Goodlight · Guide
What makes a listing work, with the evidence.
What we know, and where it comes from, about what gets an Airbnb or Booking.com listing clicked and booked. Every claim has its source next to it and a tag that says what kind of evidence it is.
Updated · 72 sources cited
01 —
The main levers
Ordered by strength of evidence and relevance to listing photos, as in our research.
- 01Airbnb and BookingStrong evidence
The cover photo and the first few images decide the click
In a Management Science study (Li et al., 2023) the cover counts far more than any other photo, and the best photo order was associated with +11.0% bookings for the listing that adopts it. In another (He et al., IJRM 2023), a living room in the search image was associated with a +35% booking rate. Booking says the main photo can make the difference between clicking and scrolling past, and click-through rate is an explicit input to its ranking.
OfficialStudy[46][47][29][30][34] - 02Airbnb and BookingStrong evidence
Photo quality (composition, light, colour) raises demand
Verified professional photos were associated with +8.98% occupancy (7,423 Airbnb listings over 16 months; Zhang et al., Management Science 2022). Airbnb's own professional photography programme reports +19% bookings and +21% host earnings (14,700+ listings, 2024–25), but hosts choose to join it. And Airbnb's search ranker now uses a listing-level representation of up to 64 photos (BiListing, CIKM 2025).
OfficialStudy[45][19][27] - 03Booking.comStrong evidence
On Booking.com, the apartment quality rating uses the number and quality of photos
The quality rating (the yellow tiles) is computed by machine learning from 400+ features in five categories. One of them is the number and quality of the photos uploaded. It is the most direct official link between photos and a visible badge on either platform.
Official[30][37] - 04Airbnb and BookingStrong evidence
Accuracy beats flattery
Airbnb asks hosts to remove content where AI or other digital technology was used to hide flaws or damage, or to add amenities that aren't there. Booking forbids content likely to mislead and advises against over-processed, filtered or heavy-HDR photos. On Airbnb, accuracy is a rating category that feeds Guest Favourite.
Official[16][35][41][4][6] - 05Airbnb and BookingStrong evidence
Guest review score drives ranking and programme eligibility
Booking names review score as a ranking factor. Since January 2025 the score is weighted towards recent reviews, and only the overall 1–10 score counts. Genius needs 7.5 or more and Preferred 7 or more. On Airbnb, ratings are a quality ranking factor and the core of Guest Favourite.
Official[29][31][32][33][1][4] - 06AirbnbStrong evidence · official criteria; effect measured only by market data
Guest Favourite and the Top 1/5/10% highlights
It needs 5+ reviews in 4 years, high marks in all six categories and about 1% or fewer host cancellations, and it is evaluated daily. A Bottom 10% label also exists. In IntelliHost and Key Data's market data (22,006 listings, 2026) the badge is associated with +3.1 percentage points of page-one impressions.
OfficialMarket data[4][5][6][63] - 07Airbnb and BookingStrong evidence
Total price compared with similar listings
Airbnb ranks on total price compared with similar nearby listings for the same dates, and since April 2025 search shows the total with fees. A high cleaning fee therefore weighs on both rank and conversion, especially for 1–2 night stays. Booking lists the prices offered on Booking.com among the property characteristics that count.
Official[1][14][29] - 08Airbnb and BookingStrong evidence
Availability and stay restrictions
Airbnb says more open dates and flexible minimum and maximum stays help. Booking recommends opening the calendar up to 24 months ahead and warns that restrictions (minimum nights, closed arrival days) can hide you from searches.
Official[1][34] - 09Airbnb and BookingStrong evidence
Complete, correctly ticked amenities
An amenity that isn't ticked can't match a filtered search. Airbnb's most-used filters in 2025 were pool, free parking, wifi, AC or heating, kitchen, hot tub, washer/dryer, self check-in, TV and BBQ. Booking warns that failing to mention, for example, parking can block guests, and facilities are one of the quality-rating categories.
Official[11][34][37] - 10Airbnb and BookingStrong evidence
Cancellations
Under 1% host cancellations is required for Superhost and Guest Favourite. Booking ranks on net bookings (bookings minus cancellations).
Official[3][4][30] - 11Airbnb and BookingStrong evidence · official rules; effect measured only by market data
Responsiveness
Superhost needs a 90% response rate within 24 hours, and for request-to-book listings Airbnb also ranks on response speed and rejections. In IntelliHost's market data (164k US listings), replying after a few days is associated with −32% revenue compared with replying within an hour.
