How to be the TOP of AirBnB, Booking.com, TripAdvisor or VRBO listings.
80% of the value of your property while browsing your listing by a renter or a buyer is estimated via the quality and the professionalism of its’ photorgaphy.
The more professional, reach and expensive looks the photography, the more attractive the property is perceived as.
Professional architeture photography sells your listing dosen times faster than your agents’ iPhone or foolproof camera shots.
Author: Andrey Prokhorov
The alumni of The New York Institute of Photography
The photographer at AirBnB.com for more than 7 years.
How do you search your vacation stay on AirBnB, Booking or TripAdvisor?
The first thing that catch your eye is the photo of the place you possibly stay. Right? And what do you think about the ugly photos which are here and there on the webs that are offering spaces to your vacation or travel stay?
Probably you have to think twice to choose this:
AirBnB listing: Private room in the apartment in Gazcue district.
Probably the author of this photo thought you have so strong imagination that it will for sure replace this ugly grey linen with the clean and white one, and safe enough to sleep. But what is at the other side of that cotton wall left to the bed?
Is it really such “privada” as the host means or I may have some surprises when sleeping? Like a barking dog, or bathroom noise, or smell from the kitchen? Or loudly snoring landlord?
And I have the strong doubt that you are so brave to decide to book this:
TripAdvisor listing: the village near Playa Dorada district. The second level.
Would you agree: sleeping on the stairwell is not so attractive idea? Especially if you pay $37 daily for this.
Does this photo attract the potential renter? If I would have been in his shoes I would never even notice it amidst the other listings or would not take it seriously, perceiving it just like another peace of junk in Internet.
So, what was the idea of the author? And why Tripadvisor allows it to be on its’ database and amidst the other valuable published listings as the valid place to stay? Doesn’t it make zero attention and zero profit to them?
It is easy to explain: they do not care! They sell in bulk. The quality of the representation is the headache of the owner. If upon the checking-in you discover that what you see in the reality is the big difference of what you thought in your imagination or what you read in the listing description, especially on Booking.com, you probably start searching support phone number or the way to get response from them on the Booking.com or AirBnB pages.
Tough task. But probably you are a lucky guy. You try hard and you reached an answer of the support with the strong Bangalore accent at the other end of the support line. And you probably understood his English. And you made the miracle and got your money back. But you never get back your trust, your spoiled vacation mood and time. And you will start to understand how small and tiny is your voice somewhere at the feet of those titans built on your money.
Your time and trust is your problem. Because you are just one of the millions of clients looking through their web in search of the place to stay. You are just a tiny drop in the ocean of their cashflow.
Booking Listing: Casa Vasques. House (TV Box of the size of the queen bed) for vacations. Puerto Plata center.
This “Casa Vasques” I had rented on Booking.com a year ago. It had been described in the Booking listing as the “centric vacation house in Puerto Plata”, the north of the Dominican Republic. A lot of photos of the beautiful architecture of the city center. Booking had never checked this.
I came to the spot to check-in. I called to the hosts’ WhatsApp. “My brother will come in 15 minutes to pick you up and show you the place” he answered. In half an hour the guy on the Chinese motorised bike came and offered me a ride to the place I rented. “What about centric location and the spot on the map it should have been by your listing?” I asked. “I do not know. I am just a moto taxi” had been the answer.
Apartment listing at the TripAdvisor beginning from the watercloset as the front photo of the listing.
In 20-30 minutes ride we came to the slams full of the houses of TV box size. The streets where narrow. Only a bike or two persons may pass the tiny street face to face. And it was full of people looking like criminals.
Listing at VRBO. “Cozy Studio” showing the poor interior of the glass shelf on the empty wall and the bar chairs. Doubtfull “cozyness”.
We climbed by the narrow rusty staircase to the top of one of this “TV boxes” and I discovered the second “TV box” house atop of this one. It had the size of the queen size bed. No windows, but yes AC atop of the beds’ headboard. Tiny bathroom with the shower & watercloset combined. And the Haitian guy constructed similar queen size “TV Box” on the rusty roof of the same “TV Box” building.
Again: 51$ for the bathroom as the representation of the main value of the listing. Very funny.
“Sometimes you may have water and electricity outage” the moto taxi guy told. “Here is your key”.
I paid 72$ for this “vacation house”. Sure I thought I had been the only tourist at this slam. So I had never stay there. Booking.com guy swear they will refund and delete the listing. But it is still searchable.
Cosy one bedroom apartment close to the beach. By TripAdvisor. Cozyness and the beach are represented by the primitive dark room looking like a prison cell.
I can continue with poor representation examples on the real estate web sites.
But the main idea is always the same: “The perceived value of the property is equal to the perceived value of the photography.”
You point your camera or iPhone or whatever with the lense and the viewfinder to your own property. And the only thing you see is the picture in your head.
You invested a lot of attention and money to what you are taking shot of. And you value it with this knowledge and the picture in your head. You always think the viewer is so keen to see the nice space and the beautiful furniture hidden behind the frame of your picture. Surprise! He or she sees the worst things offered by his or her imagination! In the best case: emtyness, undefined future. Which really is not what you want him/her to see! Tough, tough laws of perception!
Your customer cannot read in your head. The only picture he can find out from your efforts is just the bed and the wall inside the frame of your shot. Omitting all you mean besides the picture frame and in your memories.
The Convenience understood by the author of this masterpiece has the big difference with the convenience in understanding by the client.
The customer have no idea of what it cost to you and what are the extentions he does not see besides the frame of your shot. He give it up to his presuppositions, not always the optimistic ones.
Only the trained architectural photographer who knows the laws of perception may make the client see the same meaning you would like the client to see.
He may hold his attention to the protagonist and the second plan actors of your listing interior. He may make the client feel sitting in this chair, standing under this shower and walking in this garden by the special techniques for conveying reality, highlighting the spot, leading lines of the frame and other techniques.
Not looks like “Deluxe”? Isn’t it?
You have small or zero idea of those techniques of the architecture photography and have no extended experiense of applying them with any tangible perceptual and financial result. So:
TRUST THIS TO BE DONE BY THE PROFESSIONALS!
I am interested. How to participate?
I had the similar experiences with AirBnB. The Bangalore accent upon the calling to support is the feature, not a bug)
AirBnB are now just expelling its’ Russian members independently of their adopted nationality.