For those of you who have been to an optometrist for an eye exam, can you relate? As you peer through the lenses to they eye vision chart the optometrist will take you through a series of images – some are really clear and some are really bad. The photos of your vacation rentals can be a similar experience for those looking to rent a vacation home.

OK – Number 1 ? This one ?

Or Number 2 And then again, Number 1 or Number 2 ?

Is number 2 the best! If not – you may really need an eye exam!

I am amazed at how many vacation rentals are listed online without photos! Let me ask one simple question – “Are you going to go vacation at a hotel or vacation rental without seeing at the very least some images of the area, amenities and the actual unit? Of course NOT. So why do people spend good money to advertise vacation rentals on high traffic websites like VRBO, Vacationhomerentals and others and fail to put images on the listing? You might as well just throw your money to the wind!

Our visitors tell us the single most important factor beyond location and price are quality images of the property to be rented. You can write a novel describing how great your beach vacation condo is. But you can do it so much better with photos! A picture is worth a thousand words. Show me the beach! You want your visitors who are searching for your vacation home to stop and LOOK at your property. “Oooh look at this one – this looks great!” Help them to envision themselves at the beach or pool, lying in your hammock, sipping a fruity drink with a little umbrella or watching the whales from your lanai.

Think about this – “Would you purchase a product on Ebay that does not include images of the product to be bid on?” The next time you search for an item on Ebay check out how many bids the products without photos have. Most will be zero, nada, zip, zilch…. Many people will skip your listing if the images are fuzzy or of poor resolution. Be sure to check all of your vacation rental listings and review your photos! If they need to be fixed just upload a higher resolution photo. Most vacation rental advertising sites will let you change out photos anytime at no charge.

The same holds true for your Vacation Rental listings. Most vacation rental directories and vacation rentals by owner websites prefer a minimum of 800 x 600 resolution images. Not sure what that means? No problem, many of these sites offer tutorials on how to find your images on your computer and best practices for uploading high quality photos. Here is an example at the Furnished Homes website that is a step by step process for uploading images to their free vacation rental listings.

Take quality digital images of your properties. You can do just about everything you need with a standard Walmart or Target digital camera. Make sure you get one with a minimum of 5 megapixels and buy the extra SIM card for photo storage. You should be able to find a really good camera and the upgraded memory card for under $200. If you want fantastic photos you can hire a photographer or invest in a wide angle camera for panoramic shots. Oh yes, don’t forget batteries – pay the extra for rechargeable batteries as these digital cameras really eat batteries quickly.

While we are on the subject of photography it is important to briefly touch on staging and capturing great photos of your vacation homes. Staging – less is better. Keep everything neat and tidy in your photos. For example, if you are taking shots of the kitchen be sure to clear the counters of clutter. You want to focus on neat and orderly. Store items under the counter that do not need to be in the picture. Be sure your beds are made up nicely and pillows in place. It’s all about presentation.

Here is the vacation rental images theorem -

• No photos = No reservations
• Good Photos = A fighting chance for reservations
• Great Photos = Great Potential for increased reservations

Two final photo tips – Best time of day to photograph your vacation rentals is in the evening at Sunset. Soft, gentle light will be best. To get some really different angles and views try using a step ladder to get higher vantage points and bird’s eye view shots.

Learn more about Free listings for vacation rentals – 12 high resolution photos for each listing – Furnishedhomes.com