Resort Images/Photos on TUG

[dioxide45]

I was looking at several resort pages on TUG and notice that the photos seem to be lacking for many resorts. There is also no way to know the age of any of the photos. Were they provided a recently or are they many years old? Would there be a way to add some type of note for each image as to when it was uploaded? Perhaps also a note indicating which ones are from the resort official website vs. member provided?

Also, Is there anything that can be done to get members to provide images to the resort pages? I know TUG provides a 2 month membership extension for reasonable reviews on a resort, so perhaps something similar can be provided for uploading recent images? Though perhaps the membership extension isn't enough of a carrot to get members to upload images.

I've uploaded images for a few resorts and I find the upload flow to be very clunky and the image size limitation is a pain. One at a time and no drag and drop option. It would be great if a drag and drop option was available and one could flip through each one to caption them before finalizing them. The system should also resize the images to be ideal for the website regardless of what size the uploaded file size was. I have a lot of resort photos that I would upload if the process wasn't as clunky.

It would also be nice if the resort photos were in more of a gallery format where only one image is shown with thumbnails below and you can flip through them. The thumbnail format requires you to click on each one to view the full size image. Just some suggestions.

 

[TUGBrian]

i will say a rework of the image upload feature is on the todo list eventually, but it will require a complete overhaul to complete.

perhaps there are pre-coded options at least for mobile that would make the uploading process quicker and easier from phones.

one big issue is the photo size, as most phones today just take absolutely ENORMOUS photos both in size and resolution, far more than any phone or pc could display at full resolution. in a dream world id love for a system that auto resized a photo so it is of a size (physically and visually) more acceptable for a website or mobile app.

the adding of a link at the thank you page after submitting a resort review to prompt owners to upload a photo of their last stay has been successful! though with thousands of resorts and only a % of owners uploading photos, im not sure it would ever catch up completely.

will say that most pages get a complete review/overhaul when owners click the link to notify us within a review page that the description or website or photos are out of date and it goes into a queue to get updated etc so if your home or favorite resort review page is in need of some love, let us know! (note this also happens on its own regularly, but again..thousands of resorts!)

note this link is available for anyone, not just members!

 

[Janann]

I know TUG provides a 2 month membership extension for reasonable reviews on a resort

I think it is 6 months.

will say that most pages get a complete review/overhaul when owners click the link to notify us within a review page that the description or website or photos are out of date and it goes into a queue to get updated etc

I wasn't aware of the "suggest edit" function, thanks! I guess I haven't been paying attention, but I have looked at plenty of reviews.

 

[dioxide45]

I think it is 6 months.

It depends. If the resort has a review award available it is 6 months. If no review award is available, then just 2 months.

 

[TUGBrian]

ive been giving folks 3 months minimum for the most part if its a review other than "nice resort, would stay again" even if it had a recent review.

resorts that havent been reviewed in over a year would earn 1y for a comprehensive review yes.

 

[rickandcindy23]

This reminds me that I need to post my other reviews. We have had the privilege of staying in several different units during our stay on Maui, and I have been writing the reviews but have not been posting them.

 

[TUGBrian]

I write mine in emails to myself too, lets me take plenty of time to remember everything to add!

 

[dioxide45]

Perhaps adding a photo uploader to the new review page would help with more. I suspect a lot of people take photos on their phone and an easier way to upload form mobile would be good too. Perhaps a TUG app?

 

[jwalk03]

I do agree it would be nice if the photos displayed a date. Some of them are ancient and you get to a resort and it looks absolutely nothing like those photos!

I always upload a ton of photos from my resorts stays and I do agree its clunky and time consuming- so anyway of making it easier would be welcome. 98% of my photos are from my iphone so if there was an easy way directly from the phone that would be awesome!

 

[TUGBrian]

will see if there is a way to add a mobile friendly photo upload option so people can easily transfer photos from their phones

 

[TUGBrian]

update to this!

we redid the resort photos section and now there is the option to scroll between photos vs having to click each one (im honestly surprised that feature disappeared)...so hopefully thats a vast improvement!

we will still be implementing a bulk/multiple upload photo option coming soon as well!

 

[dioxide45]

update to this!

we redid the resort photos section and now there is the option to scroll between photos vs having to click each one (im honestly surprised that feature disappeared)...so hopefully thats a vast improvement!

we will still be implementing a bulk/multiple upload photo option coming soon as well!

Thanks. It is much better. Though it seems that the image resolution/size makes it so the arrows jump around on the screen a lot. Is there a way to make them static so they remain in the same place and one can just keep clicking to move back or forward?

 

[TUGBrian]

Thanks. It is much better. Though it seems that the image resolution/size makes it so the arrows jump around on the screen a lot. Is there a way to make them static so they remain in the same place and one can just keep clicking to move back or forward?

hmm, i did not encounter this when i was testing it a short time ago. which resort were you on that experienced this so i can check it out.

 

[dioxide45]

hmm, i did not encounter this when i was testing it a short time ago. which resort were you on that experienced this so i can check it out.

Marriott's Grande Vista. Some of the photos are very small.

 

[TUGBrian]

ok yea, the uploaded photos themselves are super tiny and it does not appear the application will "scale up"...probably make them look super blurry if it did.

i think perhaps we can make sure the little scroll chevrons stay in the same place at least regardless of photo size!

 

[dioxide45]

ok yea, the uploaded photos themselves are super tiny and it does not appear the application will "scale up"...probably make them look super blurry if it did.

i think perhaps we can make sure the little scroll chevrons stay in the same place at least regardless of photo size!

Perhaps there should be a minimum resolution size for new uploaded photos? That won't fix the old ones but it will prevent low quality images from being uploaded in the future.

I think it would also be more aesthetically appealing if the photo slide show was just on the resort page by default. The big grid of images just looks, well, old fashioned. Shouldn't really be a need to click on a photo to see the slide show, it should just show the slideshow by default. Just a thought.

 

[sponger76]

Would it be possible to change it so people can upload photos just within their reviews? That way you can avoid some of the shifting back and forth between large/small images, plus have more context for the photos via the review text and to help the viewer have a better of idea of when the photos are from.

 

[TUGBrian]

Perhaps there should be a minimum resolution size for new uploaded photos? That won't fix the old ones but it will prevent low quality images from being uploaded in the future.

I think it would also be more aesthetically appealing if the photo slide show was just on the resort page by default. The big grid of images just looks, well, old fashioned. Shouldn't really be a need to click on a photo to see the slide show, it should just show the slideshow by default. Just a thought.

I think this is more for page load times than anything...if the slideshow was by default it would load them all every time someone clicked the images vs the thumbnails that appear now. or maybe it wouldnt...i can ask.

 

[TUGBrian]

Would it be possible to change it so people can upload photos just within their reviews? That way you can avoid some of the shifting back and forth between large/small images, plus have more context for the photos via the review text and to help the viewer have a better of idea of when the photos are from.

we might be able to include photos when viewing reviews perhaps, but reviews are member only and photos are open to the public.

if you meant when writing a review, the "thank you for writing a review" screen has a prompt to upload photos from your stay!

 

[sponger76]

we might be able to include photos when viewing reviews perhaps, but reviews are member only and photos are open to the public.

if you meant when writing a review, the "thank you for writing a review" screen has a prompt to upload photos from your stay!

Yeah, I was talking about including photos uploaded by the reviewer to be viewed by others within the review itself. Honestly I feel that if the reviews are member only, then the associated photos are fine to be viewed by members only as well.