Airbnb Plus Picture policy

[Allen67]

Hi

Airbnb Plus suposed to be a program for high end properties. But it has turned into a check-list any property can comply with and get a Plus Status. On top on that Airbnb Plus doesn't allow me to publish my own pictures. 

In the newly updated termsAirbnb sent me, 7.1.5 : 

Pictures, animations or videos (collectively, "Images") used in your Listings must accurately reflect the quality and condition of your Host Services. Airbnb reserves the right to require that Listings have a minimum number of Images of a certain format, size and resolution.

It doesn't say anything about not being able to publish my own pictures.

I'm very frustraited with this since I believe the pictures Airbnb's photogragher took are horrible. My old pictures were taken without filters or extra light and all my reviewers pointed out the authenticity of my pictures. This means that all the villas with a Plus Status look the same but they all are definitely NOT HIGH-END. they just comply with a list of things a villa needs to have to become Plus. 

This is of course very frustrating. I know villas in my area with polyester sheets and no level of service have got Plus Status. Now they have also exact same pictures since the same photographer took them. I dont get this. How is this good for me? I bet its very good for Airbnb. They publish 100 rooms in one area, all look the same and they put a PLUS on everyone and they tell the customers to choose. Of course the customer will go with the cheaper room. they all look the same and have same level of rating (PLUS) and the price is the only thing that is different. I cant lower my rates to the level Airbnb suggests. I have full time employees, I pay taxes and I have large costs for repairs and maintenance. If Im pushed to lower my rates, I need to go down in service level, equipment level, food and I have to fire employees!!!! How hard is it to understand???

Since I became Plus, I get a higher rate of inquiries but much lower rate of bookings. The guests keep telling me that the other Plus villa has given them discounts. But Do they even clean the rooms? Do they have 24/7 butler services? NO...

The most discouraging part is that I can never come in contact with someone "working" with Airbnb Plus. I call and and I call and some person with a first name only answers and says she/he will bring this up with airbnb plus team..!!!! This after 10 min thanking me for calling and being a Super Host and so on... 

I can never come in contact with someone who has real resposibilities. Its very very very frustrating. 

Airbnb says they are a Social platform. How come a Social Platform doesn't allow its users publish their own pictures. TripAdvisor awared my Villa best Rental in Asia. They sent a photographer and published 30 of his pictures. I took them all off with no problem and published my own pictures. How can a "Social Platform" do this? 

I asked the photographer 10000000 times if I was able to approve the pictures and he said YES. Now Im stuck with all these horrible pictures and Airbnb will not even answer me. 

Anyone else has this issue?????

[Gerry-And-Rashid0]

PLUS is there to drive revenue for AirBnB - you pay £149 to become a glorified butler for guests who expect the Ritz. Avoid

[Virgelio0]

Hi, Gerry. I am a photographer who shoots for Airbnb Plus in the Catskills. I would just like to say that I, and another photographer that I recommended to them, am paid more than £149 (or $149 here in the U.S.). So I think there is an element of risk on Airbnb's part to see if they can re-coup their investment through increased bookings perhaps.

[Roderick8]

It is a stupid program. I have top notch photos that were accepted in several interior design journals and these AirBnB Plus clowns won't accept them. See for yourself: https://freshome.com/2014/09/19/tastefully-renovated-19th-century-apartment-exuding-a-classical-ecle....

Dumber than rocks.

[Virgelio0]

Hi, Allen. I’m an architectural photographer (Hudson Valley in NY) who also shoots for Airbnb’s “Plus” homes in the Catskills. I find shooting for Airbnb a very pleasurable experience not only because I get to visit my more “touristy” locales but also because I am dealing with hosts who are 5 or near 5-star. They are all super-nice, super-efficient, and super-professional. It’s a work environment I can, until now, only dream of.

Having said that, I’m sorry to hear about your dissatisfaction with the photos your photographer took. An Airbnb Plus host once told me I was there to reshoot her property. The previous photographer after shooting for five hours called her to say his camera’s settings were all wrong. It was a nightmare she said. So I realize not all shoots have been great.

I check airbnb.com/plus daily mainly to learn from other photographers, but also notice that the list keeps growing. I see Edinburgh, Cape Town, Paris, London, Madrid and also places I haven’t heard of like Quiberon and Kuta Utara. I wonder if they are all happy with the program or they just don’t participate in the Airbnb community forum. (Another independent online community, airhostsforum, has one Airbnb host who was happy with the Plus program citing increased booking although admitted it was too early to tell.)

Being a photographer, I can only comment on the pictures your Airbnb photographer took. I was able to compare them with the photos on your Tripadvisor listing.

I think the style Airbnb is going for is what is called “high-key lighting”. High-key lighting as defined in wikipedia “is used to suggest an upbeat mood”. To some, the photos may seem over-exposed but they are in fact, when analyzed in a photo-editing program like Photoshop, properly exposed. There are no “overblown” parts or areas with no “information”. Airbnb takes great care, IMO, to follow current photography and post-processing trends and conventions (I don’t think there are “standards” when it comes to art…) set by the photography industry as a whole and strike a subtle balance – something easily overdone and overcooked by less-experienced digital artists – when using HDR and when setting the white balance against lighting present on the scene whether natural or artificial.

I downloaded some photos from your Airbnb Plus listing and verified their Photoshop histograms showed no “clipped” highs (pure white areas) or lows (pure black areas). I did the same for some of your Tripadvisor photos and see in the Photoshop histograms that they all have blownout areas some quite large and underexposed areas. Also, I see some “halo-effect” on the Tripadvisor photos – for examples the white pillars on the first photo and the deep blue night sky. Preventing any hint  of halo by Airbnb is one thing I admire about them for their processing.

I think your – and other hosts’ in this forum – complaints are valid especially those of losing control over your listing. Some middle ground may be reached, I hope. I remember in one forum an Airbnb Plus host requested his professionally-taken photos to be included and was approved. Maybe if a host can submit professionally taken photos using professional equipment (I am sure if asked Airbnb can provide shooting guidelines) Airbnb will consider them.

[Roderick8]

AirBnB Plus even controls the angles at which photos are taken. It is asinine.

[Jodi19]

This is unacceptable!