I’d advise changing it for the seasons. Quite a few people have posted on this forum regarding the hazard of having pictures of things that aren’t available for guest use. For example, as I said earlier in the thread, I don’t have a picture of the front of my home because I don’t want guests asking to park in the garage. Don’t put a picture of the kitchen and then be surprised if people want to cook entire meals in it. I used to have my kitchen as my lead picture because it is newly remodeled but since I don’t prefer guests to cook in there I removed it. Now I just show the coffee/toaster oven/microwave area where they can have some coffee and warm something up.
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The AirBnB photographer included a picture of the front of my house, and edited out the address letters that are above my front door. Guests could find my house since I mention I live on a dead end, and those are uncommon in my neighborhood, but I usually assume random people’s reading comprehension is too poor to put two and two together.
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So, just sharing my story of people finding your house via internet and random pictures:
On my Facebook page, my cover photo is an old wagon that I converted to a planter and have in my front yard.
A few months ago a cute puppy found its way into our yard. We didn’t recognize it and posted on the local community pages that we’d found the dog. We got a message from a lady saying “that looks like my neighbor’s dog. We live on X street near Y street, are you near that?” I responded that yes, we’re just a few blocks away on Z street, can you check with those neighbors? Well, it wasn’t them.
So, I went to bed that night and around 11:30pm we got a ring on the doorbell, it was a lady who had been driving up from OOT to help her dad find his dog, and her son was scanning local FB pages to see if anyone had posted. She’d commented on my post about an hour prior but I was done on the computer for the day. She and her son were driving up and down our street looking for my wagon and saw our lights on in our bedroom and rang the bell.
It turned out okay, BUT, it really makes me hesitant to even have exterior pictures of our garage apartment that’s barely visible from the street and then the picture of the end of our long drive so people can recognize it since the house number isn’t visible from the street.
I think it all depends on what kind of neighborhood you have, whether you’ll have accusatory neighbors searching for your listing, etc. At some point I’ll probably take down the driveway photo and put it in a message I send my guests a day or two prior to their arrival as the stone walls at the end are how we distinguish our house to anyone coming as it’s pretty identifiable, almost more so than our huge old house with a big yard, etc, in a suburban neighborhood.
I have a photo of the front of my house on both my Airbnb rooms. First, it was only on the Master Bedroom listing cuz I just forgot to put it on the Queen Room listing. Then I had some guests book the Queen Room and the man was all about “Why don’t you have a photo of your house on the listing? It’s so beautiful!” (Classic Colonial - redbrick, columns) So, I changed it. Personally, I’d want to see the front of the house if I was booking.
I enjoy seeing the whole house too. Just a room makes me weary that the rest would be a dump, or something else like that. Since I started this thread, I thought I’d post a photo of the front of my house. Its nothing too crazy, but I’ve been booked non-stop since I started this, so I guess its doing a good job, or at least nit scaring people away:yum:.
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In doing research on other listings in my area, I found a listing where it was a basement apartment. The listing clearly states this, but the main photo is a photo of the home from the front with the front door. At least one of their reviews complained that they thought they were getting the whole house based on the photos. That is why I decided not to post a photo of the front of my house. I don’t want people misreading something and thinking they are getting my whole house.
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Are your guests able to find your house without a photo of the front? A lot of mine stand in the front yard and look at their phones to match the pictures.
I just got started this month, but so far everyone has found my place alright. I’m not too hard to find though, and google maps brings you straight here.
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Before cell phones, people somehow managed to find homes and businesses based on a street address.
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I have had many guests who had trouble finding our house even in this age of cell phones with GPS. Our house is not difficult to find. It’s a single family dwelling with the address on the front of the house above the door and painted on the sidewalk. We get many guests from other cultures who may be unused to the U.S. system of addresses.
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I am all open to giving the photos of the front of the house because it has a decent curb appeal. I had a guest once who told me that she decided to choose this place after seeing the photo of the house with many windows opening to the front yard. The idea of installing those windows was actually by hubby’s and I got to know of this only after he bought the heritage windows ( http://www.heritagehomedesign.ca/windows/heritage/ ) but in the long run it had been very beneficial to us. Almost all the guest who had visited us had commented positively about the abundance of air and light in the room.
I don’t do this. I’ll text a photo of the house to a guest if they need it, but I don’t want it out there publicly. Might as well say “hey, here’s approximately where I live, here’s what my home looks like, and, oh, by the way, here’s all the things you can steal.” No thanks. Our home is easy to find. I’ll help you if you need once you book, but no way am I advertising to the public what’s on offer when it’s empty.
Your house looks very nice…
Yes – here’s where I Iive, here are pics of my stuff so you know what size vehicle to bring with you, and here’s my calendar so you know when it’s probably vacant… : )
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You need security cameras outside the rental.
I’m not really willing to do that at this time. My home is a typical brick Chicago-style two flat covered with ivy, and I just don’t want to tack any more stuff to the exterior. 
I’m glad to have read this thread. I had identifiable exterior pics only because I hadn’t thought about non-guests seeing them. Although I’m not doing anything wrong, and my guests are long term and don’t cause any disturbance, I really don’t want to call attention to myself here. Condo boards can be unpredictable. I took down the more readily identifiable pics.
I have a couple of photos of the front, because it shows off the immediate area, makes it easier for guests to locate and because I’m proud of it!
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Absolutely beautiful. Looks like Nova Scotia! What is the age of the house? Can you post a link?