Photographing Your Airbnb's Outdoor Spaces Like a Pro

Outdoor space is undersold in most listings

In Arizona, a patio with real shade is worth as much to a guest as an extra bedroom, and it usually gets one photo taken into the sun. Outdoor areas are also where a listing can most easily separate itself, because so few hosts shoot them properly.

Never shoot into the sun

Put the sun behind you or to one side. Shooting toward it blows the sky to white, throws the patio into shadow, and produces the flat, hazy frame that makes a good yard look like nothing. In practice this means the front of the house and the back of the house often need different times of day, which is why exteriors get scheduled rather than grabbed on the way out.

Late afternoon is the reliable window for most Arizona properties. The light comes in at an angle, the desert landscaping picks up texture, and the sky holds colour instead of burning out.

Show the space in use

A photo of an empty patio table tells a guest what is there. A photo taken from the doorway looking out, with the table set and the shade drawn, tells them what a morning there feels like. Both are worth taking.

• Chairs pulled out slightly and angled, not tucked in like a showroom.
• Cushions on and squared. Faded or stained cushions read worse in a photo than in person.
• Umbrella open if it is in good condition, down if it is not.
• Grill clean, cover off, lid closed.
• Hoses, bins, tools and pool equipment out of frame entirely.

Photograph the shade

Shade is the amenity in a hot market. If you have a covered patio, a ramada, a mature tree or a retractable awning, make sure at least one frame makes it obvious. Guests booking Phoenix in June are looking for exactly this and will scroll past a listing that does not show it.

Include the view, if there is one

Mountain lines, a golf course, city lights, a saguaro stand. If the property has an outlook, one frame should be composed for it rather than including it by accident. Stand where the view is best, put a piece of the property in the foreground so it reads as yours, and shoot.

Yards, pools and patios add frames to a shoot, and our pricing is flat by bedroom count rather than per photo. See what that costs.