Your Airbnb listing needs more than 5 pictures

While briefly working around Airbnb’s search results, it appeared that Airbnb is running a hidden criteria to filter out listings: the number of pictures.

Whenever an Airbnb user will run a search on a mobile application, they will automatically be presented results with more than 5 pictures. This is an undocumented requirement to get bookings on mobile (the biggest platform used to book a property on Airbnb).

It is still possible to list a property with less than 5 pictures (only one picture is required to publish a listing), and there is no public mention of a filter by a minimum number of pictures (which is not publicly accessible for end users).

This minimum requirement does not affect searches on Airbnb’s website: it is still possible for an airbnb.com user to be presented with listings with 1 to 5 pictures.

This decision by Airbnb is understandable, and might be aimed at fraudulent listings (scams). In addition, the more pictures, the quicker guests can form a decision, so it is just good business to have more pictures. Airbnb also offers free professional photography, so that would not be a problem to most hosts anyway.

However, the more frequent scam scenario on Airbnb actually take advantage of pictures to circumvent Airbnb’s protection. Without entering into details: scam listings will have a lot of pictures.

Furthermore, if Airbnb believes your listing should have more pictures to be rented, why would it not say so? It would require little effort to disclose this requirement. Some nice listings may have less than 5 pictures and cannot reach the audience they deserve.