Collect photos from guests: a request process for hotels
Collect guest photos and short videos with one Tarkle file request: set a deadline, an upload limit and a folder.
To collect photos from guests without email attachments, send one Tarkle file request link. Guests open it on their phone, pick photos or short videos, enter a first name and an email address, and send them. The files land in a folder your team controls, and guests need no account. This article is the process a marketing or guest-experience lead can run for a campaign, plus the wording to put in the request.
Prompts and hashtags decide whether guests want to share. This piece covers what comes after: how the files arrive, who can see them and how the folder stays tidy. For the brand side of the job, see brand asset sharing for hotel groups.
Why email breaks when you collect photos from guests
Email works for one photo from one person. For a campaign it gets hard to follow. Files end up in different inboxes, so nobody holds the full set, and a file name such as IMG_4021 says nothing about who sent it or when.
A request link puts every upload in the same place. The team sees one folder, and each guest gives a first name and an email address, which you need anyway when you ask to use a photo.
Step 1: Decide what you are asking for
Before you open any tool, write down four things: the campaign name, the kind of file (photos, short videos, or both), the deadline, and where the files go afterwards. A campaign for a spring weekend and a standing "send us your stay photos" link are different jobs. The first has a closing date, the second does not.
Keep the ask narrow. "Send up to ten photos or videos from your stay" is easier to follow than "send us your content".
Give each campaign its own request. A separate link per campaign or per property tells you where a photo came from before you open it.
Step 2: Create the file request
In Tarkle, a file request is a link anyone can upload to. You fill in a title, a description for the guest, and the folder the files should land in. You can also switch the email about uploads on or off when you create it.
Pick the destination folder first. Create one folder per property or per campaign, with a plain name like "Spring weekend 2027 guest photos", and point the request at it. Each request gets its own folder inside the one you pick. If you pick nothing, Tarkle uses a File requests folder that it creates for you, which gets messy fast.
Free includes file requests, so a small property or a one-off campaign can start without a paid plan. A group with several properties running campaigns at once should check the pricing page for the plan that fits.
Step 3: Write the instructions guests see
The description is where you talk to the guest, so use it. Cover these questions in a few short lines:
What to send: photos, short videos, or both, taken during their stay or at the event.
How many: a number the guest can follow, such as "up to ten files".
Deadline: the date the link closes, written out in full.
Permission: a sentence saying that by sending a file the guest agrees the hotel may use it, and where, for example on the hotel website and social channels.
Credit: whether you will tag them, and how (for example their Instagram handle in the caption).
The request has a title, a description and a folder, so the permission sentence goes in the description. Ask your own legal adviser to review that wording before launch. Nothing here is legal advice.
Put the permission sentence last and keep it to one line. Guests read the top of a description and skim the rest, so the ask comes first and the terms stay short and visible.
Step 4: Set a deadline and a size cap
Request deadlines and limits let you set a deadline on a request and the most a visitor can upload at once. After the deadline the link stops accepting files.
The size cap is set after you create the request. Open the request's upload limit, enter a Max upload size, and save it. Leave the field empty for no limit. The limit applies to what a visitor uploads at once.
Separately, the plan sets the largest single file: 1 GB on Free, and up to 200 GB on Pro and Agency. If your campaign asks for long films rather than short clips, check the size of a typical file against that limit before you launch.
Step 5: Make the page look like your hotel
A request page in your own look reads as the hotel asking, not a stranger's link. Custom branding puts your logo, colours and favicon on the request page, and a custom domain serves the link from your own address, such as files.yourhotel.com. Free includes custom branding and a custom domain. Guests also get a confirmation email after a successful upload, so they know it arrived.
On Free the Powered by Tarkle line stays on the request page. Pro lets you turn that line off from the Backlink card in Settings.
A link that starts with your own domain is also easier to put on a printed card in a room or a QR code at reception, because guests can see where it leads.
Step 6: See what arrives and keep it sorted
Each request keeps its own folder, and each guest who uploads gets a sub-folder inside it, keyed by their email address. A second upload from the same email lands in the same sub-folder, so one guest's photos stay together.
Files keep the names they arrive with, unless you switch on smart file names. It is a workspace setting and it is rule-based. It only renames names the rules read as machine-made, such as a generic camera name like IMG or DSC, or a long run of digits. The pricing page lists smart file names with the AI assistant on Pro.
To know when something arrives, you have two options. The email switch on the request sends the upload email. If your team works in Slack, connect Slack to the workspace and pick a channel. Slack alerts cover completed file requests, and the Slack connection is available on Pro. Each guest's details also stay with the file, so when you want to ask permission for a specific photo, you know whom to write to.
Step 7: Decide who on the team sees the photos
Guest photos should not sit in a folder every contractor can open. On Pro and Agency, give each property or department its own team folders and invite people with a role: Owner, Admin, Member or Viewer, as described on the team roles page. A property marketing manager works in that property's folder, and group head office reviews the best of it. Free is for one person, so a single owner reviews everything.
Once photos are approved for use, copy them into the folder your teams already use for campaign images. That second step is the one covered in the hotel brand asset article. For on-site events with a QR code and a closing slide, the event photos plan has the timeline.
Common failures
A vague ask. Guests send three blurry photos or nothing. State the number and the kind of file.
No deadline. A link that never closes collects files nobody reviews. Close it and read what came in.
One folder for everything. Separate properties and campaigns before the first upload, not after.
Nobody owns the alerts. Decide who reads the email or Slack message and who follows up with guests.
Set this up today
Create a folder named after the campaign and property.
Create a file request pointing at that folder, with a title guests recognise.
Write the description: what to send, how many, deadline, permission sentence, credit.
Set the deadline and a maximum upload size, then apply your logo and custom domain.
Test the link on your own phone, then invite one teammate to review the first uploads before you launch.
What to remember about Tarkle
A Tarkle file request collects photos and short videos from one link into a folder your team controls, and guests need no account to send them. Free includes file requests, custom branding and a custom domain, and Pro adds team folders for the rest of the group. Start for free and run one request for one property before you roll it out across the group.