The BEST Photo Strategy for Airbnb

What’s up guys, let’s talk photos. In this video, I’m going to share with you my killer photo strategy to make sure you get the best possible photos for your short term rental property, which is ultimately going to be in my experience, the number one biggest thing that you can do to improve your performance, get more bookings, and charge more per night for Airbnb. So, getting really, really great top to your photos should skyrocket your revenue skyrocket your bookings beyond what you’re currently doing, if you’re currently running with bad or just mediocre or even good, not great photos. So here is an exhaustive list of everything that I do to make sure that my photos are absolutely spectacular. Now starting out, I always, always, always make sure that I use a professional photographer. Now specifically, I want to work with a photographer who specialises in shooting short term rental properties. Now you’ll be surprised to find that in most areas, you will be able to find someone that’s actually experienced with shooting short term rental properties. And I caution you to not conflate that with someone who is experienced in shooting real estate there is quite a big difference. It turns out between shooting a property like a real estate property that’s for sale versus Shooting a short term rental property with one set of photography skills, you’re really focused on shooting the actual home the structure of the space, whereas with Airbnb and short term rental photography, you’re shooting those types of shots, but you’re also trying to set mood setting shots and question answering shots. And so there can often be a bit of a disconnect. If you’re in a pinch, and you cannot find an experienced Airbnb or short term rental photographer in your area, then you can go with a real estate photographer, but in my experience, you’re going to want to give them a lot more specific guidance than you would to someone that actually specialises in shooting short term rental properties to make sure they get the right shots, the right types of shots, the right angles, the right lighting, all these different things. So that’s the starting point is getting the right professional photographer. Now second is selecting your style of photography that you want to go with. I like to give the photographer guidance on exactly what style of photography I’m going for, and what the overall vibe of the photos or mood of the photo should be. Because there’s different ways to shoot a property you can have photos that are more warm and cosy, more that are bright and spacious. And you want to find what works best for the specific type of property that you have. Now one of the styles of photography that I personally really like for a lot of properties, especially if they’re in great outdoor settings is something that’s commonly referred to as flat ambient photography. flamboyant photography you probably already seen before and execution, you probably just didn’t know what it was. And basically, it’s a style of photography, where the focus is on the actual indoor space. But you still have the the outdoor visible through the windows, and it looks nice and vivid. Because what I really don’t like is when I have a beautiful property that’s in a really beautiful setting and has really great views I don’t like when the outside the windows is now out of focus, because what’s in focus is inside the actual room. It does a great job of showcasing the room, but it just does a horrible job of showcasing the view. So flamming photography is a style that I’ve been going with over the last year so that I really liked for properties that are in really great outdoor setting. So that’s a nice little pro tip that you can share with your photographer, if that’s the style of photography that you’re going for. Now, we’re also going to want to do is now make sure that your photographer has a shot list, you want to give them a list of all the specific shots that you specifically want doesn’t have to be exhaustive doesn’t mean that you can only use the photos in this list. But anything that you think might not be photographed, you want to make sure or a specific type of shot that you want, you want to make sure to list out for your photographer. So for example, when I have a hot tub, I know that the photographer is going to take a picture of the hot tub because I’m getting interior and exterior photos done. If I have a bedroom, I know they’re going to photograph that bedroom, but I might have specifics on how I want that thing photographed. For example, with the hot tub. I always want it photographed with the cover off with the cover out of view and with the Jets turned on. So having that kind of specifically laid out into an email that you send your photographer or shortlist you sent over to your photographer, super, super helpful. Now the thing is just having for example, a pull up couch if you