Professional photography: what can I do with the pictures?

[Elena-and-Antonella0]

Hi,

i have had a professional photographer from Airbnb taking pictures of my place. 

What can i do with the pictures? Can i use them on other portals or on my instagram page?

[Paul1255]

@Elena-and-Antonella0  I hope you are well!

You are very limited when you use Airbnb's photography service: they are uploaded to the platform for you, and you can't use them on other platforms. Just for your personal use otherwise.

Best wishes

Paul.

[Elena-and-Antonella0]

Hi Paul,

thkank you for your answer! What do you mean with personal use? 

I would like to post some of them to my facebook page for instance, together with the link to my listing in airbnb, do you think i can?

[Helen3]

You cannot use Airbnb photos anywhere other than on the platform. You can't use them for personal use. 

If you want photography you can use on your own channels, I would alway recommend commissioning your own photographer and specifying in your contract that you have shared copyright, so you can use them across any channel (such as your social media).

The other advantage of your own photography is that you can choose which images you upload to your listing rather than having Airbnb chose for you @Elena-and-Antonella0 

Finally hiring a photographer is a tax deductable expense against your Airbnb business.

[Paul1255]

@Elena-and-Antonella0 When you request the photography service I remember it saying you can use the photos for personal and non-commercial use....the specifics of which I can't comment on 🙂

[Ian-And-Anne-Marie0]

@Elena-and-Antonella0 I don't think you can use the photos for anything at all apart from on Airbnb listing only. Additionally, you don't choose what gets published there, you cannot change the order, you cannot instruct the photographer what to shoot, you cannot make changes at the listing without permission of Airbnb and you cannot add your own photos to your listing when you have the verified photos in place.

Airbnb's instructions to the photographer are archaic and make ridiculous assumptions of the listing environment. (Expecting San Francisco style apartments and light using Pseudo HDR techniques without professional lighting). Unless you've seen a proper portfolio of your "professional photographer" - don't hold your breath over the quality of them, be prepared to complain and be prepared to wait an age for it all to happen. Many of those photographers are obtained via Facebook and we know what type of professional photographers can be obtained there 😞

I hope your session works out for you and I hope you'll post the results.

[Alon1]

@Ian-And-Anne-Marie0 

Ian,

Your account is not entirely accurate.

To the best of my knowledge the rigid format you describe is limited to Airbnb Plus.

For normal listings, it is possible to 'EDIT' photos as one likes. This includes mix and match of Airbnb photographer work and any other photos one has acquired.

I originally got an Airbnb photographer in 2012. I was very happy with her work; moreover, she consulted me during the shoot. She then sent the photos for approval and once Airbnb released them, I could place them in order as I liked by means of the 'Edit'.

I didn't list all the rooms initially, and in due course when adding listings,  I utilized a number of photographers of different calibre, though predominantly a professional photgrapher who became a friend. (I originally hired her to do a digital archive of my mother's artwork).

In preparing the photos for the new listings I could transfer some of the original Airbnb photographer's work. This was primarily photos of bathroom, toilet, kitchen, naturally applicable to all the rooms in the same home.

The capacity to Edit hasn't changed over the years and remains exactly the same as in 2012

There are quite detailed guidelines for photography in 'HELP.

[Ian-And-Anne-Marie0]

@Alon1 All AirBnb photos should have ‘Verified photo’ attached to them and all are edited in San Francisco to a set formula. Yours don’t have the verified photo attached to yours and your photographer has used supplemental lighting which is sensible but not adhering to AirBnb specifications. 2016 and 2019 photo specifications are the same. I don’t know what happened back in 2012, do you have permission to use your photos elsewhere?

Recent samples of AirBnb supplied photos of 2019 variety I have seen have all been pretty horrible.

Not having had my listing photographed by AirBnb I wouldn’t know whether I could use the photos elsewhere but since the AirBnb photos are stamped ‘verified’ and copyrighted to the photographer and AirBnb then use of them elsewhere, Facebook, Twitter, other platforms would be illegal without express permission. 

[Alon1]

@Ian-And-Anne-Marie0 

Ian, thanks for reply.

I haven't paid attention to the photos for some years now.

However, I don't know if you browsed all the listings, because some of them have the verification. I've counted 27 photos with Airbnb verification.

Yet, I've now noted a little peculiarity. The 27 photos are not always similarly marked.

-  On some of the listings they are marked on top right hand corner in rectangular black box: 'Airbnb.com. Verified Photo'

- These same photos otherwise are verified on bottom left hand corner, but simply stating 'Verified photo'

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re. 'supplemental lighting'.

     I've gone into my Message Archive, (coincidentally today is the 7th Anniversary of the photo-shoot, 18th May 2012).

     I note our exchanges from the day before in choosing best time for the shoot.

I informed the photographer:

 'The sun / light is in the room during the morning.
The best time is around 9.30-11 am.
But the problem is there hasn't been much sun the last few days, and I've checked tomorrow on 'London Weather' which isn't promising.
Let me know what you think.'

   She replied:  'That would be no problem, I have additional lights to make room look brighter.
Shall we agree on 11am?'

Consequently, I can only assume at the time that the supplemental lighting adhered to Airbnb specification. Though I don't recall if the editing was done in S.F. or London?

  (The London office was involved at the time. It was a quite intimate time, when I was in close contact with one of the staff, who arranged the photographer and helped me set up the listings.)

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re. Use & Legality.

I recall it was stipulated at the time that Airbnb Copyright photos were not permitted to be used in any other forum.  So no change there. And I have never attempted to do so anyway. 

[Ian-And-Anne-Marie0]

@Alon1 

My fist reply to you - just disappeared.. so here it is again (hopefully).

I noticed the same watermarking on your images to. Some were double watermarked. Some paired vertical images were split and cropped horizontal too losing any watermarks.

I don’t object to photographers using lighting, or even studio lighting, that’s the way it should be, always has been, always will be. Failing this, mixing tungsten (orange), Flourescent (green), LED (orange/green) with daylight (comparably blue if balanced to others) results in a multicoloured mismatch stew with burned out windows and halo’d lightsources.

The later being instructions to AirBnb photographers and excuses to AirBnb hosts: