Great photos are what you need to beat your competitors in the bookings game. Excellent photography stands out in a sea of listings and makes future guests dream about the fabulous vacation they’re going to have. They communicate the facts about a place and the fantasy of what a trip there will be like. Professional photos are a must for exceptional vacation rental hosts. Here’s what you need to do to make sure you get the most from your investment.
Table of Contents
How To Hire a Photographer for Your Vacation Rental
Step 1: Assess your current photos
Thoroughly review the images on your website (don’t have one yet? That’s ok; we’ll talk about that later), your listings, and your social media. Are they up to date? Bright and appealing? Remove any that no longer represent what your place looks like, but don’t delete them entirely. Instead, save them (or a screen grab) in a folder on your computer or cloud drive labeled “To Re-Shoot.”
Try to be objective in this exercise. If you can’t, ask for help from someone who will be honest with you – and if everyone you know is too nice, ask me. Your photos need to appeal to guests on an emotional level, not just assure them that, yup, you have beds and toilets. Do they? Don’t think too hard about it, and don’t remove photos if they are current. Just download or screenshot them and save them in the folder you just made.
After photos: Elegant Exposure Inc. // Via post: How AirBNB Hosts Charge More By Changing Nothing
You are looking for bright, well-lit interiors (natural light is best), appealing, cohesive colors, and angles that tell the story of what the space looks like and how it will serve your guest. Compare your listing to your biggest competitor. How do your photos measure up?
Note: If your listing only exists on Airbnb, and they have taken the photos, you might need to have them all re-shot. If you want to have a business independent of the listing site (and you should if you’ve invested in a property and all that goes with it), then you need to have your own photos. If Airbnb took the photos, Airbnb owns the photos, and you can’t use them anywhere else. The listing site does not, however, own your place or its angles, so what you can do is screenshot the photos that you like and, you guessed it, save them in that re-shoot folder.
Step 2: Identify gaps
After you’ve reviewed your existing photos, determine if any angles or views are missing. If you can visit your property, you can do this review easily. Go room by room and take snapshots with your phone of any angles you don’t already have. Include vignettes and close-ups of particularly appealing areas, and highlight everything that makes your rental special. These are for reference only, so don’t overthink them. After you have taken all of your photos, go back and review them. Choose any that have potential and save them to your re-shoot folder.
If you are not able to get to your property, write down all of the spaces you want to feature. Review your photos and make a list of any angles that are missing. Be specific, for example, “View of kitchen from dining room showing island with barstools. Show that we have seating for six at the island.”
Step 3: Make a note of areas in need of refreshing
Chances are, looking at your photos with an objective eye and taking snapshots has revealed some areas that could use a refresh.
Start making lists of areas that need improvement. You might not know exactly what a space needs, so start by taking general notes, such as “there is no color in this photo,” “Couch looks worn,” or “big blank wall.”
Again, this isn’t always going to be easy – this is your baby, after all – so if you need to, enlist help for this exercise.
Psst: Want some cheap ways to add style to your rental? Feeling overwhelmed and need a little guidance?
Note: The point of this exercise is to identify areas in need of attention and then assess what to do and when – not to delay your photo shoot until you can buy all new furniture. Just write everything down now, and you will prioritize later.
Step 4: Make your shot and to-do lists
Review all the photos in your “Re-shoot” folder, your list of missing photos, and your refresh list. Start a new list, room by room, of all the photos you’d like photographed or re-photographed. Number your shots, and jot down as many details as you can for the photographer, like shades open or closed? Lights on or off? Same angle as existing? Show more of ___________ and less of ___________
When you’re finished, add up the estimated cost of everything you want to do and take a look at the amount of time you think it will take you to do everything on your list. Use this information to help you decide when you want to schedule your photo shoot.
For example:
Living room from entry
- Angle similar to the existing photo, but show more sofa and less TV. Outside drapes open, sheers closed
Living room into dining room in front of sofa
- Make sure pillows are arranged the same as the reference pic. One-point perspective. Center tray on coffee table. Sharp focus on throw pillows, soft focus on art on back wall
If you have areas that need a major overhaul, do what you can to refresh them for now, and make a note on your list that you will want to re-shoot the space later. You should still plan on photographing them because once the rest of the space is photographed, the old photos will stick out like a sore thumb (unless you are using the same photographer you used before.) You want to communicate to the photographer that they should not spend a lot of time on this area, and it doesn’t hurt to let them know that you will need them again once the room is re-decorated.
For example:
Bathroom 2
- To be refreshed and re-shot later. Just take one shot, at the same angle as the reference. Do not spend too much time here.
