Airbnb Photography Manual

Welcome to Airbnb!

Our photographers are an integral part of Airbnb’s success. As an Airbnb photographer, you play an instrumental role in helping our hosts showcase their listing in the most beautiful light. This manual will introduce our photography style and tools, and outline the responsibilities of an Airbnb photographer.

We are so excited to work with you and look forward to seeing your amazing work.

- The Airbnb Photography Team

About the Airbnb Photography OperationThe founders of Airbnb understand the importance of having compelling imagery on the site. In the early days they completed as many shoots as they could using their own cameras. Our operation has come a long way since then. In the fall of 2009, Airbnb began offering photography to select hosts in some of our biggest cities. Today, our team of over 3,500 photographers has shot more than 150,000 listings spanning six continents.

Photography Manual | 2013

Setting Up Your Airbnb Profile

1. Create an account on Airbnb.com using the email address you check most often.

2. From your profile dashboard, complete a full profile by clicking on the Edit Profile link. Include a current photo of yourself as your user icon, fill in your first and last name, phone number, a short bio, and a hidden talent if you have one. : )

3. After your Skype interview, you will receive the Photographer Agreement from your recruiter. Please read this contract carefully and fill in all the highlighted areas by hand. Please rename the agreement to fit this structure: “FirstName_LastName_Agreement.pdf” — then scan it or photograph the pages, and create a PDF.

5. Scan a copy of one form of identification (ID or Passport) Please title the ID scan to fit this structure: “FirstName_LastName_Passport.pdf”

4. Fill out your tax status on our site: https://www.airbnb.com/users/tax_info. If it is confusing, press Submit at the bottom of the page, and the required fields will pop up. Fill it out and if you have any other questions, email our team — taxes@airbnb.com

5. After completing the above steps, email your recruiter with those files: a) a link to your profile (example: https://airbnb.com/users/show/3500) b) the PDF of the signed Agreement, and c) the scan of your ID

Your recruiter will respond confirming your submission and grant you access to the Photographer Dashboard.

Setting Your Location

Once signed up as a photographer in our system, you will automatically be assigned listings closest to your location. To set your location, go to:

Dashboard > Quick Links > Photography Jobs > Settings

Click directly on your location (rather than dragging), and click Save. Make sure that your Where You Live and pinpointed location match. The Where You Live box on the Edit Profile page helps our automated job system determine which requests we should to direct to you. Write out the full name (no abbreviations) of your current city, state/province, and country. If you enter more than one location, our online system will be unable to send you any photography requests.

Mileage

Mileage is automated based on the distance between your location and the listing address. If you find that the automated total is incorrect, please include the total mileage and a link to Google Maps showing the distance between your location and the listing. This will help us verify your mileage and ensure that you are reimbursed for the entire round trip.

Mileage will be paid once per address, regardless of the number of listings at the address. Please keep this in mind when changing mileage in the Add Note box.

Payment

Payment of photography jobs may take up to 10 business days. This time allows us to fully review your shoot and send feedback if necessary. Once payment is made, banks may take 5-8 business days to process payments after it has been issued by Airbnb. Your photos will not appear on Airbnb until after we issue payment. In order to get paid on time please add your payout information by going to:

Dashboard > Account > Payout Preferences > Add Payout Method

Once in Add Payout Method, choose your country and follow the steps. Depending on your country, you will be able to choose between the following payout methods: ACH Direct Deposit, or PayPal.

Photography Manual | 2013

Airbnb hosts request photography directly through the site. When a host requests photography, the job is assigned to the closest available photographer within a 30 mile radius. Automated mileage reimbursement will only cover that radius, so use your judgement when deciding whether to accept jobs farther away.

Please do not shoot listings or additional rooms that have not been assigned to you yet. Similarly, please do not contact hosts on the site whose listings have not been assigned to you.

Overview of the Photography Workflow

1. To accept an assignment, log in to Airbnb.com and go to:

Dashboard > Quick Links > Photography Jobs > Pending

These are the jobs that are currently assigned to you. You can see more information about listings and accept or reject jobs here.

2. Assignments must be accepted or declined within 24 hours of notification, otherwise they are automatically reassigned to another photographer. You’ll receive the contact information and the host’s address after accepting the job. It is your responsibility to contact them immediately to set up a shoot.

