Host guide
How Much Does an Airbnb Photographer Cost? Your Options Compared
Professional photos are one of the best investments a listing can get, but hiring a photographer is only one of three routes. Here is what each costs you in money and in time.
Three ways to get listing photos
- Airbnb's Professional Photography program. Freelance photographers coordinated by Airbnb, available in many cities. You ask for a quote and the cost is deducted from a future payout.
- An independent photographer. You find, book and pay them directly, and you usually own the files.
- Your phone plus Superphoto. You shoot with the phone you already have, and Superphoto applies the professional corrections afterwards. There is no session to book and the cost is per photo.
What a professional shoot costs
Through Airbnb's program, pricing is quoted per property. You email their team your listing links and get a quote in about 72 hours. The shoot cost is deducted from your next payout. The program includes 2 to 3 edited images per room, uploaded to your listing about a week after the shoot. It is limited to one shoot per listing and is not refundable once underway. Airbnb sometimes sends invitation-only offers of free photography, and those cannot be requested.
Independent photographers set their own prices. Rates vary with the market, the size of the property and usage rights. A full property session commonly costs a few hundred dollars or euros, and more in premium markets or for large homes. You typically get edited images within days to weeks, and reshoots are negotiated separately.
You are paying for three things: someone's time on site, professional editing, and knowing what to shoot. A photographer can do the first two better than you can. The third you can learn, and our phone photography guide is that lesson.
What the do-it-yourself route needs
Phone photos work when three things are true:
- You capture them properly. Daylight, a level camera, tidy rooms, one routine for every room. That is a two-hour afternoon once you know the method.
- The whole set is corrected the same way. Even light, straight lines, one colour standard. People underestimate this step. A bright living room beside a yellow bedroom makes the home look worse than either photo alone.
- Every room is covered, including the small and awkward ones.
The first and third are an afternoon of your effort. The second is what Superphoto does: it enhances your originals in one run to the same standard, so the gallery reads as one set instead of a pile of snapshots.
Side by side
| Professional photographer | Phone + Superphoto | |
|---|---|---|
| Upfront cost | A few hundred per session, quoted per property | No session fee. About €1 per photo at standard quality |
| Time to finished images | Days to about a week | Minutes after you shoot |
| Availability | Depends on your city and schedule | Any time |
| When something changes | New session or negotiation | Reshoot the room and enhance again |
| Consistency across the set | High | High. One standard for every photo |
| Best for | Landmark properties, hero marketing shots, hosts who want zero involvement | Any listing that needs a strong, current, complete set now |
Airbnb's own research on more than 14,700 listings found that listings using professional photography saw a 19% average uplift in bookings over the following year. That number is an argument for great photos. It says nothing about which way you get them.
When to hire a professional
- The architecture is the selling point.
- You want the shoot to also produce material for a magazine, a sales listing or a website.
- You don't want to be involved at all.
When to shoot it yourself
- Your photos are good but dark, dull or inconsistent. This is the most common case and the easiest to fix.
- You are refreshing a listing for the season or after small changes.
- No photographer is available in your area or budget.
- You want to update the gallery whenever you like.
You can also combine both. Many hosts keep the gallery current with their own photos and book a photographer for a full refresh every couple of years.