Providing Users With Virtual Tours of Rental Properties
With virtual tours, prospective residents get a feel of what it's like to be in a particular space of an apartment without actually being there.
Washington, D.C.—Apartments.com, powered by CoStar and Matterport, announced that as a result of their ongoing partnership, Apartments.com has amassed 30,765 3D virtual apartment tours.
The two companies initiated a partnership in March 2015, shortly after the launch of the new Apartments.com. Since then, Matterport has provided Apartments.com with more than 1,000 3D floor plans and apartment tours per week, a pace that both companies plan to sustain.
To create the floor plans and virtual tours, Apartments.com utilizes Matterport’s end-to-end 3D imaging platform, consisting of the Matterport Pro Camera, 3D Showcase and cloud services. This provides prospective renters with an immersive walk-through of Apartments.com properties on a PC, mobile or virtual reality device. The prospective renter gets a sense of what it feels like to be in a particular space by walking through an apartment unit virtually, as well as experiencing the building’s amenities and facilities, such as the lobby, fitness facility and other areas of interest.
The site feature has significant implications for property managers as well. Properties within Apartments.com’s top three advertising tiers have the option to add 3D floor plans and apartment models to their listings. By providing an in-depth layer of insight to an apartment, the virtual tours are expected to dramatically increase the volume of qualified leads that reach site advertisers.
CWS Apartment Homes, a property management firm with apartment buildings throughout the United States, added the 3D tour feature to its Apartments.com listings in early 2015.
To date, the virtual tours on Apartments.com have collectively garnered more than 4.8 million views. In addition, on average, site users spend three-times more time engaging with property listings that offer the 3D tour feature, than those without virtual tours. According to Matterport, Apartments.com’s investment in 3D content is having a transformative impact on the apartment industry.