3. Schedule the photo shoot within seven days. If the host is unavailable within that time frame, cancel the shoot on behalf of the host. Please do not hold on to unscheduled jobs. When the host becomes available, they can request you as the photographer.

4. Once the schedule is confirmed, add the date of the appointment in the calendar next to the job in Accepted Jobs. Use the notes section for any additional information.

5. Please upload your shoot within two days of completion. If a reviewer requires additonal edits, please upload the corrected images within two days.

6. The system will automatically assign up to 10 jobs at a time. Once you finish a job and the photos are accepted you will be able to accept additional jobs.

Pausing Your Account

If you are ever unavailable to shoot (vacation, illness, etc), please pause your account. Current jobs won’t be affected.You can still upload and receive compensation for your assigned shoots while your account is paused. Simply unpause it when you’re ready to shoot again!

Receiving Photography Jobs

Potential Scheduling Problems

Unresponsive Host: If a host doesn’t respond to your messages within seven days, please remove the job from your dashboard by clicking Host Cancelled. Use the message box to let us know the reason that you deleted the job.

Service No Longer Wanted: If a host is longer interested in the photography service, cancel the request from your dashboard and use the message box to let us know the reason you deleted the job.

Unprepared Hosts: If a host cannot schedule a photo shoot within 14 days, remove the shoot as above. Let the host know they can request photography again at any point.

Contacting the Host

Once you accept a job, you will be prompted to message the host to schedule the shoot. To streamline the process, create a standard message that you can use to save time. Let the host know which rooms you will need to photograph. Emphasize that having a clean, inviting space makes their listing more appealing to guests. Keep in mind that you are acting as a representative of Airbnb — please be considerate and friendly in all communication with hosts.

As soon as you accept a job, you will be prompted to set up a shoot date with the host. It’s also a good idea to send the host a message the night before to confirm the shoot time. These reminders will help to prevent last minute cancellations, and prompt the host to clean their space before you arrive. Here’s an example:

Dear [Host],

Thank you for requesting Airbnb Professional Photography. I am excited to help you showcase your space in the most beautiful light possible!

I am available this week at the following times:

May 1st (Wed) at 10amMay 2nd (Thurs) at 2pmMay 4th (Sat) at 4pm

Please let me know if any of these times work well for you. If not, we can find another time.

Please make sure your home is clean and ready to be photographed. I will be photographing all the spaces available to your guests: bedroom, kitchen, bathroom, living room, exterior, details, etc.

I look forward to meeting you. Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any questions or need to cancel.

Thank you!

Photography Manual | 2013

Airbnb Photography Style Guide

Airbnb loves bright, airy photographs that make the best use of natural light —

authentic imagery that tells a rich story.

It’s all in the details — it’s what distinguishes one listing from the next, and Airbnb from other travel sites. Take a moment to look around. If you were the guest, why would you want to stay there? Highlight those things that make the listing special. If it’s a very unique listing like a tree house, teepee or yurt, do your best to showcase the space, show off the exterior and capture the space in an awe-inspiring way.

Getting Started

Photograph all areas of the listing that the guest will have access to — most importantly, the bedroom or where the guest will stay. Don’t forget the bathroom and the kitchen! If the rooms are messy, you can ask the host to clean the space while you start shooting another room. If the host asks you not to shoot an area, make a note for the Airbnb reviewer when uploading the images.

What to shoot:

Required• Bedrooms featured in the listing • Living Room• Kitchen• Bathrooms (with the toilet seat down, please!) • All common spaces• Details of what makes the space unique• Exterior (edit out house/apartment numbers and street signs)

Encouraged• Noteworthy views• Pets• Interesting artwork or furniture• Host’s portrait, if they would like to be photographed in their space• More details!

What not to shoot:

• House numbers • Street signs• Televisions that are on (please turn off during shoot)• Nearby landmarks, beaches, city scenes, etc., that are not part of the listing itself. • Unsightly details like dishes in the sink

Image Specifications:

• JPEG files only• 4200 pixels wide x 2700 pixels long @ 72dpi • Deliver a minimum of 12 of your best images • No more than 20% vertical images or diptychs in set

Technical GuidelinesPlease use the examples below as a visual guide, and visit our flickr account for additional examples, quick tips, and tutorials: flickr.com/fotoabroad

Lighting the space / Exposure

Expose for the interior rather than the windows. We like images to be bright, and often that means windows will be overexposed. This is acceptable as long as there is still slight detail in the highlights within the interior. Using bounced fill light can help ensure the interior is properly exposed.

