Hospitality18 August 20266 min read

What a Cyprus hotel should shoot before the season starts

Every summer we get the same call in the second week of July: the season is running, the property is full, and there is nothing to post. Here is the list we work from, and when it needs to happen.

The timing is the whole thing

A guest in Manchester or Tel Aviv chooses a hotel in Protaras in February. By the time your July is busy, that decision was made five months ago, from a phone, based on photographs. Which means the photography that fills August was needed in April.

We shoot four to six weeks ahead of each demand window (Easter, summer, Christmas), so the campaign is live before the season instead of during it. Shooting in July means spending the busiest six weeks of your year publishing last summer’s photos.

The shot list

This is roughly what one spring shoot day covers at a small-to-mid property. A bigger resort takes two.

For Aphrodite Hills Resort we do ongoing photography and short-form video: the football academy, golf events, the clubhouse restaurant, Christmas and May Day.

Aphrodite Hills Resort, from our ongoing photography for the resort.

Rooms: every category you sell. Not just the suite. If someone books the standard double and it has never been photographed, they arrive at a room they have not seen.
The room at two times of day. Morning light and late afternoon. The same room reads completely differently and you get two months of posts out of one setup.
Pool and grounds, empty and used. Empty for the listing platforms, with people for social. You need both, and we shoot them differently.
Breakfast. The single most-searched thing about a hotel after the room and the price. Shoot the actual spread, not a styled plate nobody is served.
The bar, at golden hour. This is the shot that sells the evening — and the one most properties do not have.
Full menu, dish by dish. Cocktails included. This doubles as the print menu, so it pays for itself twice.
The walk from reception to the sea. Vertical video, one continuous take. It answers "how far is the beach really" better than any sentence.
Aerial context. Where the property sits — the coastline, the town, the distance to everything. Licensed pilot, checked in advance.
Staff, if they will let you. A real face at reception outperforms a stock smile every time.

What we did for Breeze Beach Bar

For Nireas Hotels in Pernera (Captain Pier, Penelope Beach and Breeze Beach Bar), we ran a season-long content and social partnership. We shot the food and drink photography once, properly, and used it for both their channels and their printed menus. One shoot, two uses, a whole season of posting.

Nireas Hotels, Pernera: one food and drink shoot, used for the channels and the printed menus.

And the part everyone skips

Decide what each photo is for before you take it. A shot for Booking.com is not a shot for Instagram, and neither one is a shot for a printed menu. Agreeing that in advance is the difference between 400 photos and 40 usable ones.

For Magic Dancing Waters in Protaras, the content we made for TikTok reached hundreds of thousands of people organically, with no promotion behind it, because we shot it as vertical video from the start instead of cropping it afterwards.

When to book

Easter — shoot in late February or early March.
Summer — shoot in April or early May. This is the big one and spring dates fill first.
Christmas and gift menus — shoot in October.

If you are reading this in August, the useful move is not a rush shoot. It is booking April now, and running a lighter monthly presence until then.