Airbnb Plus Photos

[Mary490]

We are active Airbnb Plus hosts. The day the photographer took photos it was raining. He never took a photo of the exterior and said he could always return if Airbnb didn’t use one of our photos. Since our plus listing went live we have had numerous requests for external photos. For some inexplicable reason the plus team will not or can’t upload any extra photos!!! It’s obvious to me we are losing bookings because of this and it’s so frustrating. There is no way to talk directly to an Airbnb plus support person! We have jumped through hoops for Airbnb plus as hosts yet we have less support than before.

Support suggested I leave feedback, that has done no good, any suggestions or similar experiences ??

[Francesco602]

Same problem here. I'm very frustated. 

[Jocelyn47]

I received my Plus photo shoot pics back a few weeks ago and echo our disappointment!  My husband and I have not responded to “the next step” notification from the Plus team as we were honestly shocked by the mediocre photography.  Overexposed and ill framed pictures... as example our outdoor balcony photo prominently caught the next door home mid roof repair with workmen in the frame and blue tarps.

The existing balcony photo not only shows two chairs with glasses of wine on our table...but panaramic views.  Why would the Plus department think their photographer captured our home?  We looked at other Plus homes being introduced new to Seattle and most look like Pinterest pages. 

Not so with our shoot.   

So with the additional loss of control with written description...we are surely having second thoughts on moving forward.  

[Anna1880]

The photos taken of our villa were so bad we couldn't put it live. Now it seems airbnb have hideen our listing in a way to force us to ho live. We used to be booked out now we are empty for 3 months. Never join this program. You can't contact airbnb. They won't reply to anything we have asked. 

[Ella54]

I am in the same position. I have sent an email to the support email I've had for the Airbnb plus, but no response at all. So today I called the regular Airbnb help number. I doubt this is going to move forward. I really do need my main photo to be changed. I also need outdoor photos. We have a grill, table and chairs, and currently the "outdoor space" has a photo of a partial dome, completely ridiculous!  Missing some features such as a picture of the loft mattress set up as a bed, (currently only visible as a sitting area.).... Or Bathroom photos.

I'll be more than happy to supply my own pictures. There needs to be a way for owners to add our own photography in addition to yours. My main photo has a winter view. It will not be winter all year!  This makes no sense and the limit that is being held over hosts is quite unnecessary.

@Lizzie I hope you can assist??

Thank you

Ella

[Jasmine106]

Wow.. thank god im not the only one. I contacted them

and they Said I could take my own photos and they will upload them. Can you believe they missed two bedrooms?!?! I admit they are a bit easy to miss but I showed her where they were before I headed out. I am now taking myself off air bnb plus and then hoping for a quick invite back. This is what another host friend did and it worked for him. 

[Jon---Talene0]

They told me the same thing and then 11 days after sending them the photos they said they would never add any photos to my listing, even if I paid for another photoshoot through them! Loosing $50 per night now. 

[Mandy170]

I am having the same problem and cannot get hold of anyone!

[Sonja210]

Airbnb Plus photographer here, 

    I'm not sure I can post in here and HOPE I continue to receive assignments to shoot properties, as I truly love it!  But I've read most of your comments and felt compelled to reply. 

  For us, the photographers, we have Very specific guidlines when photographing your properties that we must adhere to from Airbnb.  I've been shooting professionally for over 15 years and went through a pretty thorough application process with specific shooting requirements in addition to my previous portfolios. 

    Some of the "guidelines" are to emphasize the main interior elements of the home. I do "think" because this is a new program that things will be evolving. I personally have NO idea of the exchange between hosts and Airbnb. 

    All I can say is that there seems to be a streamlined system of images they want, whether your home has 1 bedroom  or 5 bedrooms....whether it's a mountain home, a beach condo, cottage or city studio.

      They are trying to make a cohesive look by showing the main living area and/or master bedroom the highlighted focal points. Because each property has that. 

    I'm not saying it's right or wrong, I'm just letting you know our guidelines for shooting. 

    I have no information on hosts adding their own images.

 Just wanted to put my 2 cents in.  🙂

[Sarah977]

@Sonja210  As professional photographers doing this for Airbnb, maybe you should put in your 2 cents to Airbnb- tell them you've been reading multiple posts on the forum about how unhappy hosts are with the guidelines you've been given as they don't feel it showcases their properties in the way they would like and that many hosts are opting out of the program because of it.

[Roderick8]

The specific guidelines result in inferior photography. AirBnB Plus is even dictating photo shoot angles.

[Roderick8]

The AirBnB Plus staff are losers.

1. The right angle depends on the flat. It is idiotic to think you can use the same angles for every property.

2. No reaason to discard good photos siimply because they were not contracted directly by AirBnB.

3. AirBnB is losing a ton of money doing retake photosessions.

Regards,

Roderick.

[Ian-And-Anne-Marie0]

Hi @Sonja

For us, the photographers, we have Very specific guidlines when photographing your properties that we must adhere to from Airbnb. 

I'd like to see those guidelines if you wouldn't mind sending them over by PM? I've been a Pro photographer for nearly 40 years and the photos I've seen on 'Plus' don't seem to follow any unified guidelines.

Trivago had very precise requirements and Tripadvisor were pretty loose, I wonder how the Airbnb ones pan out?

[Daniel2387]

Same issue. The photographer took no photos of our ammenities: gym, hot tub, pool, bbq etc 

Cant use any of our old photos. Cant get a new photo shoot. It's all insane!

[Kathie10]

I'm in the middle of this process with both of my listings.  Nothing has changed in the nine months since this thread started, except that they are waiving the $150 if you agree to go forward with the photo shoot/inspection by a date certain. To this day there are NO lines of communication between Plus Onboarding and hosts. Customer service told me to email designsupport@airbnb.com.  I did that three weeks ago, and the response has been crickets.  This is just bad for business  -- plain and simple.

[Jon---Talene0]

2 months ago we reached out to airbnb to confirm the abbility to add additional space to our plus listing and they said adding some of our own photos or paying for a reshoot would 100% be possible. we then went ahead with a $15,000 renovation to bring our basement up to plus standards, met their professional photoshoot requirements, sent in the images and heard noting for 6 days. The frst message we recieved was that they would never allow hosts to change photos after remodel or add additional space (think even if you added a hot tub, patio, or in our case finished a basement) we then called every other day to try to get this resolved and to this day have heard everything from; of course you can, a photographer will call you tomorrow to please stop reaching out, you space will never be included. Now worst case we spent $15,000 on "unusable" space and at the very best we had our listing inactive for 3 weeks. The "support" team for airbnb plus is so broken I dont know if the pieces could ever be put back together. All we can hope for is that our case one day gets resolved and we never have to reach out to them again.

*shout out to our photographer because he did a great job, we love the photos he did, just wish someone would respond to us and send him out to verify our beasment!