Hotel promo video and drone shots: permits, people in the frame and a shooting plan

A hotel promotional video is a short film made for one clear use: the website, social feeds, fairs or agency screens. Decide the use and length first, write a shot list for a vertical short and a longer cut, then check the drone operator's registration and flight permission under the current SHT-İHA and get consent from anyone recognizable.

The pool is full, the light is right, and the drone is already in the air when someone asks who approved the flight. A hotel film is decided long before that morning: what it is for, who is in it, and what the operator is allowed to fly. After reading this you will be able to commission a promotional video with a written plan, check a drone operator's documents against the current rules, and leave the shoot with files and permissions the hotel can actually keep.

What is the video for, and how long should it be?#

Start with the screen, not the shot: the use decides length, shape and what the edit must contain. The lengths below are examples to argue with, not standards.

A hotel film goes to four places: the hotel's own website, social feeds and reels, trade fairs and sales meetings, and agency or tour operator screens. Each has its own shape and its own job. The website cut supports a booking click; the fair cut runs silently on a loop next to a stand; the agency cut answers a buyer's questions in half a minute.

Brief one shoot for several cuts. For example, a 20-second vertical and a 90-second horizontal from the same day, so the crew shoots once and the editor has material for both. Write the one sentence the film must leave behind, such as "quiet, on the sea, and the breakfast is worth waking for", then check that every planned shot serves it. If a shot serves nothing, cut it before the shoot, not after.

Decide languages and subtitles before the shoot, not after the edit. Text burned into a vertical video has to be translated and re-rendered for each language, or kept off the frame entirely. Name the person who approves the cut and agree in writing how many revision rounds are included, because "one more version" is where film budgets and goodwill disappear.

Place the film on the page with the booking path in mind, so the video supports the next click instead of replacing it. If you are building the page around it, start from a hotel marketing plan with goals and a calendar.

What goes on the shot list?#

A shot list is a numbered list of every frame the hotel needs, grouped by location and written before the day, so the crew shoots each room once instead of three times.

Build it along the guest's journey: arrival and entrance, lobby, the check-in moment, the room (bed, window view, bathroom, desk), breakfast, pool and beach, spa, the restaurant at night, one staff moment, and the view from the top floor. Mark every line with the version it serves (short, long, both) and the shape (vertical, horizontal), so nothing is shot only in a shape the edit cannot use.

Shoot vertical-safe: keep the subject centered with headroom, because a wide horizontal frame cropped to vertical loses both sides. Add the proof shots that answer real booking questions: how far the sea is from the room, what the bathroom looks like, where a car parks, what breakfast actually is.

Write a do-not-shoot list too: other companies' logos, identifiable guests, unfinished construction, and a beach that belongs to a neighboring property. Ask for a few seconds of extra footage before and after each action, so the editor has room to cut. If a shot is missing on the day, do not fill the gap with a generated image and present it as the property; say what it is or leave it out. The reasoning behind that rule is set out in an honesty checklist for AI-generated images in hotel marketing.

What must you check before a drone flies over your hotel?#

Check three things: the operator's registration and license level, the zone the property sits in, and the permission that zone requires. The current text is the Civil Aviation Directorate's Unmanned Aircraft Systems Instruction (SHT-İHA), dated 30 July 2026.

The 2026 instruction repealed the SHT-İHA of 22 February 2016 with its amendments (Article 30), so weight limits and certificate names circulating in older online guides may no longer describe the rules. Work only from the current text and its date. License level: commercial visual-line-of-sight work needs at least a P1 license; beyond-visual-line-of-sight operations and high-risk work such as flying over crowds, carrying people or carrying dangerous goods fall under P2 (Article 6(2)).

P1 limits: flights up to 120 m height and 3,000 m visual or horizontal distance, with night flights allowed using suitable equipment (Article 15(2)(b)). P2 flights must be carried out within a very-light-aircraft or general-aviation operator (Article 15(2)(c)). There are two documents, not one: the diploma license is issued through KDM-ORG and the operational license through KDM-ERP, and only the operational license authorizes flying (Article 15(4)). Ask to see the operational one.