OfficialMarket data[3][1][69] - 12Airbnb and BookingStrong evidence · official guidance; weak evidence on effect size
Coverage: every room shown, enough photos, tagged by room
Booking asks for at least 10 photos, at least 4 of each room or unit and at least 1 of each bathroom, and its property page score checks exterior, bathroom, pool and high-quality photos. On Airbnb, photos not assigned to a room are left out of the photo tour. No study supports a magic number of photos.
Official[35][42][8][9] - 13Airbnb and BookingStrong evidence
Registration number displayed (now enforced by platforms)
Since 20 May 2026, Regulation (EU) 2024/1028 requires platforms to collect the registration number before a listing goes live, display it clearly and spot-check it. In Portugal, Decree-Law 128/2014 (art. 17) already required the number in all short-term rental advertising.
Official[77][79]
02 —
Airbnb
How ranking works
Airbnb ranks results by quality, popularity, price and, for homes, location, with variety. Quality covers listing content, ratings and reviews, communication, customer service, cancellation information and amenities. Popularity means wishlist saves, bookings and messages. Airbnb publishes no weights.
Official[1]According to Airbnb's engineers, search is ordered by estimated booking probability and then diversified, validated in online A/B tests.
Study[26]Photos are a direct signal: the BiListing model (Airbnb engineers, CIKM 2025) compresses up to 64 photos plus the listing text into one representation used in the production ranker, with a +0.425% gain in the ranking metric (NDCG). It shows photos carry signal; it does not measure the effect of improving them.
Study[27]In market data (IntelliHost and Key Data, 22,006 listings, 2026), title, description and photo quality had near-zero effect on page-one impressions, while Guest Favourite was associated with +3.1 percentage points. The two fit together: photos convert, and conversion feeds ranking through popularity.
StudyMarket data[63][27]
Photos
Official specs: at least 1200×800 px, up to about 10 MB, landscape. Search crops photos to a square, so keep the subject centred. Mix wide, mid and close-up shots, use natural light without flash, and only light edits (brightness, contrast, crop, straighten).
Official[8]The photo tour sorts photos by room. Photos not assigned to a room are left out. Add room details and captions.
Official[8][9]Airbnb advises against ultra-wide angles and heavy editing that make a space look bigger or brighter than it is.
Official[17]Which room for the cover? The studies disagree: in New York and San Francisco a living room was associated with +35% and a bedroom with a negative effect (He et al.); in another study a high-quality bedroom cover gave the largest increase (Li et al.). Practical rule: make the cover your strongest living space or signature feature (view, terrace), tested against your best bedroom. Never a kitchenette, bathroom, corridor or floor plan.
Study[47][46]Photo count: no study supports a magic number. IntelliHost (359,722 US listings, no controls) found RevPAR of about $99/day at 6–10 photos versus $293 at 100+, clearly confounded by property size and quality. Practical rule: cover every room, which for an apartment typically means 20–40 photos.
Market data[64]Captions: across 14,800 listings (IntelliHost), booking conversion was 0.56% with no captions, peaked at 0.88% with 51–75% of photos captioned and was 0.74% at 100%. It is a correlation.
Market data[66]
Title and description
Title: fewer than 50 characters, because longer titles are cut off. No emoji, symbol strings or repeated "!!!". Don't repeat the city, bed count or "new", which search already shows; use the micro-location or the key amenity instead.
Official[10]Across 70,529 US 2-bedroom listings (IntelliHost), titles of 1–20 characters were priced about 7% below the ZIP-code median, with rates rising steadily with length up to the cap.
Market data[67]The host profile matters for trust: longer, mixed-topic profiles were rated more trustworthy (Ma et al., CSCW 2017), and host photos perceived as trustworthy were associated with higher prices and a higher chance of being chosen (Ert, Fleischer & Magen, Tourism Management 2016).
Study[50][49]
Price, fees and settings
Since 21 April 2025, Airbnb shows the total price including all fees by default worldwide (before taxes; in some countries taxes are included too).
Official[14]Single fee: 15.5% paid by the host only, with no guest fee. Hosts connected to a PMS or channel manager moved to it on 13 October 2026. The guest sees exactly the host's price.