want it photographed as a couch and then also photograph pulled out as a bed and down up with all the bedding with the pillows on there so that guests can envision themselves living there. Make sure you organise that into a shortlist for your photographer. So that’s a really, really important piece to make sure that You get really exceptional photos is having a detailed shortlist of everything you’re specifically going for now if you’re wondering what to put on that shortlist, what you really want to focus on with your photos is a few main things. One, highlighting the property and showcasing all of the incredible amenities that it has making it really beautiful, making sure that guests can, you know, are just attracted to the space overall to is you want to make sure that you answer any questions the guests might have. So when a guest has a question about well, you know, does this couch pull out into a bed? Or you know, is there a blender in the kitchen, you want all those questions to be answered without them having to actually read your listing description or anything like that. So having photos that answer those questions is always better than not. A third thing that you always want to accomplish with your photos is helping a guest to envision themselves actually staying in the space, you’ll notice that those two main goals of photos are really going to showcase this space but not really helped to set the mood and and help you envision actually standing there at the property. So that’s where a different stage kind of mood setting shots like a glass of wine by the fireplace, or a cup of hot cocoa, or maybe a board game laid out on the dining room table, or the dining room table setup with a whole great meal, all this stuff, having your TV displaying the Netflix logo, things like that. Those are great moods, any shots and help people to envision themselves in the space. And that brings me through to after the shoot, you’re going to want to do some editing, which I’m going to touch on in a moment as well. But before we get to that, the next thing you’re gonna want to do to make sure your photographer does a really good job because ultimately, we can’t edit our way out of bad photos, we can only make good photos even better with editing is we want to make sure that we give the photographer guidance on exactly what we’re going for. As far as the lighting, it’s one of the most important factors of your photos is just that they’re well and appropriately lit. So you want to give your photographer guidance on how you want the photos lit. For me, I always love natural lighting as much as possible, and I’ll call them on it with the indoor lighting in the space. And then only if needed do we go to auxiliary lighting that the photographer might be bringing with them when she might have for a bathroom something like that that doesn’t have as many windows, but for the most part, we want to use as much natural lighting as possible. That’s just what tends to perform the best on Airbnb on short term rentals. You also want to advise the photographer on what time of day to go by I recommend they go by during or close to golden hour so that any of your outdoor shots are happening as the sun’s kind of setting you got the best colours in the sky. Now, that kind of stuff can be edited in post. But you really do want to maximise the amount of just like the or minimise the amount of post production need to do on these photos. So having them go by around Golden Hour is also super, super helpful. Guys just want to take a quick break here to say that for those of you watching, who want to build cashflow, and long term wealth by purchasing Airbnb and short term rental properties, there’s a link in the description right down below for a free training that will walk you through my exact strategy for investing successfully in Airbnb ease. Now, if you’re not ready to actually buy properties, and you want to get started managing other people’s properties on Airbnb the same way I got started and build a full time income managing other people’s properties. There’s actually another free training linked in the description down below as well, there’ll be a really great fit for you. So whether you want to invest in short term rental properties and actually build amazing cash flow and long term wealth by acquiring the assets, buying the properties themselves, or you’re looking to earn a full time income managing other people’s properties on Airbnb, we’ve got some awesome trainings that are linked in the description down below. That’ll definitely help you out. When you sign up for the trainings, we’re also going to send you a few other tools and resources completely for free just to help you get started. Again, the links to sign up are in the description down below. And both trainings and all the tools are completely free. So make sure to register for the trainings, links in the description down below.

