Your experience with "Photo Verified by Airbnb"?

[Rich-and-Yan0]

Hi everyone,

We are fairly new hosts, 1.5 weeks in, and when we were preparing our listing, we did tons of research on how to prepare our listing.

One article we came across cited a study from Carnegie-Mellon University in the US in which they had looked at over 16,000 listings to see which ones were having the most success. The most important point they noted from this study was that the hosts who had the "Photos Verified by Airbnb" watermark on their photos had a 22% higher booking rate than those without.

Naturally, this appealed to us, and so we contacted Airbnb to arrange a photographer, and she was scheduled to come at 2:00 pm on July 28. Our place is quite large and has several areas where you can dine and relax, and so the four of us spent two days buying food, drink, flowers and so on to try to replicate, in the photos, the actual experience we have when we stay there of spending time in these places.

Well, on July 28, the photographer showed up nearly 1/2 hour early, without warning. We were all in the process of setting up all of these props and were totally taken by surprise by this, and so we welcomed her in and asked her to take a seat and have a drink. But no, she said that she "had another photo shoot to do" and just started taking photos of anything: food in boxes, wine glasses clustered together next to a bottle of wine with no wine in them, and so on. We urged her to please wait a few minutes, but she refused.

At 2:02, exactly two minutes after the photo shoot was scheduled to start, she announced that she was finished--and left.

A few weeks later, we got the photos, and we were shocked by how bad they were. I mean, really, really bad. They were often not centered or tilted; they didn't capture key features that could appeal to our potential guests (such as our brand-new wood fireplace); and they had not had a bit of editing done to them, meaning that they were bland, colourless and lifeless for the most part.

In short, they were awful. So I contacted Airbnb, and while the woman who responded, E_ _ _ _, was actually quite nice and receptive, she basically told us that we were screwed. The payment would be taken off of our first hosting regardless, and if we tried to edit the photos in any external program such as Photoshop, then we would lose the "Photo Verified by Airbnb" watermark.

Knowing that, we decided to leave the photos on Airbnb and use their very basic brightness, contrast and cropping tools. But guess what? When we did that, we lost the "verified" watermark. Yes, even though this was on the Airbnb website and we used their tools, the very thing that we were paying for was erased.

So we contacted Airbnb again, and this time, we got a less-than-helpful agent, who didn't give us his or her name. The response was very generic, like, "If you edit Airbnb photos, you lose the watermark." We tried to explain that hey, we only edited these photos with YOUR tools, but they ignored us. And as to our complaints about the photographer, they said, "We will pass your comments on to the photographer." And we said, "Don't pass our comments on to the photographer--pass them on to her SUPERVISOR!"

After that, we never heard from them again.

So we were wondering if any of you had had any similar experiences. We don't know very many hosts personally, but I was speaking to one we know in Koh Samui, Thailand yesterday, and he said it is exactly the same way with the Airbnb photographer there. We were thus wondering if this is common, or if our two cases are the exception and not the rule.

Would love to hear from y'all on this. Cheers.  

[Alexandra316]

@Rich-and-Yan0 I haven't had personal experience with it, but I can tell you that a lot of the experiences I've heard from other hosts has been similar to yours: rude photographers who don't turn up or turn up early or late, bad photos, etc. I know someone whose photog just didn't turn up, then they couldn't rebook but were still charged. Bizarre. I believe that Airbnb doesn't pay these people much for a shoot and it's all piecework, so it's not terribly surprising that they don't spend much time editing.

I think @Inna22 had a less than perfect experience, if she's around to comment.

Maybe try escalating this through social media? I've found Twitter to be an effective channel.

In the meantime, I would maybe use a few of her pics and stick with what you have for the rest, if you can. Your photos are so nice already.

[Rich-and-Yan0]

@Alexandra316 Aw, how nice of you to say so about our pics. Yeah, as you might have guessed, the majority of the photos we used were NOT from the Airbnb photographer, but we tried to leave enough of hers up there so that guests would see the watermark and know that this is what our place really looks like. In the end, though only 4 of her (which we didn't really touch up, since they were exterior shots and nature had done its own job of editing) still had the watermark, as 

Anyway, thanks for all the information (again). That's really helpful. And yes, bizarre is indeed the right word here. It's a really sad state of affairs when Airbnb can advertise this service but then do absolutely nothing to follow it up or give its paying customers (us, in this case) any recourse or chance to offer feedback.

