Guide
How to make a Hotel Lobby AI video
The Hotel Lobby AI trend takes the orange booth and hanging microphone from Quavo and Takeoff's 2022 Hotel Lobby performance and puts your own people in it. You do not need footage, a green screen or a CapCut template — two photos are enough. Here is the whole process, start to finish.
What the trend actually is
In the original clip two performers stand in a bright orange room with a single silver microphone hanging between them. Creators started replacing those two people with friends, coworkers, pets or characters, and the format spread because the framing is instantly recognisable — you know what you are looking at within a second of scrolling.
The effect is sometimes called Migos AI, sometimes hotel lobby AI, and people search for it as a filter, a template or an app. It is none of those: it is photo-to-video generation. Two still images go in, one eight-second clip comes out.
Step by step
Open the generator
Go to the video generator page and sign in with Google or an email code. You only need an account so your renders and credits stay attached to you — no card is required to look around.
Upload two photos
Pick one clear photo per performer. A front-facing shot with even lighting works best; sunglasses, heavy shadows and extreme angles all reduce how convincing the swap looks. The first photo becomes the person on the left, the second the person on the right.
Choose the look and generate
Pick the outfit preset if you want one — the default is the original stage styling. Then press Generate. Rendering usually takes one to three minutes, and the page shows live progress so you can leave the tab and come back.
Download and post
When the clip is ready you get an 8-second vertical video. Download it as MP4 and upload straight to TikTok, Reels or Shorts — vertical framing means no cropping or letterboxing.
Ready to try it? Open the Hotel Lobby AI generator.
Do you need a prompt?
No. This is the part that trips people up after reading other guides: most of them were written for general-purpose video models where you have to describe the whole scene. Here the scene is fixed, so the prompt is optional and only used when you want to change something.
| Default (no prompt) | Leave the style field empty. The scene, camera move and timing are already built into the template — this is what most people use. |
|---|---|
| Different outfit | Describe the clothing only: "matching silver stage suits" or "all-black streetwear". Short descriptions work better than long paragraphs. |
| Different energy | Add a mood: "hype and jumping", "deadpan and unimpressed", "slow and cinematic". The template keeps the setting; the mood changes how the two people move. |
| What breaks it | Naming a real brand, a copyrighted character or a specific public figure in the style field is the most common reason a render gets rejected. Describe the look instead of naming it. |
AI generator vs CapCut template
Both end up as a video in the same format, but they start from opposite places.
| CapCut template | AI generator | |
|---|---|---|
| What you need first | Footage of two people in front of a mic | Two photos |
| Editing skill | Trim, align, key out the background | None |
| Time to result | Depends on your footage | 1–3 minutes of rendering |
| Pets and characters | Hard — needs matching footage | Just upload the photo |
Posting it to TikTok, Reels and Shorts
The output is 9:16 vertical, so it drops straight into short-form feeds without cropping. Upload the MP4 file rather than screen-recording the preview — re-encoding a screen recording is what makes these clips look soft. If you add your own music, check that you have the rights to use it before publishing.
Questions people ask
Is the Hotel Lobby AI video free?
You can browse and preview the template for free. Rendering a finished video costs credits, and the exact credit cost is shown on the button before you generate. Failed renders are refunded automatically.
How long does it take to make one?
About one to three minutes of rendering after you press Generate, plus the time it takes to pick two photos. There is no editing step afterwards.
Do I need a CapCut template?
No. A CapCut template requires you to have already-recorded footage of two people in front of a microphone, then you cut your faces into it. The AI generator skips that entirely — you supply two photos and it produces the footage.
Can I use the same person twice?
Yes. Upload two different photos of the same person, one per slot, and they appear on both sides of the booth. Different outfits or expressions make it funnier.
Where should I post it?
The output is vertical 9:16, which fits TikTok, Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts without cropping. Post the MP4 directly rather than screen-recording it, so the compression stays clean.
Can I make one on my phone?
Yes. The site runs in a mobile browser, so you can upload photos from your camera roll, generate, and save the video without installing an app.
Make your own in about three minutes
Upload two photos, generate the clip, download the MP4. No prompt, no template, no editing.
Open the generator