Registration: apart from toy drones, every user who operates a drone must register with the directorate through İHATTYS, its drone tracking and traffic management system (Article 11). Zones (Article 12): in green zones on the İHATTYS map no operational permission is needed; outside the green, red and orange zones the directorate's permission is needed, given with the local civil administrator's consent; in red zones the directorate's permission, the consent of the authority that closed the area and a NOTAM are needed; in orange zones permission is needed where multi-flight consent exists.

The transition matters too. Users have until 31 July 2027 to comply fully, and until İHATTYS is put into service and announced, the repealed rules' procedures for registration, notification, permission and authorization still apply (Provisional Article 1). Permits and certificates issued under the old rules stay valid until 31 July 2027 and then lapse automatically (Provisional Article 3). Drones acquired before the instruction must be converted for registration, remote identification, geofencing and İHATTYS integration by 31 July 2027, and an unconverted drone may not be flown after that date (Article 27).

The hotel's job is not to interpret the instruction but to ask for the documents in writing and to confirm the zone and the permission with the operator and an adviser before the flight date.

Who is in the frame, and what rights do you need?#

Anyone recognizable in the finished film needs a permission the hotel can produce, and staff are not automatically covered by their employment.

Guests: a notice by the pool is not a consent for a close-up. Ask the people who will actually be recognizable, and keep the answer next to the shot it covers. Children: ask the parent or guardian, and prefer shots where children cannot be identified at all. Crowd shots: a wide shot of a busy beach still shows faces, so shoot from behind, from a distance, or blur.

Staff: ask each person, explain where the film will run and for how long, and record the answer, because a person who later leaves can ask the hotel to stop using the footage. Property and brands: other companies' logos, artwork, a designer's interior and a musician's track all have owners. Music needs a license for each use, and social, website and paid ads are usually different licenses.

Personal data questions belong to the hotel's adviser. Describe the duty in general terms and confirm the wording of notices and permissions with them; the same logic behind camera notices, covered in CCTV in hotels under KVKK, applies to a film crew.

How do you schedule a shoot around guests and housekeeping?#

Shoot the hotel as it actually runs, and pick the hours when the space is empty and the light is right, not the hours that suit the crew.

Rooms: shoot after housekeeping has finished and before check-in, or hold one room out of sale for the day; agree with the front office which rooms and which hours. Pool and beach: early morning for empty frames, late afternoon for people and light. Never shoot a full pool and let the edit imply an empty one.

Restaurant: shoot before service, and shoot the food as it is actually served, because a styled plate that never reaches a guest is a promise the kitchen cannot keep. Lobby and reception: avoid the check-in peak; a real queue is not the shot the hotel wants, and the people in it are recognizable.

Staff who appear should be on shift and told in advance, and nobody should be pulled off the desk in the middle of a check-in. Keep one backup day in the contract: drone flights depend on wind and visibility as much as on the calendar. Tell guests in advance with a line at check-in and a notice in the elevator; that is cheaper than a complaint at the pool.

What should the supplier hand over at the end?#

Ask for the master files, every cut, and the text and subtitle files, in a form the hotel can re-use next season without the supplier.

Put the deliverables list in the contract: horizontal master, vertical cuts, a square version if needed, silent versions, subtitle files rather than only burned-in text, and the raw footage or at least the selects. Burn in only what cannot be changed, and keep a text file per language so a new language is a re-render and not a re-shoot; a language plan for your guest mix, like this one for multilingual hotel service, tells you which files to ask for.

File naming and storage: one folder per version, named by use and date, so the person editing next season can find the right file in a minute. Rights duration: how long the hotel may run the film, in which channels, and whether the music license covers paid advertising as well as organic posts. Drone footage of the property is the most re-usable asset in the package, so ask for a clean version without titles, music or color grading.

Keep the permissions, the shot list and the final files together, because the film outlives the person who commissioned it.

What to do next#

Before you ask for a quote, write one page: where the film will run, the two lengths you need, the shot list, and the three drone documents you will ask to see. That page turns a day of filming into an asset the hotel can use for several seasons, and it keeps the decisions about people, permissions and delivery where they belong, with the hotel rather than the supplier.