When we saw how badly this photographer behaved, we wondered how she could have doing photography for 8 years (which she had told us). Now we know. Nobody monitors her actions, and so she acts with impunity and does whatever she wants--and still gets paid!

Thank you again, Alexandra. 🙂

[Yosef3]

It's mainly the difference between photos shot on your phone or tablet vs photos shot by a professional with touchups and editing. I personally have not used them since they charge $120 per listing (for a studio!) and the pictures we have look really nice already!  🙂 

[Rich-and-Yan0]

@Yosef3 Thanks a lot for your feedback. I'm guessing there must be some good photographers working for Airbnb, but I'm not hearing of many such cases.

As I said in our post, this photographer was anything but professional, and she did zero of the "touchups and editing" that you alluded to. Zero. If you look above, @Alexandra316  complimented our photos--and the ones she's referring to, in fact, were almost entirely taken by us with phones, not by the photographer. 

So yes, an expensive service that is not worth it at all in our experience. But anyway, thanks for the input.

[Inna22]

@Alexandra316  I am so impressed by your memory!  Yes, there was a lot of scheduling drama with mine but most importantly the result was terrible. In my case, the photographer over exposed all the pictures beyond recognition. I honestly could not tell in one of them if there was a banana or a napkin on a plate. I am a very persistent kind of gal and I spent a couple of months calling, emailing, tweeting. My main request was for originals that I could Photoshop myself. At the end of the day, I hired my own photographer and posted my own pictures.  I actually do not recall any of them having that watermark even though I kept one or two.  One big difference between the Airbnb photographer  in my own was that he took responsibility for his work. For example, he noticed that in one of the shots the duvets were uneven on two beds. He asked me to fix them and came back to take another picture a few minutes later when I was done.  I think there should be some sort of review process for Airbnb photographers and cohost we find three Airbnb so there is some feedback to the company. 

[Alexandra316]

@Inna22 Yeah it's funny what sticks... I just remember the story of your rude photog and the parking space. I had considered getting them in to photograph mine because they could use some updating, but I decided against it.

[Rich-and-Yan0]

@Inna22 Thank you for your input. I couldn't agree more that there should be some sort of review process and an opportunity to offer feedback to Airbnb on their photographers' performance. Where else in the world would you ever see something like this, where photographers can basically take horrible photos, treat customers like crap and still get paid?

Your experience actually sounds worse than ours, were that actually possible. At least we were able to keep SOME of the photos and keep the watermark on four of them. 

In any case, we're glad to hear that you did find a photographer who took proper photos and treated you with the kind of respect that a paying customer deserves. Thanks again for letting us know what happened with you. At least we know that we're not alone...

[Lisa723]

@Rich-and-Yan0 we had one Airbnb photo shoot and the results were OK, but not being able to use the photos on other platforms was a real nuisance. I eventually reshot my own photos with an iphone and wide-angle lens and to my eye they are at least as good. In our other location Airbnb photography is not available (so I guess I don't need to worry about that 22%) and we hired a professional photographer on our own with fabulous results that we can use on all platforms.

[Rich-and-Yan0]

@Lisa723 Thanks for chiming in as well on this conversation. And yeah, when I contacted Airbnb, they told us that they would send us the originals, but then that never happened. Although I chose my words carefully in my reply, I think they still didn't like it when I criticised both the photographer and the fact that using their own on-site editing tools would erase the watermark. The moment that I pointed that out to them, our correspondence rapidly came to an end.

In any case, I'm glad to hear that you, too, were able to resolve your situation by hiring a professional photographer, whom I'm guessing--based on the experiences I've been hearing about here and reading about elsewhere online--did a far better job than you would have got had your hired one of Airbnb's photographers. So again, it's nice to see that our fellow hosts managed to find their own solutions without having gone through this. Cheers!

