How to build a tour

What is this?

Venu Tours turns your 360 photos into a tour that people can walk through in a browser. You upload your photos, join the rooms together, and share one link. Visitors do not need to install an app, and they can look around using just their phone.

What you need before you start

You can build your first tour in about half an hour. Here is what helps.

1. A 360 camera. Any brand works. Even a phone with a 360 lens app is fine to start.
2. A tripod, or somewhere steady to stand the camera.
3. A rough plan of the rooms you want to show, and the order people should walk through them.
4. A logo file, if you want your brand on the tour. A transparent PNG looks best.

Words we use

A few words show up again and again in the builder. Once you know them, everything else is easy.

1. A 360 photo is a picture of a whole room, taken in every direction.
2. A scene is one room in your tour. Each scene has one 360 photo.
3. A hotspot is a spot on the picture that does something when you click it. Most hotspots take you to another room.
4. A tag is also a spot on the picture, but it shows something instead of moving you. A tag can hold text, a photo, or a form.
5. A floor plan is a small map of the building. It sits in the corner of the tour and shows people where they are.

How to shoot good photos

The photos decide how good the tour looks. A few habits make a big difference, and they cost you nothing.

1. Stand the camera in the middle of the room, about chest height.
2. Take one photo per room. Move the tripod, do not shoot twice from the same spot.
3. Open curtains and turn on the lights. Bright rooms look bigger and cleaner.
4. Wait until the room is empty. People and pets move while the camera is shooting.
5. Step out of the shot, or hide behind the camera. You will appear in the photo otherwise.
6. Shoot in the same order you want people to walk, so the tour flows naturally.

1. Make your account

Sign in with your Google account. There is no password to remember, and nothing to confirm by email.

1. Go to the dashboard.
2. Click "Sign in with Google".
3. Pick the account you want to use.

2. Make a tour

A tour holds your rooms and your settings.

1. Click "New tour".
2. Give it a name, like "Blue Court Apartments".
3. Click create. The builder opens.

3. Upload your 360 photos

Uploading is a straight drag and drop. Each photo becomes a scene, and you can rename them later. If a photo is too big to upload, you will see a message telling you why.

1. Click "Upload" in the builder.
2. Pick your photos. You can pick many at once.
3. Wait for the bar to finish. Each photo becomes a scene.
4. Name the rooms next — it is the step that makes everything else readable.

4. Name your rooms

This is the step people skip, and it is the one that makes the rest readable. A new room is named after the photo file, so it looks like "IMG_2043". Those names appear in three places: the list you pick a destination from, the strip of rooms across the bottom of the tour, and the bubble that shows when someone hovers a hotspot.

1. Click a room in the list on the left. The panel below opens its settings.
2. Type the real name in the "Room name" box, then click "Save name". "Living room" beats "IMG_2043" every time.
3. Renaming several? Click "Rename scenes" above the list, type the names, and press Tab or Enter to save each one. You can search the list when there are many rooms.
4. Short names work best. Two or three words fit the strip and the bubbles cleanly.

5. Join the rooms together

This is the part that turns a pile of photos into a tour. You put a hotspot in one room and point it at the next room, so visitors can walk from one to the other.

1. Turn to the spot where the next room is. A door is a good spot.
2. Right-click on the picture, or tap it on a phone.
3. Choose "Place hotspot here".
4. Pick the room it should lead to. The list shows a small picture of each room.
5. Click "Add & keep placing" if you want to add more.
6. Do the same in the next room, pointing back the way you came. Visitors expect to walk back.

6. Make the hotspot look how you want

Click a hotspot to select it, then click "Edit". You can change its shape, colour, and size, and decide what shows up when someone hovers over it.

1. The bubble is the default. It shows a small picture of the room it leads to.
2. The chevron is an arrow. It points the way it leads.
3. A dot or a ring is a simple round mark.
4. You can also upload your own picture to use as the mark.
5. Drag a hotspot to move it. Changes show up right away, and the tour does not reload.

7. Add a tag

A tag shows something instead of leading somewhere. They work well for prices, special offers, or a short form that collects a name and a phone number.

1. Right-click on the picture and choose "Place tag here".
2. Pick the kind: text, picture, link, gallery, or form.
3. Type a title, and type the words you want people to read.
4. Click "Save tag".
5. To change it later, click the tag and choose "Edit".

8. Add a floor plan

A floor plan is optional, but it helps people understand the building at a glance.

