The little known “80/20” principle for Airbnb photos.
Kati and I are huge fans of the 80/20 rule.
An economist named Pareto discovered this interesting mathematical relationship.
It’s the idea that approximately 80% of effects are due to 20% of causes.
- 20% of software code has about 80% of the errors.
- 20% of the population owns about 80% of the land.
- 20% of patients use 80% of healthcare resources.
And so on. The point is not to quibble over whether it’s exactly 80/20, or 85/15, or 70/30.
In the vacation rental world, it may be even more lopsided than that.
The 80/20 rule can be used to your advantage in SO many ways.
It can make you more efficient. It can make you more money.
It can eliminate hassles.
An example: if there are 100 elements that go into being a great photographer, you only need to learn the most important 20 of them, in order to get 80% of the benefit of learning all 100.
That, in a nutshell, is the theory of our photo course.
To the best of our ability, Kati and I have taken everything that you MIGHT benefit from knowing about photography, and distilled it down to the 20% that you NEED to know.
And luckily, that 20% can be taught in just a few hours.
At that point, we are supremely confident that your photos will stack up favorably against AT LEAST 80% of your competitors (and the top 20% of the rentals are earning almost 80% of the money).
This has massive implications for your business.
Bad photos are the first major potential bottleneck for your business.
If they don’t like your photos, they will never book, stay, or return.
I did a little research.
Turns out, the top 20% of vacation rental hosts ARE making approximately 80% of the revenue in the industry.
Also, a study showed that only about 20% of vacation rental listing photos qualify as “Good”.
We never even consider staying at places with bad photos.
For two reasons:
- I can’t tell if we will like it. There are rooms missing. Dark or blurry photos that fail to convey what the place is really like, etc.
- MUCH more important: If the host didn’t spend the time and effort necessary to get the photos right, where else are they taking shortcuts?
When I convinced Kati to create a video course, I emphasized it should teach her 80/20 version of vacation rental photography.
It needed to be something that could:
- Be done by a novice
- With only a smartphone
- In just a few hours
And even though I’m obviously biased, I think the course she created is amazing, for many reasons:
- There’s no fluff. And no jargon.
- It’s in nice 5-10 minute “bite-sized” lessons that are easy to follow.
- Customer results have proven that she’s hitting all the right notes. Amateurs are creating professional-level photos.
- The ROI is incredible!! It’s likely your first guest will more than cover the cost of the course and your upgraded photos will pull in $1000’s more guest revenue year after year.
You can preview some of the chapters for free any time, with no enrollment required.
- Brian, Co-Creator, Overlooked 2 Overbooked
Not sure where to get started with your own photos?
We've gathered some simple, condensed tips from our photo course below. Anyone with just a smartphone (and no photo skills!) can begin applying those right away.