What are Lifestyle Photos and Why are they Important?
I touched on it in other blog posts, but I think it bears repeating — with vacation rentals, you’re not so much selling a house as you are promoting a lifestyle that your house offers renters. Of course, depending on where your rental is located, there are people that are just on Airbnb to see if they can find a place to sleep for the night that’s hopefully cheaper than the hotels in the area. But if your rental is located specifically in a vacation spot such as Big Bear, Joshua Tree, or Palm Springs in Southern California, then it’s likely that renters are looking for that someplace special to spend their vacation.
First of all, what are lifestyle photos?
Think about what YOU envision when you’re planning a vacation. If you’re planning a beach vacation, you might be picturing laying on the beach with a good book, or by the pool with a delicious glass of piña colada. If you’re planning a mountain cabin escape, you might be looking forward to hot tub hangs in the evening, or roasting s’mores over a fire at night. Sure, sometimes just a picture of a fire pit might be enough, but actually visually depicting s’mores being roasted over a fire could help jolt an emotional reaction in a viewer that would make your Airbnb listing stand out.
Now, think about what you would hope guests would enjoy while staying at your home. It could even be something simple like making coffee in your newly remodeled kitchen!
Painting a scene of what is possible at your vacation rental — in addition to the standard room shots — would give potential guests helpful visual ideas of how their vacation could go and also give them something to get excited about!
Think about your target demographic
Speaking to your target audience is key in any business. Who are you trying to attract? Are you mostly trying to attract families with kids, or are you trying to keep it to adults only? Are you mostly geared towards couples looking for a chill, relaxed vacation, or a group of friends looking to have a fun weekend, with possibly a party involved? Is your home leaning towards attracting a younger crowd, or a more mature one? These are probably all questions you’ve already asked yourselves while making decisions on what you want to include in your home, but if you haven’t, now’s the time to ask them.
Depending on who you’re trying to attract, we can then set up “scenes” that speak to that particular group of people! I list some examples below, but feel free to come up with your own depending on who your target demographic is!
Examples of lifestyle photos
Now that we’ve established who you’re targeting, it’s time to think about what experience you want your guests to have that would be the highlight of staying at your home. This doesn’t have to be some big activity either! It could be as simple as enjoying a cup of coffee in the living room where you have a view out the windows, or lounging on your new patio with a good book and a glass of wine.
Other examples:
Freshly baked cookies by a fire
Towel, a pair of sunglasses and flip-flops by a pool
Coffee being brewed
An open box of board games on the floor
Vinyl player spinning a record
Cup of tea on your patio furniture with a view of the trees
A lit candle, reading glasses and a book on the nightstand
Bubble baths!
Delicious meal spread on the dinner table
Why are these photos important?
One could argue that these types of photos aren’t important, and to an extent, they’re not wrong. Ultimately, having good “standard” photos of just the rooms in your rental is enough to get a potential renter to book your place. I might even agree with the argument that lifestyle photos aren’t necessary at all to an airbnb listing, however, they will definitely make people notice OR be more inclined to follow you on social media, where travel lifestyle photos get a lot more attention.
It’s no secret that social media plays a huge part in building brand awareness and marketing your business in today’s world. Rentals with a curated social media account tend to get larger followings, which in turn results in more eyes and attention on your rental, therefore resulting in more bookings. For this reason, I would argue that these types of photos are important for marketing purposes to build awareness of your home, and then re-directing guests to your Airbnb listing or wherever you take bookings!
These types of photos, in my opinion, are a bonus to have, especially if you have a strong brand for your rental business. They will reinforce your brand message and therefore be a lot more effective at targeting your ideal guest. If you’re having a hard time understanding what this really means, think about big hotel brands. The images you’ll see for the Four Seasons will differ greatly from those of a Holiday Inn. Take some time to study the photos used in each hotel’s websites and see what you notice!