Uneven lighting: Both of the images below could be improved by bouncing flash and/or using longer expo-sures. The foreground is overexposed, the background is underexposed, and the shadows are much too harsh.

Acceptable flash: Light the space evenly. Rely mostly on natural light, using bounced fill flash as needed.

Photography Manual | 2013

Low light: Always use a tripod, especially in low light situations. If possible, try not to shoot at night. If you need to shoot with little to no natural light, use longer exposures, a lower ISO to reduce noise, and slight fill flash if necessary. Remember to color balance so that the white tones are neutral.

Composition

Straight lines are an important aspect of interior photography. Shoot from a level tripod in order to keep your vertical and horizontal lines straight. Images should be shot at or below natural eye level (no higher than 5 feet) to help reduce distortion. Please do not shoot too high or low, as it creates skewed lines. Make sure to correct any remaining barrel distortion (bowing) or vertical distortion in post production before uploading. Tilted, skewed and bowed images won’t be accepted.

Engaging the viewer: Shoot both straight on and into corners to vary the angles within your set. Shooting into a corner adds dimensionality and draws the viewer in. When composing the image straight on, make sure vertical and horizontal lines are straight in camera. Please try to capture an equal amount of ceiling and floor space — feel free to show more of the ceiling if it features special architectural details.

Details: Detail shots help give life to the set. Ideally verified images illustrate the character and charm of a place. What makes the place unique? You can highlight the amenities that make the listing unique: breakfast laid out on the table, welcome notes, interesting furniture, and essentials like fresh towels set aside for guests.

Do not include mundane details or use haphazard angles.

Photography Manual | 2013

Exteriors: Please include at least one image of the exterior. Shoot the building and immediate surroundings of the listing — not nearby landmarks, beaches or other details irrelevant to the space. If it is an interesting space like a dome, church, treehouse, cottage, or any other special listing, please try to capture the exterior surroundings and the things that make it special. We love unique listings, and they deserve special attention to detail! We can sometimes provide more compensation to expedite an especially large or unique listing.

Framing: When framing your image, try to show as much of the room as possible. Please shoot with a relatively wide lens to make sure framing is not too tight (at the very least 24mm for a full frame sensor, and wider if shooting on a cropped sensor). The images at left are too tightly composed — furniture is cropped and the images don’t showcase the room well. The images at right show more of the overall space and have been carefully corrected to reduce distortion.

Wide angle: Fisheye and extremeley wide angles will not be accepted. Images shot with wide angle lenses must be corrected in post production to reduce distortion. It’s very important to reduce vertical distortion and bowing (barrel distortion) before submitting images. Please also remember to crop out to grey at the image edges after correcting distortion (as seen in the right image).

Overediting: Avoid overuse of HDR, sharpening, “shadow/highlight” or “clarity” filters. These tend to look unnatural and give an inaccurate representaton of the space.

Small spaces: Please try to shoot mostly in landscape orientation, since the Airbnb website is optimized for horizontal images. However, we understand that bathrooms, stairways, and hallways can be challenging to shoot. For these spaces it is acceptable to shoot both vertically and horizontally.

Photography Manual | 2013

Color correction: Color correct each set in post production. Make sure that the images are consistently neutral across the set. We cannot accept images with a strong color cast.

Dodging and burning: Please limit dodging and burning done in post production. Images with noticeable dodging or burning are not acceptable. Gradient filters can be used for a more subtle effect.

Vignetting will not be accepted. If naturally occurring, please reduce it post production before submitting photos. Please do not add it for dramatic effect.

Uploading Photos

1. Log in to your account on Airbnb.com. We recommend using Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox or Safari as your browser. If you’re using Internet Explorer, make sure you have the latest flash update: http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer 2. To access your jobs, go to Dashboard > Quick Links > Photography Jobs Accepted

3. Select the property that corresponds to the photos you would like to upload.

4. Click the Upload button to begin.

5. Upload your edited photos. The minimum file size is: 4200 pixels wide x 2700 pixels high @ 72 dpi. We require a minimum of 12 (and a maximum of 25) photos uploaded for each job.

6. Choose the best photo for the leading image by dragging it to the first spot. We require that you upload the images in sequential order and grouped by room: bedroom, living room/common spaces, kitchen, bathroom, details, exterior, and host portrait.

