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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.
This a timely question for me. I have this on my mind. I have not had to take new photos since sorting them out in the beginning of each listing. Nothing important enough has been changed, only replacing a french press or a plant, so I haven’t worried about it.
However, someone broke a lamp in one unit in December and I’m working on replacing it (we closed mid-Dec but will re-open in Feb). It has proved impossible to find the same lamp and, unfortunately, it was a somewhat unusual lamp so it will be noticeable.
I even have a picture of the lamp itself, more or less, because it sits on a table in front of a bay window that I want to feature in the photos. Obviously, I can retake the photo with a new lamp but the pretty lilac bush outside the window is winter-dead right now so a new photo will not look as attractive.
Yep. I considered putting a new photo and leaving the spring-time old photo with the old lamp as well, but wondered if someone might think that there’s two different bay windows, which I cannot provide. Your post has settled that and so I will not leave the old photo.
The issue is that the old lamp is in more than one photo and I’m trying to decide if I need to replace multiple photos or just the one where it’s obvious. My photos are not so great anyway so a bunch of new photos couldn’t hurt but I can’t think of a worse time to take new photos than January in New England.
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.
