What do you do when Airbnb's photographer is awful...

[Nikki-and-Danny0]

We earn a free photo shoot from Airbnb and getting the person too forever and lots of time on my part to coordinate with the person. The photographer was friendly but his photos are awful. Bad lighting and composition...My photos I took which are the ones on my listing a much better...help I don't want to throw this person under the bus but I feel stuck. 

Thanks,

Nikki

[Sarah977]

@Nikki-and-Danny0   Disappointing response but not surprising. @Stay-Asheville0  predicted it perfectly in his post above.

If this had happened to me, my next message to airbnb would be "Don't waste your time reviewing the photos, they're terrible and I'll never use them. I was concerned that other hosts will have their time wasted, as I did, staging their homes and rearranging their schedules for a photo shoot with this incompetent and arrogant photographer. Your response did not address the issue."

Nice gift, indeed.

[Nikki-and-Danny0]

I want to respond, but it does not seem like they are actually reading anything. haha. Yeah, it's like if a gift was given in a pretty box and inside that box was a bag of dog poop. 

I think what adds more sting to the whole situation is I had to take 2 days off work, rent a car, drive up there (4 hours) and stage the house. All for nothing. I straight up took a better photo on my phone as I was leaving my place because I was happy with my staging. 

[Nikki-and-Danny0]

Update! The posted them without ever talking with me. It took them less than a week. Their normal turn around is 2-4 weeks so this was much faster, seems really messed up. 

[Pawel8]

@Nikki-and-Danny0

I have been taking pictures for Airbnb in Manchester for nearly 6 years and I photographed over 500 listings in that time. I have never had complaints about the quality of images I took. Airbnb have a strict guidlines which all photographers need to follow, and when images don't meet the standards, they are simply rejected. Unfortunately, with the last year changes, when some fees were introduced for this service, some guidelines have changed as well. We are not supposed to use a flash lights for example. Posibility to control the light is crucial in my opinion for interior photography and sometimes it is not possible to get decent results with just ambient light. Airbnb probably want to be more authentic with the photos, but that's not a good way.

I always tried to be true to my own values and get best possible result, but seeing photographs taken by me being used by hosts on other websites, makes me feel like being exploited by both - Airbnb and hosts. Airbnb don't do anything about that and don't care about it anymore since the most of the costs for providing this service were transfered to hosts. Hosts on the other hand, when they pay for the service, expect wonderful pictures with perpetual rights to use them wherever and whenever they wont. For photographers like me there are two options in this situation, lowering own standards or abandoning the ship and making a place for new, less experienced photographers. Both cause the service is worse.

I recommend all of you to simply find a good photographer in your area, pay more, but get images you  want with the proper rigths to use them. Both of you would be happy in this situation.

[Nikki-and-Danny0]

I agree Airbnb needs to remove this service. I ended paying the photographer extra for rights of usage then after seeing the photos did not want to use them or pay extra. He did eventually refund me but not before insulting me and my property. 

I was also also given this photoshot as a gift for being a good host which make this whole experience feel even worse. 

Airbnb needs to add more customer support as well. I think a lot of this wouldn’t have become an issues if they just responded to me in a timely manner and talked with me instead of sending macros out like a robot. 

Oy this is bad for both hosts and photographers. 

[Sarah977]

@Pawel8   That seems so strange- for Airbnb to dictate to a professional photographer that they can't use a flash. A professional knows what they need to do to get good photos, and in some cases, obviously a flash is needed. I can understand not allowing photographers to use filters or other things that might make the place look enhanced from what it really looks like, but I don't see what isn't "authentic" about a photo taken with a flash. 

[Pawel8]

@Sarah977 You can read a short article about it in Airbnb FAQ under the paragraph Photography Style. I'm sure there are still photographers who know how to take good pictures and care about the quality of their photogaphs, but Airbnb (and some hosts as well) make this group is shrinking dramatically. Nobody wants to spend a couple of hours on commuting, shooting time and post-production, get peanuts instead of a proper gratitude, and see how images are spreading on internet and help only others to make money.

[Sarah977]

@Pawel8 It seems like the bigger the company gets and the bigger its profits, the less it wants to spend on professional photographers, support staff, qualified tech people, etc. Doesn't seem like a very business smart business strategy to me. Good businesses re-invest a portion of profits into improving the business, not the reverse.