Airbnb hosts, have you been paring down your property photos based on popular advice? Let’s bust another myth!
Psssst! If you would rather watch the short video analysis on YouTube, click HERE
There’s a popular rumor going around the Airbnb host space: trimming down your Airbnb photos boosts bookings. Influential voices suggest that an abundance of pictures could overwhelm potential guests. Before you start deleting those beautiful photos of your property, allow us to present our findings.
Breaking Down the Myth
The concept is simple: too many images might make potential guests feel swamped, affecting your conversion rate. So, did we find any truth to this?
Method to the Madness
For an accurate understanding, we analyzed the performance of properties before and after an increase in photos. Our dataset? A whopping 6,000 properties from the IntelliHost database.
We honed in on properties that added at least five new photos and measured their performance over two distinct periods: 30 days before the photo addition and 30 days post the change.
The Surprising Findings
Out of this sample, 98 properties fit our criteria, providing a robust set of data.
First Page Impression Rate: For those hosts that added photos, their first page impression rate soared by approximately 10% on average. Contrary to our initial skepticism, Airbnb seems to be favoring listings with a more extensive photo collection!
Click Rate: No perceptible change here. After all, guests can’t judge your photo count from search results.
Conversion Rate: Here’s where it gets intriguing. There was a slight dip, moving from 0.84% to 0.78%. Yet, when added with the 10% spike in the first page impression rate, the drop is trivial.
The Verdict
More seems merrier in the world of Airbnb photos. Our recommendation? Flaunt your space with confidence! While it’s essential to ensure quality, don’t shy away from showcasing your property in its full glory. After all, guests aren’t forced to view every image. They’ll scroll until they gather the information they desire.
Conclusion
More photos don’t necessarily bog down potential guests. They provide a broader perspective, enhancing your listing’s appeal. So next time you hear about the “optimal number” of photos, remember: it’s the quality and choice that matters more than mere numbers.
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The only caveat here is that for those who are cross-marketing to Vrbo (Expedia and HomeAway), there is a limit of 50 photos, so a host who is marketing on both should consider making the first 50 photos in the carousel the ones that tell the best “story” of the property.
Great point! The average host has around 20 to 30 photos, so for those overperformers, top 50 is important (first 5 the most critical).