are my pictures that bad !

[limousin-cottage]

It's funny - but friends of ours also say that incoming guests comment that the photos on their website don't do their place justice and it is better than the guests expect! Therein lies a quandary - how do you strike a happy medium? Better for the place to look better in real life than the pics, or the pics be too good and the guests be disappointed on arrival?? Our website still has a long way to go and the rushed pics I took with my rubbish camera are all I have until someone comes to take some for me. (The cottage wasn't even fully prepared at the time!) I think your gite looks lovely by the way. I wish you all the very best of luck with your venture.

[LaVilleauTady]

... Therein lies a quandary - how do you strike a happy medium? Better for the place to look better in real life than the pics, or the pics be too good and the guests be disappointed on arrival??

Interesting question. The way I see it is...

If the property fails to meet expectations it means you have over sold it, and disappointed someone.

If the property exceeds expectations then you have undersold it, and possible lost potential bookings as a result.

I aim to meet expectations. I do this by describing the property has accurately and honestly as I can, and by providing over 100 photos of it via our web site. If the potential renter knows exactly what they will be getting they can make an informed decision if our property is for them.

Seems to work.

[vrooje]

Therein lies a quandary - how do you strike a happy medium? Better for the place to look better in real life than the pics, or the pics be too good and the guests be disappointed on arrival??

We recently discussed this at length on a thread entitled "Promise a little and give a lot?"

The discussion went on for six pages, so you're quite right -- striking a happy medium is not easy. Meeting expectations is one thing -- managing expectations is another.

[limousin-cottage]

Therein lies a quandary - how do you strike a happy medium? Better for the place to look better in real life than the pics, or the pics be too good and the guests be disappointed on arrival??

We recently discussed this at length on a thread entitled "Promise a little and give a lot?"

The discussion went on for six pages, so you're quite right -- striking a happy medium is not easy. Meeting expectations is one thing -- managing expectations is another.

Phew - Just read the 6 pages. Very informative and helpful.

[Normandie]

We had one set of guests who booked because they (she) loved the photos of the room on the website and she "just had to stay there", on arrival said that the room was exactly like the photos on the website (it is) but on leaving said the room (specifically) was even better than they expected.

Occasionally maybe there will be an unbridgeable gap between the photos and the total, physical "leaning out of the window, scent of roses and honeysuckle wafting up, listening to the birdsong (or the choir from the cathedral or the sound of the wind playing with the halyards on the marina)" experience.

One can carefully, with excellent lighting, take high quality photos for the website but even a 3D virtual tour isn't going to totally bridge this gap between the website and the actual, chilled out "kids are out on their feet having been in the pool all day and I've had two glasses of local wine while cooking the fresh seafood we bought from the market this morning" sensation.

Perhaps it isn't always that photos don't do a property justice but that photos can't convey the sense of relaxed well-being which gets (slightly inaccurately) expressed by the guest as "the photos don't do it justice".

Or perhaps I'm just posting rubbish at this time of night!

[Jimbo]

Perhaps it isn't always that photos don't do a property justice but that photos can't convey the sense of relaxed well-being which gets (slightly inaccurately) expressed by the guest as "the photos don't do it justice".

Take twelve people, show them the same photograph without its descriptive caption and ask them to describe what is going on the picture. Twelve people, twelve different explanations – some will be wildly different - because we all bring our individual experiences to bear when we are interpreting visual clues in photographs.

So, if your photos aren’t ‘doing your property justice’, perhaps it’s that they aren’t ambitious enough, or expressive enough, or ambiguous enough to allow each guest to write their own story of anticipated pleasures onto them. Words alone can generate excitement but great publicity photographs go further, both by conjuring up delicious fantasies and by making your property ‘real’ to the viewer. And I would argue that this visual foreplay, in the weeks and months before the guests arrive, contributes much to the overall enjoyment of their holiday. Even if the reality turns out to be somewhat different.

Or perhaps I'm just posting rubbish at this time of night!
On the contrary. Burn more midnight oil. Write more interesting stuff!

Jim

[Windy]

visual foreplay

Ah - that'll explain why we blokes are so bad at holiday rental marketing