How to find the best Airbnb photographer in the Hudson Valley and Catskills – Presented by ALLUVION Real Estate – Photos by Maxwell Alexander / ALLUVION MEDIA / Duncan Avenue Studios
Airbnb, the online marketplace and hospitality service, has changed the way travelers book accommodations. It’s not only convenient but often cheaper than other options as well. Upstate’s Hudson Valley and Catskills regions are some of the most popular vacation rental destinations in the World, so there is a great deal of competition is happening on the market.
The success of your Airbnb listing and the overall booking rate will greatly depend on the quality of photographs that you will upload to Airbnb and use for social media marketing outside the platform. The main difference between regular real estate photography and Airbnb or Vacation Rental photography is that the service that you are selling is actually not a building or a property, but rather a multi-faceted hospitality experience. Therefore, your Airbnb photographer should definitely be a professional advertising/lifestyle/fashion photographer with appropriate education who can reveal the ambiance and the benefits of your hospitality experience way beyond pictures of rooms.
What makes an Airbnb listing photo stand out?
The quality of photos is often one of, if not THE most important factors that contribute to booking success on Airbnb. When guests are looking for their next home-away-from-home experience, they’re going to want as much information as possible in order to determine if your listing is going to fit their needs. Photographs act as a direct link between you and your prospective guests; when you showcase some of your space’s features or highlight its aesthetics, your photographs play a huge role. Professional Airbnb / Vacation Rental Management companies are always using the best Airbnb photographers and as an Airbnb host, you should always think about it, because their listings are your direct competition.
How to find the best Airbnb photographer in the Hudson Valley and Catskills – Photo by Maxwell Alexander / ALLUVION MEDIA / Duncan Avenue Studios
Who are your competitors?
There are thousands of Airbnb listings available in the Hudson Valley and Catskills area, but finding a photographer who will truly capture your hospitality experience is hard. Airbnb listings today are very different from the times when Airbnb entered the hospitality market. Successful Airbnb listings are professionally designed hospitality experiences carefully curated by professional interior designers, stylists, and Airbnb management companies, so for someone who will take an amateur production approach, it is nearly impossible to compete and get any bookings. If you want to highlight all amenities offered, such as free coffee, snacks, or daily housekeeping services, it’s important to hire a professional photographer who specializes in advertising photography with a focus on hospitality services.
It might seem like an easy task at first glance, but there are several factors that could affect your decision when hiring an Airbnb photographer. For example: What kind of photography do they specialize in? Do they have any references from past clients? What sort of equipment do they use? How much does their service cost?
Review their work
When looking for a photographer in the Hudson Valley and Catskills, look at their Airbnb photography portfolio and ask if you can get a sample photo gallery to look at. Good photographers will send a photo gallery showing work they’ve done using professional equipment such as lighting, cinematic lenses, advanced post-production techniques, etc. This can help you determine if they will be able to provide you with good quality work. If you’re not familiar with photography terms or how to judge it, ask a friend who is or go online and do some research on what makes for good hospitality service photography. It may also be helpful to look at other listings of photographers on Airbnb and see what kind of photos are common among those profiles.
Choose a photography service that matches your level of service and budget.
Just like with a luxury car – you’d want to find a professional that specializes in higher-end products and can deliver the service accordingly. If your Upstate, NY Airbnb listing is a luxury experience, you’d want to higher a professional Airbnb photographer that can visualize the level of luxury through world-class advertising and lifestyle photography.
Just like you wouldn’t choose a yacht without checking out a few first, make sure you talk with several different photographers before deciding which one to book. How? Ask for recommendations from friends or search online for reviews. Once you’ve narrowed your list down, arrange for an in-person call to learn more about what each service offers. You might want to send them sample images or photos of your home with you during these meetings so that you can see how they envision what your home will look like in photographs.
Airbnb marketing tip: Maintain consistency across all platforms.
The most important thing is to maintain consistency across all your platforms. Keep all your visual branding consistent and make sure that you’re using similar techniques on each platform. Take what works on one platform and apply it to other places. For example, use effective hashtags on Instagram as well as Twitter. Hiring a local professional Airbnb photographer in Hudson Valley and Catskills will help you generate marketing assets that will ensure visual consistency throughout all platforms.
