Would you trade a free night in exchange for professional photos?

Question

Random question: I am a published real estate photographer and have shot quite a few luxury homes ranging all the way north of 7-8 Million. I always wonder if I should message Airbnb hosts who have cabins in the Lake Tahoe/Truckee area that I already plan on visiting anyways and just see if anyone would be willing to trade a night or two in exchange for professional photos (possibly video also if the property is expensive enough).

If you received a request like that and for a weekend you weren't booked anyway how would you respond?

Katy Hall · Answer

@Andrew Neal I’m a realtor and very much appreciate the value of quality, professional photography. I live in Houston full-time and can easily get a photographer out within a day or two for around $150 (more for larger home or drone shots). In cities where that is the case, I’d assume the value of your trade is the market value of the photos you’d provide. Offer it to hosts whose nightly rates are equal too or less than that amount. I have a property in a small ski town in Colorado. It took me forever to find a good photographer then took even longer for him to get around to taking the photos. I would have gladly traded a night there worth more than I’d normally pay for photos just to get them done.

Luke Carl · Answer

@Andrew Neal I would shoot that down in a second. A good photographer can afford their own place to stay is my thought process.

That being said this is a bit different. Coming from BP and not AirBnB I bet you’ve got a pretty good chance of finding someone if you ask on here!!

Andrew Neal · Answer

Thanks for the responses. To clarify I didn't plan to reach out through Airbnb. If anything this thread highlighted why I'm glad I never made real estate photography my profession. Everyone knows a friends friends son's cousin who bought a camera at Best Buy and will shoot photos for peanuts haha.

John Oden · Answer

Messaging hosts/owners via the platform for purposes other than booking a stay will not go well, and your inquiry will likely be marked as spam, putting your own account at risk. I receive a fair number of solicitations for photography, cleaning, and other services via the platform which I find annoying and flag as spam.

These days, many astute owners are putting up their own web sites for direct booking, in addition to listing on AirBnB, VRBO, etc. What you might do is see if you can find anything searchable in the AirBnB/VRBO listing and do a search, see if you can find the owner's web site, and make contact from there.

Hosts on platforms such as AirBnB and VRBO are scored on their response time to inquiries, and these days the bar is pretty high - I try to respond within minutes. My response metric is measured in the same way if I get spammed by someone trying to sell me services, so I'm under the same pressure to respond to that as I am a legitimate guest inquiry. That's another reason for owner frustration with service providers who attempt to solicit  through the platform.

To my knowledge, AirBnB stopped offering free photography some time ago at least in the markets that I'm in. That could work to your benefit, but I would suggest finding some way to make contact other than through the booking platforms.

Kathy Hansen · Answer

If the photog showed me high-quality samples, I would do that in a heartbeat because Airbnb pro photos are not available in my area.

Faraad Mohamed · Answer

Thanks!

Sam Shueh · Answer

You can send out post cards soliciting your service. People want paid visitors to make money. Tahoe locally probably has more professional photographers with drones than they can absorb.

Katy Hall · Answer

@Faraad Mohamed TK Images

AJ Vanderhorst · Answer

@Andrew Neal I bet your mileage will vary with the market. Echoing someone else’s comment, free Airbnb photos have gone the way of the dinosaur, at least in Kansas City. I’ve tried and failed to land photographers for my listings—they tend to want to shoot on weekends, when I’m always booked.

If someone contacted me with an offer like yours (off the platform) I’d be very open to it, especially in the slow season. All the more if they had a portfolio.

As it is, I’ve had to dust off my SLR, bone up on interior photography and shoot my own photos. Not ideal.

AJ Vanderhorst · Answer

I bet your mileage will vary with the market. Echoing someone else’s comment, free Airbnb photos have gone the way of the dinosaur, at least in Kansas City. I’ve tried and failed to land photographers for my listings—they tend to want to shoot on weekends, when I’m always booked.

If someone contacted me with an offer like yours (off the platform) I’d be very open to it, especially in the sow season.

As it is, I’ve had to dust off my SLR, bone up on interior photography and shoot my own photos. Not ideal!

Would you trade a free night in exchange for professional photos?

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