Travel Tip 134
Red flags to look for in vacation rental photos
No vacation rental should include a photo of nearby attractions, that’s what blogs and guidebooks are for.
So, you decided to rent an apartment for your next vacation?
There are plenty of benefits to having a house or apartment, but you’ll have to do more research before booking because there’s a lot less standardization in independent vacation rentals than hotels. There are several popular platforms for renting homes and I’m not here to sell you one of them, just to warn you what red flags to look for on all these platforms. Some have better quality control than others, but all have misleading listings, even unintentional ones.
Here are the top three red flags to look for in the photos of the property.
Unless the place you’re renting is on this charming street, there’s no reason to include this photo in a listing.
Mostly photos of nearby sites with few photos of the property.
You don’t need a photo of Cusco’s main square or the market in the description of the property. There are plenty of blogs, magazines and guidebooks with photos of the place you’re going. You need the listing to show you exactly what the apartment or house looks like, inside and out. Beware any listings with lots of photos of “nearby” attractions because there may be a reason they’re trying to distract you.
If you’re renting a cabin, you definitely need a photo of the outside but you also need indoor photos.
Mostly outdoor photos with few photos of the interior.
Yes, it’s helpful to see what the street looks like, or if it’s a cabin, what the gardens or forest around it looks like. You do need to see at least one street view or outdoor photo, but you also need to see what the kitchen, bathroom, bedrooms and living space look like. There should be multiple photos of each room or interior space.
How many things can you find wrong with the photo above?
Photos that look suspiciously edited, or worse, AI.
I think everybody is getting better at recognizing AI photos but sometimes a photo is simply edited. I refuse to use AI images, but I did badly edit the photo above for you. There should be three things in the photo that look suspicious to you. If anything looks off, you can do a reverse image search or use an AI detection tool – as AI-generated images become easier to make, more companies are creating these tools, some paid and some free in a limited way.
What to do?
Dig deeper on any property you’re interested in before paying a deposit. Most platforms won’t give you the exact address until you’ve booked, but you can still see the neighborhood and use google maps to look at the streets, restaurants, attractions and walkability. Look for listings on other platforms with the same photos – or for the same description but with different photos.
Contact the host with specific questions.
The host should reply promptly with detailed answers. If they don’t reply promptly before you book, you have to wonder how responsive they’ll be if there is an issue after you’ve paid.
If the caption says that this is the view from the kitchen, then this photo definitely belongs on the listing. Without a description, it could be anything and may be just a distraction. (This is the view from La Bohème in San Blas, Cusco).
Sometimes you have to give people the benefit of the doubt.
Many of the homes on vacation rentals are listed by people who’ve never rented places before. Maybe they have a particularly rose-colored vision of their home or maybe they don’t realize how odd their photo choices are. If a host responds with reasonable answers to your questions about their photos and you’re still interested in the place, I say go for it. Even a couple unpleasant surprises on arrival shouldn’t totally ruin your trip.
The red flags in descriptions and reviews
Next week I’ll share my top three red flags for the descriptions of rental properties and reviews. Sidenote: I put my name on my photos as a guarantee to you that these are images of my experiences on my travels. If you ever have a question about a photo I took or a something I wrote, please contact me.
I took this photo of a Titi monkey at the Tambopata Research Center, in the Peruvian rainforest.
Blogs
This week I finished updating the rainforest chapter in the next Rough Guide to Peru and had the opportunity to add the places below. They’re all wonderful spots where you can experience the jungle and learn about many ways to save the rainforest. I’ll let you know when the updated Rough Guide to Peru with my additions is published, but for now, here’s a sneak peek at three of the places I added.
The Marvelous Spatuletail Refuge
This is my favorite hummingbird sanctuary in northern Peru, where you can see the endemic Marvelous Spatuletail hummingbird.
Manu BioLodge
Manu BioLodge is my favorite place to stay near the Manu National Reserve and one of three research stations owned by Conservación Amazónica that welcome tourists.
Amazon Shelter
I also added Amazon Shelter, in Puerto Maldonado, one of the best nonprofits in Peru that is working hard to rehabilitate animals rescued from traffickers so they can be released to the wild. I don’t have a separate blog about my visit there, but it’s included in the blog below.
How to Save the Amazon
There are a lot of problems in the Amazon but there are also a lot of solutions. What I love most about visiting the rainforest is that every time I go, I meet more people who have more creative ways to combat deforestation and promote conservation. As you’ll see in the blog above, there is always something we can do to help.
