission, and never minors.

How to organise what you shoot

One folder per month with four subfolders: rooms, destination, food and team. Delete duplicates the same day, while you still remember which take is good. A messy archive is why many hotels reshoot the same thing every month.

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When it is worth hiring

For your website, the OTAs and your Google listing, a professional shoot once a year — or whenever you renovate — is worth it. For day-to-day social media the phone is enough and it looks more honest: over-produced content underperforms in short video.

If you would rather we came to shoot one day a month, that is part of the Social Media Management service.