Next, in terms of guidance that you’re going to be giving to your photographer, the one last thing that I like to ask my photographer for is a stunning cover image, I like to let them know that I really want a standout cover photo for the property and that they should kind of be looking for that and searching for it when they’re there at the property. And so what I like to do is kind of leave that in their hands if I don’t have an idea, if I do have an idea of specifically what I want, then I’ll get really specific and tell them exactly what I want that shot to be. But oftentimes I found as less of a creative myself that the photographers have a bit better eye for that kind of thing that I do. So I just let them know, hey, I want a really like wow factor cover photo so that it’s going to catch people’s attention is really going to draw them in. And so I want you to be looking for that. And that’s really, really helpful because that cover photo is obviously a very, very important individual photo in your listing. Now now that you’ve done all that you found a really great photographer, you’ve given them all the right guidance, the shot list, the lighting, all those other things. Now they can go by and do a really fantastic job. on. And then the last step is then just going to be post production and organising the photos. So post production should be pretty straightforward. Ideally, you’re not going to want to do very much in post production other than maybe changing out the lighting. In some of the photos, I take some of my outdoor photos and change the skylight to be like, if it’s a bit cloudy or a little bit overcast, that day, I’ll change up the sky to be a nice blue, maybe do like a dusk or dawn set. I also like to sometimes Photoshop and fire into the fire pit, if it wasn’t already going to be working again, just envision themselves there, do things like adding the Netflix logo onto the TV screen, if it is a smart TV, just let people know that it’s a smart TV. And then just in post production, if anything was left out on a table or something like that, that shouldn’t be there. Oftentimes, we can just erase that. So that doesn’t show up and isn’t good. It’s kind of weird out of place thing in the photos. So post production should be pretty minimal. If you’ve done a really great job on the front end of making sure your photographer gets the right shots and the right style with the right lighting, all that kind of stuff, then the last piece is then just organising your photos, this is often very, very overlooked. And so you’ve gone to all this work of getting really great photos. Now the last step is just to organise them in a way that makes the most sense for guests. And that is going to cause them to want to actually keep looking through the photos and ultimately to book your place. So the recommended order for me is to have maybe three to five shots in some instances, maybe six or seven. But we really want to kind of dial it back, want to have maybe three to five shots in the beginning your first few photos that really highlights some of the main draws to that property, the reasons that guests are going to want to book your place, obviously with the cover photo being the most important one. So there’s any big ticket amenities that really like back a lot of punch in terms of value for guests, make them want to stay with you like a hot tub, or a sauna, or the location is incredible. Or you’ve got this like really gorgeous interior design, things like that, you really want to highlight those things in the first few photos. Don’t worry about following a methodical order for the first couple of photos, just pack a bunch of punch, make sure they see all the main things that you they’re going to really love about your place, then you want to focus more on the order your photos and having it flow. So from there, after those first few photos, I then jumped to what I call a sort of a virtual tour of the property where I go through from the outside in I usually start inside the house because that’s what people mostly want to see. First, I’ll go in chronological order kind of methodical order is if I’m virtually walking through the house, showcasing all the different areas, and being mindful not to jump between rooms and go kitchen, bathroom, kitchen, bathroom, kitchen, bathroom or anything like that and kind of jumping all around, I showcase the whole kitchen, then I’ll go to the dining room, then I’ll go to the living room, so on and so forth. I also personally don’t like jumping between the kitchen specifically in the bathroom because just a little bit gross to me, I don’t think it’s it, I think it just did a little bit weird. I like to go from kitchen and maybe dining room to living room to bedroom, then maybe to a bathroom and then bedroom. I like to squeeze the bed the bathrooms in between bedrooms, sometimes that’s the way I like to do it. That’s just me. And then we kind of go through a logical flow of the rest of the property. And then we’ll go outside and then we end with some other amenities, shots, different stuff like that. And we can mix in amenities shots into the room that they’re actually applicable to. So that order photos should basically be just jam packed and peel with a bunch of value upfront, then showing them through in a logical way so that they can get a feel for the property for the layout and ultimately get all their questions answered. So that is my kind of ultimate guide on how to get incredible photos for your short term rental and make sure that they’re maximising. You’re making as much money as possible through your photography. If you have any other thoughts, comments, questions, concerns, anything you want to share with me, let me know in the comment section down below. If you liked this video, if it was valuable to you, if it helped to give you some insights that you’re gonna go and apply with your listing then make sure you let me know by hitting the like button on this video. It does help me out tremendously with growing this channel and getting these videos in front of more people. So please give this video like and obviously subscribe to the channel as well. If you’re new here if you haven’t yet subscribed, make sure you hit that subscribe button we post two new videos every single week without failure on the channel. So if you liked this and want more of it, hit the subscribe button as well. With all that said thank you so much for watching this video and I’ll see you in the next one.