Introduction
As a Premium Member on Showcases|3D, you'll get an amazing space to present your 3D tours for viewers to explore with a scheduled live-chat for a guided tour within the Showcase Post itself. We've provided a robust set of tools that will help you design a post that's provides a more powerful presentation of your vacation space than any online travel platform on the web today.
All that's required is a 3D Tour of your virtualized property and a live listing for it on an OTA like Airbnb, VRBO or other booking platform (Showcases|3D does not provide direct booking management).
Designing a Showcase Post for your listing can only be done on a desktop or laptop computer. Only minimal edits can be done via mobile devices.
Once published, you can invite people with a share link to do a remote viewing and immersively explore your space, as well as schedule a live-chat where you can guide their tour with more information. As we grow our platform, your Showcase Posts will also get more traffic exposure and visibility.
To ensure your Post gets maximum engagement (and not flagged for being incomplete), please make sure to include the Required Elements outlined below.
Private Listings: If you do not wish your listing to be found publicly on our site, you can still take advantage of creating a showcase post that can be shared directly with prospective guests by email or text message rather than social media of public platforms. For more on how to keep your from public view, see Section 1 below (creating a Title).
Alternatively: (Coming Soon!) Let us do the work for you! For $29.95, we'll design and publish your showcase post (you can always tweak/edit it on your own later). Simply fill out our Short Form and a designer from our team will design your post, including all selected preferences, and have it published within 48 hrs.
Lastly, feel free to add a comment below. We ❤️ feedback and want to hear from you.
Meet your Editor (designing your Showcase Post)
Our editor is quite robust yet easy to use.
To Create a New Post:
Click on your Profile Menu
Select 'My Posts'
Click "Create a Post" on the right.
Once you're in the editor mode, you'll see a Plus Button ⊕ along the left side of your work space. The button appears each time you tap or insert your cursor on a new line or empty area of your work space.
Clicking the Plus Button will open an editing toolbar (like below):
Add & Format your Text
The formatting toolbar (above) appears anytime you highlight or block a section of text.
Highlight or block select your section title and select Header 2 or 3 from the menu, change it to a preferred color, bold, italicize, etc.
Add Required Elements
All Showcase Posts that present your virtualized properties must include at Elements 1-4*. We recommend implementing all of them to offer a complete overview of the space to prospective guests. However, if your property is already listed on an online travel agency (OTA) like Airbnb or VRBO, then you have the option of leaving out certain sections already outlined in them.
Your Scheduling widget to book a Live-Chat (e.g. Calendly) *
Feel free to include other relevant media content, including:
A 3D aerial view (optional, courtesy of Google Earth)
A YouTube/Vimeo video (optional)
Each of these sections should begin with a Header that you can choose from your formatting toolbar.
PRACTICE TIPS:
Just be mindful of not making your post too long and dissuading viewers with too much content.
Feel free to look at this sample showcase post as a template or inspiration. https://www.showcases3d.com/post/3d-tour-1
STANDARD ELEMENTS
1) Create a Title for your Showcase
The title of your posts appears at the very top or heading of each post as well as in the listing under certain categories. It will also appear in the search results of those looking for listings in your area.
Creating a Title requires formatting it in 4-parts:
1. Hashtag: #rental identifies your post as a vacation rental
2. Location of Property: (city/state); you may follow it with street name and building number.
3. Price per night: e.g. $199
4. Basic property info, e.g. type of property, square feet, number of rooms and baths (separated by a vertical line | or slash).
We encourage you to also start the title with an "home" emoi like this: 🏠 (which you can copy & paste).Examples:
🏠#rental@Morriston/NY +Single Family, $940/night | 2108 SF | 3 bd + 2.5 ba
OR
🏠#rental@Morriston/NY 1234 Main Street +Single Family, $940/night | 2108 SF | 3 bd + 2.5 ba
PRIVATE LISTING: If you wish to keep your listing private and unsearchable, your Title should not include any details about the location, type, size, or price rate of your property. For example, a Title that only reads, "Stay w/Alice" would not appear in search results unless that exact term is used. Also, under Post Settings>SEO, leave the last two entry boxes blank for title search and description. You must, however, have a URL slug. Lastly, under the Categories tab, select Private Viewing. We will then remove search engine indexing for that post.
2) Add Your 3D Tour
1. For Virtualized Properties from either Matterport, iGuide, or other 3D platform, there should be a URL link or HTML embed code available for you to embed your 3D Tour. If possible, it is important that the URL link is configured to open automatically (e.g. for Matterport, adding "&play=1" to the end of the URL link activates autoplay).
