Matterport was once the leading name in 360 virtual tours, however in my opinion far better options are now available on the market. There is no doubting that Matterport has a lovely interface with the “dolls house” effect as it’s key feature. However, it has some serious issues which I will address here.

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Ownership

The most serious flaw is the matter of ownership of the tour. Neither the client, nor the photographer ever own the tour, Matterport do. This means that should the person with the account wish to leave Matterport, the tour goes, unless someone else takes over paying the account. This has far reaching implications for any company wanting a long term product to show customers, and who wouldn’t? The process works like this…..

• The photographer takes the images
• The images are sent to Matterport
• Matterport compile the tour
• Matterport host the tour on their platform
• Matterport own the tour
• The photographer pays Matterport to host the tour
• The photographer leaves Matterport, the tour get removed unless someone else takes over the account, and pays Matterport

This business model works fine for short term contracts such as houses for sale with Estate Agents, but not for a hotel that will want that tour online for many years.

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The Doll’s house and Navigation

Have you ever been onto a Matterport tour and thought “I’d just like to see the bedroom options in the hotel”? The menu system is none existent. This is a Matterport tour of a hotel. Your task is to find a King Bedroom and take a look around. View Matterport Tour

Not easy is it?

Now do the same at our Hilton Belfast 360 Virtual Tour. View Belfast Tour

One more thing on navigation!! It’s undeniable that the Matterport “walkthrough” is smooth and seamless. But visit the tour again and find out if you get lost? The drawback with this system is that if the customer doesn’t know the hotel, it is very easy to get lost. This leads to customers getting bored and moving on. Once again it is ideal for a house, but a large hotel? Not really. You want the customer to be able to quickly and easily find and look around the areas of interest to them and keep them engaged.

Another drawback is if the building is on multi levels. If it is all on one floor, then navigation is much easier, but multi level buildings are very difficult.

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Image Quality

This is a biggie. The images produced for Matterport tours is just an HDR composite. This can work very well and I have seen some very nice tour images. This is largely down to the skill of the photographer. The photographer has no control of what Matterport do with the images after they have taken them however. So if you want things removing in a bedroom, the curtains straightening, TVs blacked out etc, then it’s not going to happen.

Next are the Matterport “BLOBS”. Take a look at the ceils and floors on the tour highlighted, or any Matterport tour for that matter. Matterport don’t even clone those properly. The floor is generally where. the camera tripod was. So it’s much easier to add a “Blob” instead of cloning it out properly.

Compare these with our Belfast tour, where we put their logo on the floor

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To Host Or Not To Host, That Is The Question!

If you use a Matterport tour, it will only be hosted on their site, and that comes at a cost. You can embed the tour on your site if you wish, but ultimately the Matterport hosting fee must be paid to maintain it on your site. They will not give you the files to own your tour outright.

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Comparisons

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If you would like to find out more about how to book us for your tour, please email paul@pellier.co.uk