What should you include in your “perfect” set of photos for your vacation accommodation?
To some extent that depends on the number of photos which the various websites you’ll be advertising on allow you to have. For example, many older sites limit you to just one photo whilst the latest ones allow ten or more.
That being the case, you need to take the perfect set and then get them into the perfect order so that you can take the first three if you’re only allowed three on a given site or the first seven if they’ll let you have seven.
In addition to the number permitted, you also need to have them in various sizes. Typically on a website they’ll be displayed around 50-100 pixels wide as a thumbnail, perhaps 200-300 pixels on the main page and sometimes you get click-throughs up to 800 pixels wide. In comparison, a modern digital camera will produce images around 2500 pixels wide. One key thing to note about all these sizes is that an image 2500 pixels wide will take around one hundred times as long to load as one 250 pixels wide so for your own webpage make sure that you’re displaying images at an appropriate size on the main page (about 300 pixels wide is a reasonable upper limit).
But what should you be taking photos of? Basically of things that will illustrate key aspects of your property and its surroundings eg:
- The outside: at least one photo of the front and others of different outside as required (eg of the pool).
- Your rooms: one or two bedrooms and perhaps the living area;
- Special rooms eg the dining room, reading room, library, etc.
- Local attractions
In practical terms you’ll find that most places use an outside view as their main photo and it appears everywhere they’re advertised. However, you don’t have to do that and you could, for example, use a photo of your jacuzzi or perhaps the scenery around your place.
In second place, you should have a photo of one of the bedrooms. Whilst people like to know that your property isn’t falling down (hence the outside photo), they also like to see where they’ll be sleeping.
Third place goes either to special purpose rooms or local attractions. If you’re lucky you may be able to combine these eg I’ve a lovely photo of a cycle race passing our place which combines a second outside photo with an activity.
Beyond those three key photos you’re basically filling in details for your guests. So, add a photo of a second bedroom if it’s different from the first one you used, add a photo of the dining room, add photos of local scenery and attractions, etc. Although some websites let you run to “unlimited” photos, in reality it’s probably best limiting yourself to around a dozen within the main text and, if you wish, put additional ones in a gallery.
It should go without saying that each of the photographs in your perfect set must be perfect too and I’ll be looking at what that means next.
When you do get that “perfect set” don’t forget that you’ll need to revise it each year. It’s very easy to forget that, for example, you changed the blinds or added some plants or whatever.
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