Why Make a College Campus Virtual Tour Featuring Student Housing Rooms?
The Changing Admissions Environment
The college admissions process is an experience that is constantly changing. In the recent past, in-person college campus tours with groups of students and parents roaming around the campus were commonplace. Now that same experience has moved into the digital age. Providing a quality student housing tour experience for prospective students and their families is an important marketing strategy for your enrollment and occupancy efforts.
Adapt and Embrace
A 360 degree 3D and HD college campus virtual tour will bring your ResLife space directly to your prospective students. The best part? It can be viewed through any platform and anywhere in the world. Also, adding virtual tours to your admissions experience will help you stand out from the competition and give your prospective students an immersive experience in the space they will be inhabiting once boarding on campus.
College Campus Virtual Tour Best Practices
There are various practical tactics that you need to use when preparing to showcase residence hall, suite, and apartment rooms. These should be used both when filming a 3D college campus virtual tour option as well as for in-person opportunities.
Decorate Lightly
We strongly recommend to “lightly decorate” the room. You do not need to have the sensibility of an interior designer for a residence hall room to look presentable. Prospective students and parents need to see the space to get a sense of living there. There does not need a grand display for visitors to be impressed with your housing facilities.
Clutter Does Not Show Well
Additionally, if you are showing and / or filming a lived-in room or unit, clutter does not show well. Care should taken when choosing rooms of those students willing to volunteer. Those who have too many belongings in their room can create an impression that is contrary to your intended goals. You should have two or three different variations of decorations for the rooms. The chosen rooms should be sufficient to convey a lived-in space with school pride. You can be accomplish this very easily on a budget. Simply utilize items from the university store along with bedding and other household items from local big-box stores.
Be Mindful of the Exterior Surroundings
Choose a location for your college campus virtual tour where views from the windows are going to have positive curb appeal. Likewise, whether displayed virtually or from the vantage point of someone in person glancing out of the window, the exterior view must be mindfully chosen. Looking at a parking lot, construction zone, or an adjacent building’s loading dock can leave a lasting negative impression.
Coordinate Regularly with Your Facilities Team
First, make sure that your own staff and facilities team check the unit multiple times prior to showing or filming. Next, put a sign on the door to let individuals know that you will have a filming crew arriving and that the room should not be rearranged or disturbed in any way. Ultimately this will not only will this save time, but it will create a better filming experience for the development of your 3D college campus virtual tour featuring your beautifully highlighted student housing environment.
Choose a Unit with the Least Amount of Defects
The unit(s) that you will be filming and displaying should have the least amount of defects as possible. This includes repairing and / or replacing lighting, curtains, blinds, and freshening up painting where needed. Make sure that various furniture and casework (i.e., cabinetry, desks drawers, etc.) stay closed as to not show any anomalies, which may cause concern for visitors. You want to convey a professional and welcoming impression so your facilities should look the part.
The Benefits
There are multiple benefits by having college campus virtual tours. For example: boosting and innovating your recruitment and retention strategy. We would love to help you share the highlights of what your campus has to offer.
Provide your prospective students:
- An immersive experience
- Ubiquity across platforms
- A shortened gap between open and close
- A vision of their future
Please contact us if you would like to explore more about creating a 3D college campus virtual tour of your student housing facilities or enhancing the one that you currently have
Vivid Media LLC is a multimedia company specializing in creating interactive virtual tours across multiple industries. Our mission is to deliver a high-quality product and service at a fair price. Our tours are of the highest quality, customizable, and include the most cutting-edge features.
