Blurry Pixelated Photos on Airbnb

[Trinette---Chris0]

Can anyone help me understand why my photos are so pixelated/ soft/ blurry on airbnb? I am actually a professional photographer using a high end camera, uploading jpegs that are 2400 pixels on the longest side, they look great on my huge monitor in photoshop, but then when I upload them to the airbnb site, they look terrible and pixelated and soft. Obviously they are being processed by Airbnb to down sample them. Can anything be done about this? Also I notice vertical photos look terrible on an ipad and some computers, verticals look much worse then horizontals, but they all look bad. My intro photo looks very soft too. 

[Dave-and-Deb0]

Hi @Trinette---Chris0,

I just took a look at your listing and your pictures look fantastic.  Are you by chance using Safari?

[Trinette---Chris0]

I am using safari and chrome, they don't look pixelated and soft? I look on various devices, iPhone, iPad, and desktop computer, they look soft on all my devices. 

[Lizzie]

Hello @Trinette---Chris0,

Welcome to the Community Center.

To second @Dave-and-Deb0, your photos look wonderful. Perhaps the your internet connection was running a little slower than normal? 

Your listing is beautiful, if I had the chance I would pack my bags now...! hehe 🙂

[Dave-and-Deb0]

Hi @Trinette---Chris0,

When on Safari, please ensure that you are set to full screen.  Also, avoid using any vertical images as the first image, because the image will stretch to fit the horizontal frame. 

[Sebastian133]

Hi @Trinette---Chris0

I came across your post since I'm having the same problem with the pixelated pictures. I went to your listing and of course your photos are pretty great (no doubt about it) but they are soft and blurry my friends. I'm also a photographer and just can't get pass the low resolution, its making me crazy. I've checked on an ipad, iMac, safari, chrome, firefox... and it's still the same. I only see good pictures on my mobile.

Did you get an actual response on how to fix it?

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Sebastian133 @Trinette---Chris0

main picture is soft bc it is streched. It is infact the same, first picture in your photo gallery. It will be more blured if you watch it on bigger screen. 

It will change shape/ratio depending on the size and shape of your browsing window. Try to narrow your window and you will notice that the shape and ratio of your main picture is changing.

The only thing we can do is to upload big and high quality photos, so when ABB reduce their size they will still looks decent.

[Trinette---Chris0]

No I have not gotten a response on how to fix, I think Airbnb just is resizing the photos at a very low quality. I think because we are photographers we can't help but see how bad the photos look when they are so soft and blurry, but maybe they figure it's not a big deal for most people. I tried vrbo and the photos look much better as they use a much higher resolution. Anyway it drives me crazy too, I think the photo quality is terrible on Airbnb but I don't think there is anything we can do about it other then give feedback to Airbnb and hope they allow higher resolution photos that look better. They do it so pages load faster, but I think they took the low quality low resolution too far. I want to see big beautiful photos of a place before I book it. Also verticals do look far worse and pixelated then horizontals on some devices. Please let me know if you ever find a solution. I have given up for now. 

[Meyburgh0]

Hi Trinette, I trust this response finds you well (and helps). My most recent photos have also been downgraded by airbnb. Being a photographer, the client loaded them and I was hoping that it would boost my portfolio of work. But it is now so bad that I wont share the venue as part of my work.

JPEG is a compression technology that throws away detail, starting with dark colours. Each time you re-save a photo in jpeg it is compressed more(less detail kept). Most detail is kept in the lighter areas and the shadows are flattened (Raw vs Jpeg..).

2 Things I do is therefore to lighten the photographs a lot (rather to much than to little) and then the biggest difference is made when you rather upload png format. This lets airbnb compress the pic once (and hopefully once only to jpeg).

God bless.

Meyburgh

[Jonathan150]

This really suck. I just had a professional photographer come shoot my listing and it was money waisted. The pictures look like they were taken with a cheap phone. This needs to be brought to Airbnb's attention.

[Lori-And-Del0]

Agreed! Probably going to scratch my listing altogether because it looks so horrible in the pictures, and it is a very upscale apartment, so I refuse to load bad pictures! Who would book it if it doesn’t even show nicely in pictures?? Airbnb really needs to fix this problem...utterly frustrating! 

[Meyburgh0]

Hi Sebastian, I trust this response finds you well (and helps). Please read my response higher up in the thread.

God bless.

Meyburgh

[Heather367]

@Trinette---Chris0 - Your photos, as well as Sebastian's, are PERFECTION.  They are clear, crisp and beautiful. 
It is ironic to me that you are both photographers uploading hi-rez images and seeing fuzzy images.  Let your mind rest at ease because no one else sees them fuzzy

[Trinette---Chris0]

Thank you Heather, I appreciate that, yes maybe it is just because we are photographers and we have a more discerning eye about pixelation and image quality. It's hard when we compare the quality of our photos on our website and on VRBO and then look at them on Airbnb, the verticals all look super pixelated on Airbnb and just overall the image quality is dramatically less quality, but I am glad you don't see it, I can't help but see it:) 

[Wendy-and-Frank0]

I'm a photographer and they look good.  Main photo is soft but subsequent photos are sharp.