7. Click Add Note to leave notes about mileage, issues with hosts, or questions you have for reviewers.

8. Once you click Photoshoot Complete, the job will move into your Completed section. After the shoot has been accepted, you will find an invoice and the status for each job.

9. Photos will be reviewed by our Airbnb Photo Reviewers within 3-14 business days, and you will be paid upon acceptance of the shoot. If the set is rejected, you will receive a request from a reviewer with instructions on how to edit or reshoot the assignment.

Potential Uploading Issues

The job is stuck in processing: Try a different browser, and try uploading only a few photos at a time.

Low Res Warning: You get a message that says one or more images are not the correct size — make sure all the photos are at least 4200 pixels wide x 2700 pixels long @72 dpi.

The mileage in the Distance Traveled box is incorrect: First, make sure you have pinpointed your location correctly. If the mileage is still incorrect, you may write the correct mileage (with a link to the Google Map showing the route you tool) in the Add Note section. Our photo reviewers will see that note and make the correction when they review your photos.

The thumbnails don’t look right: Once your images are finished uploading, refresh the page and organize the set with the best image first — then click submit.

Photography Manual | 2013

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: A host asked for copies of the images. What do I tell them?Airbnb is your client, and owns the rights to the images taken of our listings by our paid, professional photographers. You are not permitted to deliver any images to the host, whether they offer to pay for them or not. We offer photography free of charge to our hosts so that those watermarked images will remain on our site. Please do not send un-watermarked or raw images directly to the hosts. Doing so is grounds for immediate termination. If a host asks you for the photos, please have them write to photography@airbnb.com

Q: I was assigned three listings at one address! How do I handle shooting multiple listings for one host, at one location?For each of the listings, please submit at least 6 images of the main bedroom that you were assigned to shoot. You can use the same images for the common areas across multiple sets, as long at there is enough coverage of the main room being advertised. This is so that guests are clear on what they are booking. Please note that mileage is only paid once per address, and that hosts are only allowed to request four free shoots at a time, so please make sure not to shoot any listings that the host has not requested yet —you may not get paid for those additional sets.

Q: I clicked on a listing and I got a message saying “This listing is no longer available.” What does this mean?This listing has been turned off due to lack of photos. As soon as you upload photos we will be able to turn the listing back on.

Q: I received an email saying “Your photography submission is rejected.” I can fix the images, but cannot locate the listing to resubmit my edited images.When a shoot is rejected, the listing moves from your Completed Jobs back to your Accepted Jobs folder. Next to the listing click Upload to upload your images. When you’re done, click Photoshoot Complete at the bottom so it can be reviewed again.

Q: The host was insistent I shoot the space a certain way.Politely let them know that you need to shoot the listing to fit Airbnb’s style requirements, so that the images look consistent with the site. Please remember that Airbnb is your client, not the host.

Q: I went to the listing and the host did not clean or tidy up the space. What do I do?Survey the house and suggest that the host cleans up in one room while you’re shooting another. If they cannot clean up, simply shoot the listing as it appears.

Q: The host is asking me when the images will be live on their listing. They want to see the images now.Again, remember that Airbnb is your client. The host may ask to see their images or repeatedly ask you when they will be uploaded. Do not send the images to the host. Reassure them that you have submitted the images and it is now up to the reviewers at Airbnb to determine what images will be used, and if and when the shoot will be accepted.

Q: I am moving to a new location. How do I get my jobs re-routed?Please contact andrea.lawson@airbnb.com for further instructions.

Need more help? Please contact photography@airbnb.com

Please visit our flickr for before & afters, quick tips, and tutorials: flickr.com/fotoabroad

Termination is handled by the Photography Team on a case-by-case basis. Grounds for termination include but are not limited to:

1. Selling or sending high resolution images to the host.

2. Unprofessional or argumenative communication with Airbnb employees, hosts, or any member of

the Airbnb community. It is important to us that as representatives of Airbnb, photographers are

courteous and professional in all communication with hosts.

3. Work that is not meeting Airbnb standards despite feedback from reviewer.

4. Unprofessional actions affecting hosts: Extreme lateness, no-shows, rude language, threats.

5. Contacting hosts whose listings have not been assigned to you.

6. Refusing to make changes or edits to images.

7. Refusing or ignoring a request to reshoot.

8. Failure to upload images or edits in a timely manner (within two days).

Photography Manual | 2013

Thank you for all of your hard work!