2. To optimize the responsiveness for a variety of devices, we can convert your URL link into a responsive embed-code that you can insert as an HTML widget in your post:
For Matterport Tours, we can enhance your tour with a number of features that you can toggle on or off using our Configuration & Embed Tool:
To embed your 3D Tour:
Click the ⊕ button on the left of your work space.
Click the </> button.
Paste the Embed Code into the HTML window.
Once the 3D tour loads, double click the window to open the Settings menu. A toolbar will appear like the one here:
5. With an optimized embed Code, you can now widen the size of the 3D tour window to full width while keeping the Height ↕ to 400.
3) Add our Live-Chat Widget
About Live-Chat:
Thanks to our friends at 8x8, our Live-Chat widget is powered by Jitsi Meet (nope, you don't need a seperate account).
Here are some of its many useful features:
Setup your Live-Chat Widget
To generate an embed code for your Live-Chat widget, you only need to create a personal ID Phrase using a unique passphrase that contains both numbers and letters. Enter that passphrase into the entry box below.
As you can see, it generates an HTML embed code that you will need to copy and paste into your Post as an HTML element (the same way described above for your 3D Tour).
The generated embed code should appear similar to the one inserted above and will also be sent to you via email for your records.
4) Add a Feature Pic and Photo Gallery
Feature Photo:
Click the left-side ⊕ button and select the images icon. Go to the appropriate file and select the main image of your property. Once uploaded, the image can be dynamically resized by dragging the notch on the right side of the image. The Feature Photo should be a really great shot of the overall property or a pic that captures the overall style.
Gallery Photos: Underneath the Feature Photo, you should add a Gallery of additional photos. Click the ⊕ button and select the Gallery icon which will allow you to select multiple photos (optional).
5) Add a Brief Description
Introduce yourself and say a few things about the property like the type and style, and a summary description that highlights the main features of the space, and mention the kinds of stays the property is a great use for.
6) List of Amenities
Listing your amenities is important for viewers on Showcases|3D, even if you have them listed on an OTA you're linking to your post. For an embeddable Icons Listing of your amenities, use our S|3D Amenities App below:
Example:
7) House or Stay Rules
Please ensure that your rules are listed in numbered points (i.e. 1, 2, 3...) for easy reference like the sample listing below.
See Sample List (feel free to copy & paste into your own post):
8) Add a Google Map of Location
1. Open Google Maps. Enter the address of your property's location and click the share icon. This will open your Share options.
2. Click Embed a map, and select "COPY HTML."
3. Back in your Post editor, add ⊕ a new HTML element by clicking the </> icon. Paste the copied HTML under the HTML Code button.
You may resize as you see fit using the Width and Height buttons on the top toolbar of the content window.
9) Add a Booking Widget to Schedule Live-Chats
Like the above embeds, you can add the HTML embed code of your booking app in order for viewers of your Post to have the option to schedule a Live-Chat with you as you to tour your space. If you do not have a booking app with a share link, we recommend signing up for a free account with Calendly.
10) Add Booking Link from your OTA Platform
It's important to note that Showcases|3D does not provide an internal calendar or booking system for your guests, and does not transact bookings directly. Instead, we urge hosts to either place a direct link to their OTA booking page or to generate a link/code from a third-party syncing app like VRcalendarsync or Rental Bell. Let's look at each option below:
(1) DIRECT LINK:
This is the easiest and currently recommended option. Although it does open a new tab on your viewer's browser to your OTA listing, it's still a perfectly fine way to allow your guest to book your space.
Simply open the webpage for your vacation property (as a viewer) and click to your booking/calendar section.
Once your booking/calendar section opens, copy the URL on the address bar or click share on the browser menu to copy the share link.
Return to your Post editor. Add a heading alerting the viewer on your booking process. Click ⊕ and add a Button ▭, centered underneath your booking heading like below:
Interested in Booking a Stay?
4. Click the button and select the gear icon to add the button text and the URL link to your OTA calendar page and click save.
That's it!
(2) THIRD-PARTY LINK:
This option uses a third-party service to generate an embeddable calendar and
requires a bit more time in setting up. However, it does allow your booking calendar to appear within your Showcase Post instead of taking your viewer to your OTA's booking page.
That said, there at least two web services that you can use (without cost) to set this up. Each has their own steps. You can read their required steps at their own individual websites below.
That's it!
Feel free to leave a comment or inquiry. We'll try our best to reply within a reasonable time.
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