Airbnb listing photos: requirements, a shot list per room and when to reshoot

Good Airbnb listing photos are sharp, bright, horizontal shots of every room guests can use, at least 1024 by 683 pixels, with the five strongest first because those are the ones Airbnb displays most prominently.¹ Booking.com asks for more: at least 10 photos, four per room or unit, and a resolution of at least 2048 by 1080 pixels.¹² Shoot once to the stricter standard, stage the flat before you start, and reshoot whenever the unit no longer looks like its photos.

In this guide

1. Airbnb photo requirements and tools
2. Booking.com photo guidance
3. A shot list per room for a city flat
4. Staging before the shoot
5. DIY or a professional photographer
6. When to reshoot
7. Worked example
8. Questions people ask
9. Sources

This guide goes deeper on photos than the listing guide, which covers where photos fit among title, description, price and settings.

Airbnb photo requirements and tools

Airbnb publishes two size figures. The Help Centre says photos should be at least 1024 by 683 pixels, and bigger is better.¹ The Resource Centre photo guide asks for at least 1200 by 800 pixels, with bigger files, up to about 10 MB, being better.² A modern phone shooting at full resolution clears both easily; the risk is in screenshots, messaging apps and old photos that have been compressed along the way.

Shoot horizontally. Search results crop images to squares and the listing page shows them in landscape, so a portrait photo loses most of its content in one of the two places.²

Cover photo and the first five

The first five photos are the most important, Airbnb says, because they are prominently displayed on your listing.¹ On desktop you set the cover photo under Photo tour, then All photos, by selecting a photo and choosing Make cover photo; changes can take up to 30 minutes to appear.¹

Because search crops to a square, test the cover photo as a square before you choose it. A wide living room shot that works in landscape can lose the sofa and the window once the edges are cut off.

The photo tour and room tagging

The photo tour groups your photos by room. Airbnb’s AI engine assigns photos to rooms, new photos are sorted automatically, and you can adjust the result or assign a photo to a room yourself.¹ Airbnb’s October 2026 tips page describes the same tool as AI-powered and says it instantly organises your photos by room.¹⁴ Every room needs at least one photo to appear in the tour.¹

Check the sorting after every upload: an automatic tool can file a sofa bed under bedroom, and guests read the tour room by room.

Each room can also carry an optional description, added under All photos.¹ Airbnb’s photo guide suggests using captions and room details for what a photo cannot show, such as which floor a room is on, whether it has an en suite, bed size or TV size.²

Visual descriptions (alt text)

Airbnb lets you add a visual description to each photo for guests who are blind or have low vision and use screen readers; it also shows when an image fails to load. Descriptions must be fewer than 250 characters, should be objective, and should describe only what the photo shows; mood and selling points belong in captions.³ Airbnb’s page describes these as written by the host, not generated.³

Floor plan scans

Airbnb can turn a scan of the home into a 3D floor plan for the listing. You need an iPhone Pro (12 or later) or an iPad Pro (2020 or later), because the scan uses the device’s LiDAR sensor; processing takes 24–48 hours, and you can edit the plan before guests see it.⁴ You are responsible for keeping sensitive or personal information out of the scan, and Airbnb asks you to open shower curtains so showers are captured.⁴ The page does not say in which countries the feature is available.

What Airbnb does not allow

Airbnb’s ground rules say the photos and description should accurately represent the space provided. Airbnb will ask hosts to remove content if AI or other digital technology has been used to edit flaws, hide damage, add amenities or attributes that are not part of the listing, or otherwise misrepresent it.⁹ Brightness, contrast, cropping and straightening are fine and appear in Airbnb’s own advice.² Removing a stain from a sofa or adding a plant that is not there crosses the line.

Airbnb can also ask a host to confirm that photos are accurate. You then visit the listing and take new photos in the Airbnb app from the same angles; photos from the camera roll cannot be uploaded, guests never see these verification photos, and co-hosts cannot yet submit them.¹⁰ Plan for the owner or the listing host to be on site if this happens.

Booking.com photo guidance

Booking.com’s guidance for partners is more prescriptive than Airbnb’s:¹²

• Count: at least 10 photos, with at least four photos of each room or unit and at least one of the bathroom and toilet.
• Resolution: at least 2048 by 1080 pixels, preferably 4000 by 3000.
• Orientation and height: landscape only, taken from a height of 100 to 160 cm, from room corners for depth.
• Exterior: the entrance and the facade in relation to the street.
• Avoid: filters, strong contrast, heavy HDR, collages, watermarks, black-and-white, tilted or distorted shots, and extreme wide-angle or fisheye lenses.
• Composition: keep the subject in the centre, because the platform crops; avoid road signs, parked cars and photos where people are the main focus.
• Not allowed: images that include personally identifiable information, such as ID cards, bills and contracts. Booking.com also asks you not to upload images that mainly show the property’s contact details, and says uploading content without the necessary rights may lead to removal or account restrictions.

In the extranet, Booking.com’s Smart ordering feature uses machine learning to order your photos, and you can switch it off. You can set a preferred main photo, tag photos so they link to guest searches, and assign photos to specific room or unit galleries. Changes can take up to 48 hours to appear.¹³

If you list on both, shoot once to Booking.com’s resolution and per-room count and use the same set on both.