Step 5: Refresh spaces
Once your shot list is complete, make a second list of what you need to do before the photographer arrives. Use the same numbers as the shot list and write down only what will be visible in that photo. For example, if you would like to replace the television but the television isn’t going to be in the angle you are photographing, don’t add it to the list. This will help you prioritize improvements that will make a difference in your photos.
Based on the things you write down, assign a budget for each room, and estimate how much time you think it will take to find the items you need. Use this information to determine what you want to do before your photo session and the earliest you could realistically schedule your photoshoot.
Here’s an example of how to write your to-do list:
Living room from entry
- New throw pillows on sofa
- Replace tray on coffee table
- Add fake plant on coffee table
- Total estimated cost: $300
- Timeline: 3 weeks
Living room into dining room in front of sofa
- (same stuff as shot 1)
- New Centerpiece on dining table
- Total estimated cost: $100
- Timeline: 1 week
When you’re finished, add up the estimated cost of everything you want to do and take a look at the amount of time you think it will take you to do everything on your list. Use this information to help you decide when you want to schedule your photo shoot.
Step 6: Research photographers
If you don’t already have a photographer in mind, start doing your research. Be sure to look for someone that specializes in photographing interiors – they may also shoot landscapes or people, but they must have demonstrated skill with shooting interiors and a portfolio to prove it. Here are a couple of places to look:
General search
I suggest searching for “(Your City) Interior Design Photography” first. This is the type of photography you want, magazine-style rather than real estate style (see below). Then try “Vacation Rental” or “Architectural” photography and see what pops up. Explore their websites and bookmark any you like.
(Left) An example of real estate photography. The goal is to make rooms look as large as possible, so often, the photographer uses a wide-angle lens that distorts, especially at the edges of the frame. Note the shape of the surfboard.
(Right) The same room shot by architectural photographer Jonathan Mitchell. Note that the perspective looks natural, the focal point is defined, and the light is beautiful. Typically, an interior design or architectural photographer will spend 6-10 hours shooting an entire property, while a real estate photographer will spend about an hour—photo ©Jonathan Mitchell.
Local shelter magazines
You’re looking for magazine-style photography, so why not look at magazines? Find an interior design or lifestyle magazine that caters to your city, if possible, and flip through a few issues or look online for featured homes. If you find images you like, look for photo credits in the magazine’s gutter (the inside where it’s bound). Search for the photographer to see if they’re local.
Instagram Search
Look for your city and architectural and/or interior design photographer. Once you’ve found someone, ensure they have a decent body of work – you want to ensure they can produce consistently good results.
Review Sites
If you can find your pro on a site like Yelp or Houzz, great. Reviews are always good, and even better if you can use them to vet the people you found in the steps above. Just be sure to go to their website and check out their work. All the reviews in the world don’t matter if you don’t like their style.
Once you’ve done your research, narrow it down to a list of your top 3 or 4 choices. Now, it’s time to start putting the wheels in motion!
Step 7: Make contact
Reach out to your top choices and ask them a few questions. Some questions to consider:
- Do they have experience photographing vacation rentals? If so, do they have links to those listings/websites?
- How do they work? By the day? By the project?
- What is their rate?
- What rights are included in that rate?
- Do they include retouching?
- Do they usually work with a stylist?* If so, what is the stylist’s rate? Does that person have a website? Will they work without a stylist?
- How will your images be delivered?
- What resolution will your images be?
- What format will your images be?
- What is their availability for the time you’d like to schedule a shoot? Do they have time before and after that date in case the weather doesn’t cooperate?
*On working with a stylist: Talented stylists are fantastic and great to have on a shoot, as most photographers do not move your stuff – they have enough to do as it is. On magazine shoots, stylists often breathe life into a photo with plants, flowers, accessories, linens, you name it, and they usually arrive with a truckload of stuff. A good stylist is great to have on your shoot, but if your photographer works with one be sure to communicate your needs with both the stylist and photographer ahead of time. The last thing you want is to misrepresent your property by showing stuff that won’t be there when the guests arrive or to fall in love with something way out of your budget because it looks so perfect in the shot. Tell them that you would like to use as many of your items as possible and that supplemental props should be reasonably priced if the stylist gives you the option to buy them after the shoot.
Step 8: Get those beautiful listing photos!
By now, you should have a detailed shot list with reference snapshots, a shoot date in mind, and a photographer or two you’d like to hire (the first round of questions usually knocks a few out of consideration). Share your list and reference photos with your top choice(s), and ask for an estimate. Ask them to include some vertically-formatted shots (for Instagram) and any interesting vignettes in addition to your list. Make sure the estimate and contract spell out exactly what you will be getting, how much it will cost, what you might be able to add on after the shoot (i.e., extra shots, x hours of retouching), and how much that will cost. Make your choice, sign on the dotted line, and get some great shots!