Official[15]Weekly (7+ nights) and monthly (28+ nights) discounts; discounts of 10% or more are displayed in search results.
Official[12]Airbnb says Instant Book listings may rank higher. The academic evidence on the revenue effect is mixed.
OfficialStudy[1][61]Cancellation policies (stays of up to 27 nights): Flexible, Moderate, Limited (bookings from 1 October 2025: full refund until 14 days, 50% from 14 to 7 days), Firm, and Strict, which is invitation-only. All include a 24-hour free cancellation window when booked 7+ days before check-in.
Official[13]
Reviews, Guest Favourite, Superhost
Guest Favourite: 5+ reviews in the past 4 years (at least 1 in the past 2), excellent overall ratings and high marks in check-in, cleanliness, accuracy, communication, location and value, host cancellations of about 1% or less, and a low review-removal rate. Evaluated daily, per listing. The Help Center gives no minimum rating; the Guest Favourite average was 4.92 in February 2025.
Official[4][5][6][22]Ratings are compressed at the top: in 2024, 85% of reviews were 5-star and the average listing rating was above 4.75. An academic study had found an average of 4.7, with 94% of listings at 4.5 or above (Zervas, Proserpio & Byers).
OfficialStudy[22][51]Superhost: 10 reservations, or 3 reservations totalling 100+ nights; 4.8+ overall rating; 90% response rate within 24 hours; under 1% cancellations. Assessed quarterly over the past 12 months.
Official[3]Replying to reviews: hotels that started responding gained +0.12 stars and 12% more reviews (Proserpio & Zervas, Marketing Science 2017). It is a hotel study, but the mechanism is plausible on both platforms.
Study[52]
03 —
Booking.com
How ranking works
Ranking is personalised and produced by several algorithms that predict the likelihood of a booking, with weights that change per search. Factors: property characteristics (location, prices on Booking.com, review score, quality of the property page), performance (conversion rate and click-through rate), the traveller's search, their preferences, and visibility programmes. In the EEA, including Portugal, prices on other channels are not taken into account.
Official[29]The default sort ("Our top picks") requires doing well on click-through rate, gross bookings and net bookings, which depend among other things on content quality such as photos. Booking explains that a high click-through rate signals a good first impression, for example through images.
Official[30]Booking states that, according to its data, 63% of guests use photos as their primary source of information when searching for a stay.
Official[34]
Property page score and quality rating
The property page score (max 100%) measures content quality. It includes, among others: at least 10 photos, high-quality photos, a pool photo, an exterior photo, bathroom photos, bed and room sizes, languages spoken and key collection details.
Official[42]Quality rating (apartments, vacation homes, villas and other types with private units): computed by machine learning from 400+ features in five categories (facilities and services; configuration; number and quality of photos; average review score; booking history). It requires cleanliness of 6.0+ if reviewed. Booking says the higher the property page score, the higher the quality rating, and hosts can't remove it.
Official[37][30]
Photo requirements
Landscape only, at least 2048×1080 px and preferably 4000×3000. At least 10 photos, at least 4 of each room or unit and at least 1 of each bathroom. Shoot from 3–5 ft (about 1–1.5 m) high, from the room corners. Galleries pre-crop, so keep the subject centred.
Official[35]To avoid: grainy, blurry or over-processed photos; filters, strong contrast, over-saturation or excessive HDR; collages; watermarks; black-and-white; extreme wide-angle or fisheye; people as the main subject.
Official[35]In the extranet: JPEG or BMP, ideally 2048×1536 and no larger than 1.3 MB; changes can take up to 48 hours. "Smart ordering" sets the order by machine learning (on by default, can be switched off), and you can set a preferred main photo. Photo tags (for example "living room") link the property to guest searches. Videos in the gallery: not allowed.
Official[36]Note: the Photo API (used by channel managers) accepts up to 50 MB and 299 photos, which conflicts with the extranet's 1.3 MB limit. In practice: a JPEG at 2048 px or more on the long side, compressed under 1.3 MB if you upload by hand.
Official[43][36]On a tips page, Booking says uploading five to ten photos gives a 29% higher chance of securing bookings. No method is given; the baseline is probably properties with fewer than 5 photos.
