Our history

Andrew Meli and David Firestone founded PhotoWeb in 1998 in Winter Park, Florida. As the company celebrates its 25th year, it’s exciting to look back on the great friends made along the way, the business relationships nurtured, the millions of images produced and air miles flown, enough to rival an astronaut. PhotoWeb was established six months before Google in the days of the Dot-com boom when Netscape and AOL were household internet service providers and software updates arrived on CD-ROMs in the mail. Hotel websites were still in their first generation and very few people had seen or heard of a 360 virtual tour. PhotoWeb created a niche market by offering 360 tours to the hospitality industry. Radisson, Swissôtel, Oberoi and Taj were quick to realise the opportunity. At the time, camera resolution was grainy in comparison with today but it did not stop the gasp of excitement when hotel General Managers first panned around their new virtual tours. ‘It was an exciting time to be part of the internet revolution’ says Andrew.

With a background in architectural and lifestyle photography, Andrew and David were being asked to shoot more and more still photography which over time replaced the virtual tour business. ‘By 2010 it seemed that every hotel who wanted a virtual tour, had one’ says David. The next decade saw explosive growth with multiple 5,000 + hotel shoot contracts from IHG and Wyndham. In order to manage such global and extensive projects, PhotoWeb opened a new larger office in Pueblo, Colorado and expanded its team to seventy five photographers and twenty office staff. PhotoWeb delivered on time and to the required approval rating. In 2012, Andrew moved back to the UK to open the EMEA office in London and David continues to manage the North America office. Bryson Shearwood manages their technical support office in Melbourne, Australia.

The majority of PhotoWeb’s team have been with the company for over ten years and every other year, PhotoWeb hosts a team building and week of skiing in Breckenridge, Colorado as a thanks for all the hard work and dedication.

The pandemic of 2020 and 2021 produced unique challenges but PhotoWeb was able to keep all the staff without furlough for its duration. An interesting twist did emerge from the lockdown as virtual tours became hugely popular again as guests were only able to virtually visit hotels. PhotoWeb now looks forward to a  future that is hopefully COVID free and with a renewed energy and enthusiasm for the hospitality industry and all the great people it works with along the way.