Domenico Dentice July 19, 2019 - 5:59 am

How much to charge for hotel photography?

I am UK based and looking for some references to see how much other hotel photographers charge for a shoot? Please if anybody can me an idea as I don`t want to be too cheap or too expensive!!! Many thanks

5 Comments

robwoodham July 19, 2019 - 4:55 pm

You should try to calculate a day rate for yourself to answer these questions. Take how much you want to make per year. Divide that by how many days you're planning on working. Does it seem feasible to charge that amount? If not, reassess how much you want to make per year. That would be the top-down approach to pricing.

If you want to build from the bottom-up, try to figure out how many hours total you will spend on site, in post-processing, traveling, and engaging in various administrative or financial tasks. Multiply that by a dollar value that seems reasonable to you. What's the total?

In the end, since you're providing a time-based service, it's next to impossible for anyone to give you an estimate without an idea of the scope of work you're supposed to provide. Are you taking five photos of a small hotel? Is it a multi-day affair with a large amount of hero shots that will be used for international marketing efforts?

That all being said, here's a hypothetical that may help you.

If you were to be in a major metropolitan area in the United States shooting a small campaign for a reasonably upscale hotel/club with a total of 4 hours on-site, 8 hours of post and 2 hours of admin/travel, I would charge somewhere around $3-4k with a perpetual use license for digital, print, and internal use. This would be based on a small number of hero shots (5 or less) along with a group of various shots and vignettes totaling less than 50 finished photos all together.

Indy Thomas July 22, 2019 - 11:41 am

robwoodham

I completely agree as to the fact that one is charging for time.
I am sure you will get some arguing that usage rates should be figured into the shoot. However, the rate you quote has usage rates implicit in it.
The issue I have with getting pedantic about usage rates and the itemization of them is that it annoys and confuses many clients unfamiliar with the usage licensing scheme.
The bulk of clients in small businesses are innocent of any knowledge of licensing and will avoid that photographer that seems "difficult" even if they are actually the more professional.

robwoodham July 22, 2019 - 4:53 pm

Indy Thomas

It's a matter of who your client is and what they want. If they're a typical realtor/real estate company/etc that are looking for portfolio photos, I include usage rights as a line item on the proposal & invoice with language showing it is included in the overall price. There's no reason in that scenario to try to pull some money out of a limited usage period for the images. If anything, that's a great way to get them to never call you back to photograph another project.