Barter Collaborations for Rental Properties

[Zen586]

What do you think about barter collaborations in the rental business? 😊

I often receive offers like providing a free photoshoot for my property or posting about it on social media in exchange for accommodation instead of payment.

I’m curious how effective and worthwhile these collaborations actually are for property owners.
Do you accept barter offers? Under what conditions — and did you get good results from them?

[Shelley159]

I also get these requests from time to time @Zen586 , also usually from people who want to take photos and stay for free. It's quite a security risk.

It's better to hire a professional photographer of your choice on your own terms. You have no control over whether there will be any photos, and even if there are, what the quality will be. On top of that, you have a non-paying person (or several people) occupying the property.

If something went wrong, it would be interesting to see Airbnb's response - they may say it's a breach of terms and refuse to assist, even if you did charge a nominal fee to take the reservation through Airbnb.

These proposals come through as Inquiries, not Requests to book (because there's no intention to pay). For an Inquiry, you simply need to type any response ("no thank you" is enough) as soon as possible. There's no need to hit "decline" and affect your listing's statistics. So fortunately saying that you're not interested, doesn't affect you negatively. Some hosts advise that you should flag any such requests using the "Report this guest" feature.