1. Find "Floor maps" in the builder.
2. Click "+ Plan" and upload a picture of your plan.
3. Click on the plan to drop a dot for each room.
4. Move the dots until they sit in the right place.

9. Add your name and logo

These settings make the tour look like yours instead of a generic product. The logo sits in the top left corner, on top of the picture, so a transparent PNG looks best.

1. Open "Tour branding & feel".
2. Upload your logo. It shows at the top left of the tour, above the tour name.
3. Add a WhatsApp number if you want people to be able to chat with you.
4. Choose how the tour moves: still, slow, or fast. Still is the safest choice.

10. Control who can see it

Some tours are for everyone. Some are for one client. You decide which, and you can change your mind later.

1. Password: turn on "Require password to view" and set a password. Visitors must type it before the tour loads.
2. Dates: set a start and an end date if the tour is only for a season or an event.
3. Redirect: send people somewhere else before the tour opens, or after it closes.
4. Consent: if you collect names, add a line telling people what they agree to, and link your privacy policy.
5. Leads by email: add an address if the enquiries should go to someone else.
6. Gallery: publishing gives you a link that anyone can open. It does not put the tour in our public gallery. Tick "Show in the public gallery" if you want people to find it there too.

11. Publish it

Publishing makes your tour public. The link never changes, even when you edit the tour later.

1. Click "Publish" at the top of the builder.
2. Your tour is now live at its own link. It stays unlisted until you ask for it to be listed.
3. Only people with the link can find it, unless you tick the gallery box above.
4. You can unpublish at any time. The link stays yours.

12. Share it

Open the share menu to send your tour anywhere.

1. Copy the link and paste it in WhatsApp, Instagram, or an email.
2. Show the QR code so someone can scan it from a sign or a business card.
3. Copy the embed code to put the tour inside your own website.
4. Use "Copy exact view" when you want the link to open on one room, looking the way you are looking now.
5. In WhatsApp, the link shows a preview card with your tour name and cover photo.

13. Reuse photos and logos

Everything you upload is kept in one place, so you never have to find the same file twice.

1. Open "Media" from the dashboard to see every file you have uploaded.
2. Click "Library" anywhere in the builder to pick a file you already have.
3. Each file shows how many places use it, so you know what is safe to delete.

14. Change or remove rooms

Rooms are easy to rearrange, and you do not need to upload anything again.

1. Rename a room in Scene settings, or several at once with "Rename scenes".
2. Move a scene up or down to change the order people walk through.
3. Hide a scene if you want to keep it but not show it.
4. Delete a scene when you are sure. Its hotspots go with it.
5. Delete a whole tour from the dashboard. This cannot be undone, so check twice.

15. See what people look at

The stats page shows how many people opened your tour and which rooms they spent time in. Use it to learn which photos sell the space.

1. Open the tour in the dashboard and click "Stats".
2. Views are counted per room, so you can see where people stop.
3. Tag clicks show which offers people are interested in.
4. Add "&nostat=1" to a link when you do not want your own visit counted.

16. Move a tour in or out

You can take a whole tour out as a file and put it back later, or host it yourself and stop paying us for that tour. The zip is a copy, so the tour here keeps working.

1. Click "Export" in the dashboard to download the tour as a zip file.
2. The zip holds every photo, the rooms, the hotspots, your branding — and a ready-made index.html.
3. To host it yourself: unzip the folder, upload it to any web host, and open index.html. It runs on its own, for free.
4. To bring it back here: click "Import" on the dashboard and choose the zip file.
5. Imported tours arrive as a copy, so nothing you already have is touched.
6. The self-hosted copy leaves out lead forms, view stats and floor plans, because those need our servers.

17. Read your leads

When someone fills in a form on your tour, you get an email within seconds. Every name is also saved in the builder, so nothing is lost if an email goes astray.

1. Open "Leads" in the builder.
2. You will see every name, email, and phone number.
3. Add an extra address if more than one person should receive them.

18. Passes

A free account can hold two tours. A pass raises that number. A pass lasts as long as you pay for, and when it ends your tours stay exactly where they are. You simply cannot edit them until you get another pass.

1. Open the dashboard and pick a pass.
2. Pay with your card or transfer. The pass starts right away.
3. You get a receipt by email, and the expiry date is shown on your dashboard.
4. Nothing renews on its own. You choose when to buy the next one.

Questions people ask

Still stuck?

Email us and tell us what you already tried. We read and answer every message.