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There is an older thread I was reading where the host was confused her guests gave her 4 stars for accuracy. I wandered in and looked at her listing and it was pretty confusing, as she had updated some furnishings so you would see both the old and look in different pictures. Sometimes I was wondering if there were more rooms because they looked so different.
Which then made me wonder about my listings…and sure enough I have the same thing. I would take a picture to show the new rug in the living room and then notice the picture of the dining room shows the old rug in the background. Do you wander through and start over with new pictures? How often?
I don’t do this as often as I should and am always surprised at how things have changed since I took them. I have only had one comment about pictures. A woman mentioned that she didn’t see two lovely old chairs in her room that are in one of the pictures. They are in a common space that she didn’t wander into. I liked the picture so I just captioned it better. Furniture, bedding and the seasons for outdoor pictures all change and it is tough to keep up. Sadly I need to make time to overhaul my whole site with the changes dictated by COVID, routine changes and a few improvements that we have made.
I don’t have loads of photographs - just enough to show every room and one or two of the view. If anything changes, I update the photographs. Because I have just a few (12 or so) it’s easy and quick to do.
I stayed in an Airbnb rental a couple of years ago where the photographs didn’t accurately reflect the place and I gave a low star rating (for several other reasons too) and a bad review. The inaccuracy was a big deal for me.
When I add something new to a room, I immediately take a new picture, upload onto listing and delete the old picture. It only takes a couple of mins since I use my cellphone.
Yes, I was reminded recently to replace pictures in my listing. I had installed a small wall mounted table but it didn’t show in the pictures I had. Using the cell phone app it’s very easy to take new pictures and put them on the listing so there’s no good reason to have outdated pictures.
I’m in the same situation re: wrong season to upload photos, only I was half-way through deleting before I realized this. I know I should find them and put them back, as I think I only have six but it’s an unpleasant task and I don’t tend to rush into those lately…
I’m a really bad photographer and have been lucky to have had 4 professional photo shoots at Tiny Tiki. (All free with the exception of a 1 night stay). I think I’m really the only one that notices the changes because they are (of course) all for the better. Our guests say the pictures don’t do it justice and that it is better than the pictures. I will sometimes tell them of the challenges to upgrade and add nicer things that have been completed since the last photos. Especially plantings get added, changed, pruned, die or get ravaged by the animals or the weather. I just can’t worry about updating the photos as often as I update the space. For a big upgrade I will definately have another real photo shoot.
For my littler house I got a new address sign and new lantern. Since that is the only thing that discerns the houses in that neighborhood I’m shocked anyone can find it. And we upgraded the landscaping…
However, when the house is rented for a month or more the guests have their own sign, with their names on the lamp post. So for the four or five months they will be able to find it😀.
I need to get a picture, on a turn over, when it’s sunny and no one’s name is on the lamp post.
That’s the hard thing, they are occupied pretty much solidly. For interior shots I need to get in there on a sunny turnover day after the cleaners when there isn’t a disaster holding up our ability to check the next guests in.
@Charmed59 When I first got started I read somewhere that a guest could get a refund if they cried long and hard enough about something not being available that is shown in the photos (even a bouquet of fresh flowers). I can believe it with all the nonsense I’ve read about in the various forums. Ain’t nobody got time for that. I change or remove photos ASAP if they’re out of date.
In this particular instance, there were lots of other issues too but probably, yes. One big problem was that the photographs made the place look huge and it was tiny. The desk and chair shown in the photographs had been removed. This was an important thing for me as I’d intended to work during every day of our stay. The outdoor furniture, new in the photographs, was covered in moss (green slimy stuff anyway) and the pool, sparkling in the listing, was green too.
Some people might say that the lack of desk and chair wasn’t a problem as they had been replaced by an easy chair but it was a problem to me.
i’ve just been to our ABB (which is in another state and my daughter is on site) for 3 weeks helping out with the summer smash, doing a proper “mum clean” on everything and overhauling decor, furniture etc, and we changed pretty much every room in some way, so i’ve done all new pics, and boy does it need it! If we make small changes my daughter will take new pics with her phone, and me coaching her (i’m actually a professional photographer), and then i tweak them in photoshop to fix perspective and white balance.
far out, flowers? I try to put flowers in where I can, we have a farm and large gardens with lots of roses so I always try to have a few, but there are sometimes when we just don’t have time, or the flowers aren’t nice enough… i’ve got back up leaf foliage too but can’t believe people would complain about that!
A guest will moan about anything if they think they may get a refund/discount. I had one that complained that the bedcover was different to the listing photo. I offered to go get it as it was in the laundry waiting to be washed…….no reply
@gillian I did fret when I read this, but I can imagine it. I don’t want to chance it and I have to buy flowers, so I stopped placing anything in my unit that I couldn’t duplicate. In my opinion, however, once again it might come down to the quality and nature of those who book your place. My listing tends to attract people that are clearly not looking for anything fancy schmancy, and not the “wild and crazee guys” (tell me you’ve see that SNL sketch), and are always so grateful I can’t imagine they’d complain about a photo.
I am familiar with the skit…but also I have sometimes found that those specifically drawn to our not fancy schmancy listings can also be the exact ones that will make a stink to get the refund as well, especially the cheaper their price seems to be…go figure.
True. I’ve raised my rates significantly since I started. I have looked for a balance between “economical” and “downright cheap”. Some people are shocked at what I charge, but my reasons are my reasons. One of them is that some guests will be on high rise inflatables. Another is that there are only two bathrooms which can challenge larger families. Again, my conversations and gut feelings when I “pre-qualify” my guests have helped me to avoid any complaints. I’ve been very, very fortunate and I take the wisdom of this forum very seriously. It has helped me to avoid many issues.