A shot list per room for a city flat

Airbnb’s photo guide asks you to make a shot list covering every room and outdoor space from several angles, mixing wide, mid-range and close-up shots.² Airbnb’s own photographers take 2–3 images per room, and Booking.com asks for at least four per room or unit.⁵¹² The list below applies that to a typical one- or two-bedroom city flat; the number of shots is our recommendation, not a platform rule.

Order the first five for the guest who is still deciding: the best living room shot, the main bedroom, the kitchen, the bathroom, then the strongest feature, such as a terrace or view. The entrance and street shots answer what a city guest asks before booking: what will arriving look like.¹²

Staging before the shoot

Airbnb’s preparation list for a photo shoot is short: let in natural light, declutter and clear surfaces, remove valuables, highlight special amenities, make bedding look clean and appealing, and in the bathroom pull back the shower curtain, clean the mirror, close the toilet lid and fold the towels neatly.⁶ Booking.com adds lamps switched on, no laundry showing, no visible wires or cables, and no tissues, toilet paper or bins in bathroom photos.¹²

For a managed unit, turn that into a staging kit that lives with the photographer or in your car:

• Freshly ironed duvet covers and pillowcases in the unit’s colours, plus the throw and cushions that will stay in the unit.
• A full set of matching towels, folded the same way the cleaner folds them.
• Working bulbs of the same colour temperature for every lamp.
• Cable ties and tape to hide wires behind the TV and desk.
• Window cleaner and a microfibre cloth for mirrors, glass and the hob.
• A bag to remove the owner’s personal items, paperwork, toiletries and anything with a name or address on it.

Stage only what will stay. If the flowers, fruit bowl and coffee-table books are not there when guests arrive, leave them out of the photos; guests rate accuracy against what they see.¹¹

DIY or a professional photographer

Airbnb’s photo guide is written for a smartphone: daylight with blinds open and the flash off, the camera held level rather than tilted, the subject centred with the phone’s grid, and light edits to brightness, contrast and straightness.² For a small city flat with good daylight, a careful manager can meet both platforms’ standards this way. A photographer earns the fee in dark flats, small rooms where angle and lens choice matter, units with a view to capture at the right time of day, and owners who expect a premium look.

For a manager, the licence often decides it. Airbnb says its professional photos cannot be used on another real estate or rental site, so a unit listed on Airbnb and Booking.com needs photos you are allowed to use on both.⁸ Booking.com in turn warns that uploading content without the necessary rights may lead to removal.¹² When you hire a freelancer, agree in writing that the owner and the manager may use the photos on every channel and on a direct booking site, for as long as the unit is let, and settle who keeps the files if the management agreement ends.

When to reshoot

Guests rate accuracy on whether the home was represented with up-to-date photos and information, and whether everything worked.¹¹ A home that is significantly different from what was advertised can also lead to a refund for the guest under Airbnb’s Rebooking and Refund Policy.¹⁵ That makes a reshoot part of maintenance, not marketing. Reshoot when:

• Something visible changed: new sofa, repainted walls, a different bed, a renovated bathroom or kitchen.
• An amenity was added or removed: a dishwasher, a workspace, a balcony set. If it is in the amenities list, it should be visible in the photos.
• Wear shows: a faded sofa, a marked table or tired bedding that no longer matches the photos.
• Accuracy comments appear: reviews or messages that say the place looked different or smaller.
• The season makes a photo misleading: a terrace shot full of plants in July can look different in January.
• You take on a new unit: the owner’s old photos often show their furniture, their belongings or a layout that has changed.

Airbnb’s own advice is that if your space has changed since a professional shoot, you can take your own high-quality photos to refresh the listing.⁷ Its professional shoot cannot be repeated, so wait until any changes to the space are finished before requesting it.⁵

Worked example

Photos bring the guest in; the stay has to match them. How accuracy feeds into ratings is covered in the guide to 5-star reviews, and what to stock so every photographed item is still there at check-in is in the amenities checklist.

Questions people ask

Sources

All sources checked 2 November 2026.

1. Airbnb Help Centre, “Setting up a photo tour for your home listing”
2. Airbnb Resource Centre, “How to take great photos for your listing”, Published 20 June 2024, updated 8 November 2024
3. Airbnb Help Centre, “Add visual descriptions to photos in your listing”
4. Airbnb Help Centre, “Scanning your floor plan”
5. Airbnb Help Centre, “Professional photography for listings”
6. Airbnb Help Centre, “Preparing for your photo shoot”
7. Airbnb Help Centre, “Photo reshoots”
8. Airbnb Help Centre, “Saving your professional photos”
9. Airbnb Help Centre, “Ground rules for home hosts”
10. Airbnb Help Centre, “How can I confirm photo accuracy for my listings?”
11. Airbnb Help Centre, “Ratings for homes”
12. Booking.com for Partners, “Understanding photo requirements for your property”, Page marked as updated about two months before our check
13. Booking.com for Partners, “Uploading, deleting, reordering and editing photos”
14. Airbnb Resource Centre, “Help your listing stand out”, Dated 20 October 2026
15. Airbnb Help Centre, “Rebooking and Refund Policy for homes”

We check every figure against the sources above. Spotted something out of date? Email systemen@hostproacademy.com with the guide title.