Why You Need To Hire A Professional Photographer for Airbnb and Short Term Rental Listings

I often get asked "Does it really make a difference to hire a professional photographer for our listing?" and the answer is AN OUTSTANDING YES! Whether you're a property manager, the owner of an Airbnb, or a hired agent you NEED professional photographs and drone imagery. Read more for some airbnb host tips based on professional photography and why you should absolutely invest in it.

Why? Well to get started (and a little nerdy), here are some statistics from Google about the ROI from investing in high end professional photos for your Airbnb:

Key Statistics and Benefits:

• Bookings & Revenue: Listings with professional photos see 20% to 40% more bookings. These listings can generate 20-50% more annually than those with amateur photos.

• Nightly Rates: Professional photos justify higher prices, often resulting in 16% to 26% higher nightly rates.

• Return on Investment (ROI): The cost, often ranging from $500-$800, can yield a 200-400% return within the first year. Roughly 75% of hosts pay off the cost of the photoshoot in just one night of booking.

• Visibility & Conversion: High-quality photos help listings stand out, as 90% of guests consider photos the most important factor when booking.

• Efficiency: Professional photos can lead to a 30% faster booking rate, reducing vacancy periods.

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Engaging Airbnb photos begins with interesting compositions and a proper understanding of visual story-telling. Some iPhone tips can get you a head start, but a professional photographer will have a second nature towards the following:

• The time of day to shoot to get the best natural light/highlight exterior view(s)

• Which angles to shoot from to highlight a room’s best features (not all rooms are created equal)

• Which camera settings to use based on time of day, direction of light, etc.

• How to blend photos together post production to create the most aesthetically pleasing images to potential buyers

• Acute Attention to detail to move things within the frame that are distracting and will not enhance the image (You can also hire professional stagers to help with this step)

• The order in which they shoot spaces to enhance the flow for optimal Airbnb list viewing

  
  

You've seen it for yourself on the Airbnb and VRBO and you instinctually know what I'm talking about; which photographs draw YOU in more? Which rentals are using photography to tell the story of their rental. Chances are the ones with professional photography. Don’t settle for iPhone photos or rushed photo job. Hire a professional who understands how to best market your listing.

Smartphone vs. Professional

Here are just a few examples of images taken with smart phones vs. a professional photographer. They pretty much speak for themselves.

1. Stand Out Online

Go take a peek at your favorite online store. Every image is a professionally lit, styled and composed to a t in each photograph. From a $3 pair of socks to a $500 pair of designer jeans, the product images are high-quality and consistent. This is not by accident. This is clever design and constant market research. Businesses know that professional photography is a powerful marketing tool (perhaps the most powerful marking too with today's ubiquitous presence of social media) and if presented just right, will persuade a potential client to click a button and purchase that product.

Some food for thought on marketing:

Vacationers are looking at dozens of Airbnb listings online, especially in today's competitive market where there seem to be so many rentals popping up daily. If your listing image doesn't draw the attention of the buyer's eye IMMEDIATELY, you may as well be throwing money down the drain.

Another thing to consider is image consistency. From a small cape house to a 3000ft home, your images for your Airbnbs should be consistent, they should portray the same style. This will help you develop your own aesthetic and create visual coherence for your listenings, which is eye candy for everyone who comes across your listing.

Another psychological tip: People looking to rent might suspect that if the renters didn't take the care to stage and hire a professional photographer to take photographs of their home, who knows if they actually took care or and cared for their home. And that is the trick to attract your ideal clients; you want to reach out to them, make them feel taken care of, and that is exactly what listings with professional photographs do. People will automatically feel more of a sense of trust and ease with agents with professional imagery.

Additionally, image quality, twilight shots, and aerial drone imagery skyrocket your real estate branding to the next level!

2. Professional Airbnb Photos Will Help You To Build Your Brand

As discussed above, using the same Airbnb photographer for all of your listings will create your brand consistency. People will be able to determine your listings based on your consistent use of professional images by the same artist. Additionally, a consistent and professional brand style will give you the confidence to go to smash your social media pages out of the water! You may be surprised by the vast difference that high-quality photos can have on your brand, your clients, and (maybe most importantly) your bank account.

3. It's Not The Camera, It's The Photographer

Your smartphone camera or DSLR may have all fancy settings, but it doesn’t mean you’ll be able to take a great real estate photo with it. Trust me. I've tried. While you may know the basic principles for photography, a professional photographer knows the best time of day, the best angles and compositions of a shot, and has editing programs to help the post production process. In the end, hiring a professional photographer is going to save you both time and money, and will end up helping you make a lot more money in the long run but enabling you to put up stellar looking listings.

4. Airbnb Drone Photography

Aerial drone photos are great ways to level up listings, and are excellent marketing materials for your Airbnb- not to mention aerial shots stop people in their tracks when looking through listing. Not every rental needs aerial images, but drone images could highlight special features like acreage, outdoor pool/garden area, and unique architectural layers (both building and landscape)

5. You Owe It To Yourself

Chances are you have spend a sizable investment in purchasing the property, renovating the spaces, landscaping and creating outdoor spaces with fireplaces or saunas, and you've given the interior design your personal Airbnb styled aesthetic. To post a listing with mediocre iPhone photos just seems... wrong. You owe it to yourself and your investment to get your rental properly and professionally photographed. I promise you will not regret it!

It’s that easy. Really.

Professional photography for your airbnb listings is one of the easiest and quickest ways you can grow your brand and your reputation in the real estate business. High-quality photography will help generate leads, your position as a market expert, and deliver a high-end client experience. Start making more today by investing in professional photography.