This Looks Nothing Like the Photos! Avoid the Corporate Rental Photo Blues with CHBO Certified Photos
Admin
Published Date: 2017-09-12
Picture this: You’re packing for a long holiday or business trip. Your suitcase is ready, and you’ve said goodbye to the family - or brought them along. You go through the hassle of air travel or a long road trip, but you’re comforted by the fact that the corporate rental waiting for you at your destination was a great find. The property looked amazing, spacious and perfect for your needs. You arrive at the end of a long day of travel and discover the truth. If the pictures were worth a thousand words - many of those words seemed to be lies.
Tenant and Landlord Troubles Can Snowball
Tenants expect to find the rental property they chose to be virtually identical to the photos. And that’s a reasonable expectation. Certainly one thing tenants can do when looking for an executive rental is to manage their expectations - to understand that landlords need to show their property in its best light. But no one wants to be the victim of a “shell game”, a fraud where you don’t receive what you were advertised. It’s more than the disappointment; it may be that the property doesn’t fit the tenants’ needs. Those feelings of being misled could lead to something as simple as a bad online review, to an early departure, a non-renewal, or at worst an allegation of fraud. For landlords, the effects can be just as bad. Spending a lot of time dealing with unhappy tenants is not fun, especially for longer-term bookings. The odds that that tenant will try to opt-out early increase, and the chances they’ll renew the property if their stay is extended plummet. After the booking is complete, the trouble isn’t over. Poor online reviews can mean fewer bookings and that means taking money directly from their pockets. And in some areas, there are legal consequences for taking fraudulent or misleading photos.
Putting Your Home’s Best Foot Forward
There are good and bad ways to put a property in its best light: * Photoshop is a common occurrence with photography today, from online dating to real estate to memes. It’s ok in some cases, like greening up a lawn that’s usually healthy but has a temporary brown patch or two. But removing important details, or adding amenities that aren’t there isn’t OK. * Many photos use wide angle photography, and this is a common and acceptable practice as long as potential tenants know the actual square footage and there are plenty of photos from different angles to give the right perspective. * Lighting is another area that makes photos tricky. You should always take pictures on bright sunny days and turn on all the home lights you need, but the home won’t always be so bright when the tenants are there and this can create issues, too. * More photos are better. Each space needs photos from different angles so tenants can not only get a better idea of the size of the space, they can see how one room flows into the next.
Introducing the CHBO Certified Program
It’s easy to see how the right corporate rental photos can be critical to the success of a furnished rental. More and more landlords are opting out of this headache with the CHBO Certified Photography Program. Our professional real estate photographer will take up to 60 identically sized, ultra high-resolution photos, creating a virtual tour that is both accurate and flattering. All photos are marked ‘CHBO Certified’, which builds tenant confidence and the properties’ reputation. Leave the hassle of photography to the experts and leverage the experience and expertise of CHBO today!
