A homestay owner’s job is a tough one. You are constantly being compared to mainstream hospitality options, such as 3, 4 and 5-star hotels, but unlike those companies, everything is your job. You are the marketing, the sales, the housekeeping, the F&B, the maintenance and the front office departments. In addition, you’re expected to be a good photographer as well – putting up the best photographs of your property on tripvillas.com.

While I’m not a professional photographer, I look at property pictures every day, and this is my commonsense guide to putting your best images out there.

As an example, let’s look at this property in Kerala. Homestays in Kerala have a lot going for them. Kerala Tourism has the largest budget of all tourism promotion bodies in India, and they promote high-value, culturally sensitive tourism. Tourists looking for homestays in Kerala are looking

at more than a place to sleep; they’re looking to engage culturally and socially with the people, the arts and the traditions of Kerala. In keeping with that, this property offers the entire gamut of Kerala experiences: cooking classes, yoga classes, ayurvedic treatment, religious experiences, and local craft.

The property owner has posted a lot of pictures on tripvillas.com – three pictures of rooms (they have 15 rooms on offer); six pictures of Kerala cuisine (two as served at the property and four well-lit pictures, possibly stock photography) and six pictures of the host family with various guests.

While each of these types of photographs have their place in engaging potential guests, they belong in different places.

The right picture in the right place:

As you seek to engage potential (and past) clients on the internet, an understanding of what pictures work where would help you optimise your image online.

Online Booking websites

Sites like tripvillas.com are where people come to make a booking after they’ve decided on a destination. While tripvillas.com allows you to upload a whole lot of pictures, unless you capture the potential client’s interest right away with the first few pictures, and your description of the property, he or she will generally not look at the rest of the pictures.

This makes it unsuitable for pictures of previous guests. Put up pictures of the property. If you have different types of rooms, put up pictures of each type of room, and moreover, describe the room in the caption.

If cuisine is your major selling point, put up well-lit pictures of properly-plated food, with a description of that dish. Do remember that you should make that dish yourself, plate it properly (there are plenty of ideas on the Internet on attractively plating food) and get it photographed by a professional.

Community Sites:

On the other hand, there are websites that are visited by people who have something in common, and who’d like to discuss that shared experience with others like them, just as holidayhometimes.com is a community of property owners who have their properties listed on tripvillas.com. For sites like these – think of a Facebook page or a Flickr photostream of of your property – pictures of guests are extremely appropriate. Here you should encourage guests to participate, sharing their experiences at your property. Encourage them to join your Facebook page, and post their own photos as well.

Communities can range from the general to the highly specific. If you pride yourself in your cooking, why not reach out to groups online that travel in search of good food?

In the next article, we’ll look at how to actually take those photographs.

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