[Sarah977]

@Rich-and-Yan0  I've never had any experiences with Airbnb photographers, nor do I want to. Sorry you got bad shots. I wonder what sort of criteria one needs to pass to qualify as one of their photographers. Friend of someone who works for Airbnb?

That study you referred to- The "success" of one's listing can't simply be measured in bookings. I'd say success also needs to take into account whether you actually get good, appreciative guests, whether  guests leave good reviews, etc. How can it be considered "successful", for instance, if guests arrive expecting a place to look one way, but because of enhanced photography, the rooms looked much bigger in the photos than they do for real, leading guests to give low accuracy ratings?

Personally, I have so-so photos, taken by me, with several marked by Airbnb as "Too dark" or "Too blurry". But guests have told me that the photos are what attracted them, and quite a few have walked into their room/bathroom and said "Oh. This is much nicer than I expected." Better that than the other way around.

[Rich-and-Yan0]

@Sarah977 Yes, you've raised some valid points, especially about the place looking better in real life than it does in the pics. We showed a lot of highlights in our photos but left some other stuff out, but choice, so that we could have a few surprises left for them when they arrived. So I get what you mean.

And you're right as well, success can't be measured simply by the number of bookings you get. We just thought that as we are a new listing in a fairly competitive market, it might help us if we could give our guests some reassurance with the "Photo Verified by Airbnb" watermark. It was an experiment, and it cost us 96 Euro to find out that it was a failed one. So, if some other hosts can learn from our experience not to go down this route, then we can at least feel good about that. Cheers. 

[Michael34]

I had my two houses photographed by Airbnb photographer and he was really good and arrived on time and although did not use all his photographs left enough of all areas so people can see the other photos are not incorrect. I was told it helps with the algorithms et al. But mostly did it so that guests would feel comfortable. In the .co.uk version, Airbnb had a new layout and the photographs are displayed with one large and two small  -it looks like a good Airbnb improvement. HOWEVER, there is no longer the "verified by Airbnb" tag .... A little bit sad, just like when they removed the number of people that "favourited" your listing ... I really liked to know how my listing compared to others in my area ... 

[Rich-and-Yan0]

@Michael34 Oh, I wasn't aware that the "Verified" was removed in the UK. That's too bad, as it is really the only reason that we decided to do it. But I'm glad to hear that your experience was good. Based on what I've read in the responses from other hosts, it seems like there have been far more bad than good experiences, and so it's good to hear that for some people, it goes well.

[Stacey23]

Sorry you got bad pictures. Here are a few things to understand about the Airbnb photo process. (I have several friends who are professional photogs gigging for Airbnb.)

1. Photographers are paid abysmally. The only way to  turn even a little profit is to schedule several shoots near each other on a pretty tight timeline.

2. Airbnb does not allow retouching. Minor adjustments on exposure/contrast, etc are it. Retouching/major adjustments defeat the purpose of "verified" photos as the photos are meant to verify the accurate condition of a listing, and retouching comes across as deceptive. That's the official policy.

3. You should never be getting ready last minute when staging for a photo shoot. It is not unprofessional for a photographer to show up a little early. In fact many people would consider that a bonus. In the future, you should plan to be ready at least an hour or two before their arrival if you plan to work with a photographer. The photographer waiting for you to make changes if you're not ready would be a courtesy, not a requirement. A good Airbnb photographer will do things like straighten a blanket or adjust placement to highlight amenities. It sounds like you had a lot left to do (unopened boxes of food, etc). Cooling their heels while you prep for the shoot is not something any photographer being paid a flat fee is reasonably going to do.

4. Like anything, there are some better than others at their job. I have had my home photographed twice (both when Airbnb offered the service free to hosts). Once the photos were not great. The second time they were fantastic (taken by a photographer I happen to know). It's a little luck of the draw who you get, but Airbnb is receptive to input. Also, if you're listing multiple rooms in the same house, the photog might (as a courtesy) pop over and take some of your second room for you even if it's been previously shot by Airbnb. (I was able to replace the bad photos of my first room this way.)

5. Tip for getting a photographer you like: find a listing near you that has fantastic verified photos, and when you put in the photography request, include a link and ask if you can be assigned the same photographer. They will often honor such requests when assigning listings to photographers.