How to get your property ready for the professional photography and drone?

When looking for the property in hope to spend the best vacation time, to relax and to make our loved ones happy we omit the listings with messy staff in the rooms, with rust on the surfaces and faucets, dirty floors and the cleaning staff here and there on the sink or kitchen table. We want everything simple, neat, modern and clean and be ready to have us as the happy guests.

That’s how we chose. Omitting all the unprofessional garbage on the pages of the vacation rental webs. It is easy to understand: our guests do the same. So, the first things first:

1/ Clean and put things in order

Better call the professional cleaner or cleaning company. Remove the messy staff here and there. Remove things complicating the view. Clean the mirroring and retracing surfaces. Remove rust and spots from faucens and sinks, from the polished staff.

Remove old bedspreads and old tablecloths, crocheted napkins and macrame. Everything that clutters up the room with unnecessary details and complicates perception. Keep it simple.

Another important thing is: the equipment working properly: Once I deciced to relax in the expensive casino hotel in Santo Domingo and rented a premium room. I was angry that the watercloset cover had been broken, shower had scarcely dripping a tiny trickle of water and it starts heating only 10 minutes later after you open faucet. Those small issues spoiled my stay.

Sure they lost much more money and clients from my feedback on Booking than the cost of fixing those tiny issues or even replace and remodel the entire bathroom.

The God is in the details, as the Germans say. So the next step is:

2/ Fix all the equipment which has issues

This really will save you tons of nerves and money. And what is more important: the reputation and the best attitude to you of your guests. And your “karma”. Be sure: we are checking every inch of your property to see if everything works well and every room you rent is livable. And of course: we do not put your listing on-line till you fix it.

Fix all your lights. Replace burnt out light bulbs. We will use the room lights together with the natural light when making the photo shoot.

3/ Define the best time to shoot

If the strong side of your listing is the views, skylines and all what you have when looking through the window remember: what is the light on sunrise and sunset. If you are not sure call our photographer to come and check the light conditions.

Sometimes the morning or the evening shadows draw the interesting pictures on the floor, walls or furniture. Sometimes on dusk and dawn you may have the breathtaking view from the windows. When the strengh of lite inside the room equalise with the light outside and the camera see them both.

During the day when there is no owercast you only may see the white or blue light from the window but not the views or skylines. The lite from the windows this time of the day is so strong that the camera can only see one thing: the light inside the room with the windows overexposed or the views outside with the room completely dark. Using artificial light or the speedlight kills the depth of the room. It looks completely flat or not natural. So: chose carefully the time of the day for your photography session.

Schedule the photo shoot wisely so that not to lose your views. Or ask an expert to define it.

And please be ready to have more time for the photo shoot than the agent usualy takes: professinonal photography may require several different approaches to the same view to achieve the best result. Sometimes the artificial light may help your interior to tell more than the natural one so the photographer will need to help of the light assistant. So, please be patient and your patience will be rewarded with future profits and increased attention to your listing.

4/ What we shoot: the minimum set and sequence

a/ Street Life: what happens in your nearest environment and how it looks like. What kind of people are around.

It matters for your guest if it is the bidonville or the gated community. Are the streets plenty of people looking like traffickers or it is the business environment. Is it a small city with the cottages, driveways and lawns or a European city center with narrow streets and no parking space.

Or it is a log in the mountains with the only birds and animals around. The environment matters for you when you are visiting your vacation rental and for your guests as well when they rent your property. We want your guests know what they may see when they exit your door early morning or late at night.

b/ The building, the entrance gates

The building and the entrance matters as well. We take shots of the gates if this is the gated comunity. The swimming pools, beaches, sun decks, barbecue and parking areas and other public areas which are available for those who live there.

If the building has special zones like the garage, the service areas, gardens or external elevators we will take pictures of them as well.

Here are some examples:

c/ The lobby, service areas, guest bathrooms

We begin from the entrance groop if there is outside and inside, the lobby, the half bath if there is one and the service room: storage, luggage room, laundry room if there is any.

Here are some examples:

d/ The main room from several corners and the different main room areas: TV corner, the rest area with sofa and the newspaper table, kitchen if it is not the separate room, coffee corner and other areas which the main room includes.

Here are some examples:

e/ The kitchen and the dining area.

Includes the kitchen, the kitchen equipment, the dishwasher if there is, any special equipment like the coffee maker, air frier etc. The cooking island if there is. The dinner area with the dinner table and chairs. Any extencions if there are, like the coffee corner, water cooler, bar, the vines storage and others available for the guests.

Here are some examples:

g/ Bedrooms and bathrooms.

Includes the master bedroom, the bathroom attached, the guests’ bedrooms and the bathrooms, the storages and closets available for the guests. Sometimes using the live actors/models brings the storytelling elements to the photography.

Here are some examples:

h/ Laundry, Terrace, Swimming pools, Parkings, Gardens, Beach and other facilities.

Includes all the additional internal and external facilities accessible by the guests. The reacher the set of facilities the more attractive is the listing. When you search the place to stay you definitely prefer more comfortable life than the standard 160 square feet hotel bunker with lack of space and air, made to please the wallet of the owner, not the life of the renter.

Here are some examples:

h/ External view of the building, patios, loans, pools and beaches.

Includes all the attractive aspects of buildings, the loans and the garden design. The pool view of the building and the external BBQ and dining areas.

Here are some examples:

k/ Drone aerial photos and videos.

And at last droning the area which is important as well to give the guest an idea of the environment and the surrounding neighbourhood. Once I had rented an apartment on AirBnB which looked perfect on the photos. But when I came I go to search any fast food I had been robbed. It appeared to be in the criminal district.

So we should convince the visitor that the surrounding area is OK and there is nothing better than the drone photos and videos. The droning may take from 20 minutes to an hour, depending on winds and weather condition.

Here are the examples on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCF8sn6AHKOe4reXEUSN_FhA

Those are the obligatory photos and processes to get the quality listing at our web site.

For any questions and more details do not hesitate to write us at our Contact form.