Using Reviews In Listing Photos

[Martin4439]

Hi.

I'm wondering whether anyone uses an image of some of their more descriptive reviews with their other photos.  I tend to point people towards reading our reviews and it invariably leads to a booking, meaning (incredibly) they probably haven't already read the reviews.  Based on that i've taken some selected reviews, presented them nicely and intend to add to the photos.  Good idea/Bad idea? Am i missing something?

Cheers

Martin

[Gwen386]

@Martin4439 I love the idea and I also love your rental—absolutely beautiful. I think I’m adding my reviews to my photos. Thanks for the idea. 

[Gillian166]

@Gwen386  I'd love to see Martin's place too, but alas, now they've changed the forum settings we can no longer see the listings of hosts who post here. 

another feature removed during the "upgrade"  :frowning_face:

[Dora486]

Me too!  Great idea @Martin4439 

[Gillian166 · Accepted solution]

@Martin4439  sometimes i use guest comments as photo captions. i do make up instagram posts with guest reviews, not sure it's necessary to put them in the listing as they are easily available to guests to read, but couldn't hurt (except isn't there some rule about not having text in imagery? largely ignored cos it's silly, but does anyone know if that's a thing?)

[Martin4439]

Hi Gillian

This used to be a thing apparently, and still is in a lesser form.  We're not allowed to put any text that would encourage off Airbnb bookings or promoting other ways to book in any form. Which sounds perfectly sensible to me.  It used to be a blanket No Text rule i believe.  I've been researching.

[Huma0]

@Martin4439  I do the same as @Gillian166 and use excerpts from guest reviews as my photo captions, picking ones that are commenting on something specific to that photo, e.g. "The bathrooms were sparkling clean and the shower pressure was great," or "The kitchen was really well equipped," etc.

Someone asked me recently if I had asked the guests' permission before doing this. I really hadn't thought about that, seeing as the guests' reviews are public for anyone to see and they know that when they post. Besides, I've never had a guest complain about it at all or even comment on it.

[Gillian166]

@Huma0  technically their words are their creative product so they copyright on them?  and technically, posting them in a public space doesn't give up ownership of those words. 

But I can't fathom how anyone would be upset by this.