When it comes to your Airbnb listing, your photos do most of the talking. Future potential guests aren’t sold on the descriptions of your amenities alone—they’re counting on your pictures to show them what your rental property is like. Since you know they’ll be viewing your photos, there’s one extra tool you can use to tip the scales in your favor: Strong photo captions.
Many hosts don’t take full advantage of the option to caption their photos. A good caption can help your future potential guests gain a little more insight into your vacation rental property. In some cases, a strong photo caption might even be the thing that’s needed to win over a guest who’s on the fence. Here are 3 tips for writing strong photo captions for your Airbnb listings.
1. Be descriptive.
A picture is worth a thousand words, so you want to be sure your caption adds new information to your photograph that can’t be gleaned at first glance.
Don’t just caption your photos with what your future guests are looking at – they can already tell if a picture is of a kitchen or a bathroom, so a one-word caption doesn’t provide much value.
Instead, take this opportunity to describe your property in a way that allows your future potential guests to imagine themselves in the photograph. For example, if you have a fireplace, describe how guests can unwind in front of a roaring fire during the colder months. If you have a patio, paint a picture of your guests enjoying a barbeque after a long day of adventure.
2. Explain what might not be clear.
You know your property inside and out, but things that might be obvious to you might not be so clear to a potential guest.
For example, what amenities are shown in the image? What’s in the room, but perhaps just out of sight of your photos? It’s helpful to describe things like the size of the beds, the kitchen appliances you have available, and other details they might not know.
If you have more than one bedroom or bathroom, it also helps to label them in your photo captions so your future potential guests can better imagine the layout of the property. Use your captions to let any viewers know specifically which room they’re looking at as well as what floor it’s on (if your place is a multi-floor listing) in case it isn’t clear from the photos alone.
3. Keep it short and sweet.
Chances are, the casual viewer isn’t interested in reading a long description of your master bedroom. While your captions should add depth to the photographs, they shouldn’t distract from the photos themselves.
Keep your photo captions short – about a sentence or two in length – in order to capture your viewer’s attention without bogging them down with too much information. Their imaginations will do the rest.
While the captions are an often-overlooked aspect of an Airbnb listing, they’re just one more way that you can set yourself apart from the competition. By crafting thoughtful captions that enhance your viewer’s browsing experience, you can help turn a potential guest into a brand-new booking.
