Travel Tip 170
How to spot red flags in vacation rental photos
This place looks perfect for a family reunion, but without photos of the yard, I wouldn’t book it.
Considering renting 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 this photo is accompanied by a description of exactly how far this market is from the rental, it doesn’t belong in the description.
1. 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. You need to see what the apartment 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.
This cabin looks amazing from outside but you definitely need to see the interior.
2. 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.
You should be able to spot at least three places this photo looks edited. I edited out a few things and those places look weird.
3. Photos that look suspiciously edited, or worse, AI.
I think lots of people are getting better at recognizing AI photos but also AI keeps getting better. 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 get 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.
Maybe the owner thinks the best part of the property is the view. That’s fine, as long as there are also plenty of photos of the interior.
Sometimes you have to give people the benefit of the doubt.
Many of the homes on vacation rentals are listed by people who are not professional property management companies. 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.
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 ask me.
Blogs
This week I’m back in northern Peru to visit a few places I went in September last year. Like last September, I’m flying to the city of Tarapoto and I’ll spend a couple days there before I go to Moyobamba and on to Chachapoyas. Here’s my blogs from Moyobamba so you can see why I’m so excited to go back.
Moyobamba
Moyobamba is famous for orchids, and the area has about 10% of the world’s orchid species. Even the fountain in the main plaza is topped with a giant orchid statue. I also found some truly excellent ice cream here!
Moyobamba Birding
I spent an amazing morning with Ikam Expeditions to see birds at Moro de Calzada and added several species to my lifelist! One of my favorites was the Thick-billed Euphonia, above.
Tingana Nature Preserve
I’m especially excited to go back to Tingana. It’s a unique ecosystem and last year I saw 4 of their 5 species of kingfishers. Here’s hoping I get to see the 5th this time!
