Every bed & breakfast inn that is even remotely serious about attracting guests has a website, right? Well, most do. Are all inn sites created equally? Thankfully, no. Can most websites be improved? Thankfully, yes! What is one of the key elements missing from most bed & breakfast inn websites, even some of those that are beautifully designed? Great photography.

Sandy Soule of Bed and Breakfast.com has just written and published what should be the definitive article on inn photography entitled, "Good Photography: Essential Marketing Tool." Whether you currently own an inn or are simply thinking about it, read the article. Not only does she address the prevailing fallacies about photographs (and dispels them), but she points out just how critical images are to marketing. A picture really is worth a thousand words!

Photos of an inn should be high quality, and they should be professionally taken. In the digital age, it’s amazing how many people think that, because it’s easy to snap a picture and upload it to a website, that the images themselves will do the job. Sometimes they can, but it’s very rare. The article, however, does give the do-it-yourselfer some tips for getting a better picture, and also talks about how to select an architectural photographer. Interior photography is very different from almost any other specialty, so choose wisely.

Have you had any good or bad experiences with photography? Let’s hear about them. And read Sandy’s article. You’ll be glad you did.

Peter