Official[38]
Reviews
Guests have 90 days after checkout to review. Only the overall 1–10 score counts; the category ratings (cleanliness, comfort, value, facilities, location, staff) are optional and don't count. The score covers the last three years, has been weighted towards recent reviews since January 2025, and is shown from the first review.
Official[31]
Programmes
Genius: 3+ reviews and a review score of 7.5+; 10% discount (levels 2 and 3 can offer 15% and 20%). Booking-reported averages: +30% search views, +45% bookings and +40% revenue, with the cost of the discount accounted for.
Official[32]Preferred Partner: performance score of 70%+ and review score of 7+, checked every 90 days, for a small commission increase. Booking reports +65% search views and +20% bookings on one page and +35% bookings on another. On 22 April 2026 the Italian competition authority (AGCM) opened an investigation into whether selection favours properties paying higher commission.
OfficialSecondary source[33][34][86]Mobile Rate: a discount of 10% or more shown only on mobile. Booking says over half of all bookings are made on mobile devices and reports 30% more bookings from mobile traffic.
Official[39]These averages are self-reported by Booking, unaudited, and come from partners who chose to join.
Official[32][33][39]
04 —
Photo studies
What research has measured about photos and bookings. On small screens each study is shown as a card.
Zhang, Lee, Singh & Srinivasan
What makes a good image? Airbnb demand analytics leveraging interpretable image features
Study[45]- Year · venue
- 2022 · Management Science 68(8)
- Data · sample
- Airbnb panel, 7,423 properties, 16 months; difference-in-differences plus deep learning on 12 interpretable image attributes
- Effect
- +8.98% occupancy with verified (Airbnb-photographer) photos. Composition, colour and figure-ground attributes explain much of the effect.
- Caveat
- Observational; hosts self-select into the programme. Verified at abstract level.
Li, Simchi-Levi, Wu & Zhu
Estimating and exploiting the impact of photo layout: a structural approach
Study[46]- Year · venue
- 2023 · Management Science 69(9)
- Data · sample
- Airbnb listings; photo quality and room type scored by a neural network; pairwise booking-sequence model
- Effect
- The cover counts far more than other photos. The optimal layout gives +11.0% bookings if one listing adopts it; if all adopt, +2–5 booked days a year and +$500–1,100 revenue per listing. In their data a high-quality bedroom cover was best.
- Caveat
- Structural assumptions; sample size not given in the abstract.
- Year · venue
- 2023 · International Journal of Research in Marketing 40(4)
- Data · sample
- Airbnb New York and San Francisco, a 16-night holiday window; propensity scores and instrumental variables
- Effect
- Living room in the search image: +35% booking rate (+$728 over the period). A bedroom image lowers bookings. Content (which room, styling) matters more than aesthetics (clarity, brightness).
- Caveat
- One holiday window, two US cities.
- Year · venue
- 2019 · CMU Tepper, tese de doutoramento / PhD dissertation
- Data · sample
- Structural model of host image choice and guest reviews
- Effect
- Medium-quality images can outperform high-quality ones in the long run: very good images raise expectations and can lower later review scores.
- Caveat
- Working paper; full text not verified. Relevant to not over-enhancing.
- Year · venue
- 2024–25 · Airbnb (oficial, autoavaliado / official, self-assessed)
- Data · sample
- 14,700+ listings with pro photos vs 62,300+ without
- Effect
- +19% net bookings and +21% host earnings in a year.
- Caveat
- Adopters vs non-adopters; no controls disclosed; marketing page; Airbnb says results are not guaranteed.
- Year · venue
- s.d. / undated · Booking.com (marketing oficial / official marketing)
- Data · sample
- Not stated
- Effect
- Five to ten photos give a 29% higher chance of securing bookings.
- Caveat
- No method; the baseline is probably fewer than 5 photos.
- Year · venue
- 2025 · CIKM '25
- Data · sample
- Production Airbnb search
- Effect
- A listing-level photo-and-text embedding in the ranker gave +0.425% NDCG and, per the authors, tens of millions in incremental revenue.
- Caveat
- Shows photos carry ranking signal; not an effect of improving them.
Ert, Fleischer & Magen
Trust and reputation in the sharing economy: the role of personal photos in Airbnb
Study[49]- Year · venue
- 2016 · Tourism Management 55
- Data · sample
- Airbnb Stockholm data plus a choice experiment
- Effect
- A more trustworthy-looking host photo is associated with a higher price and choice probability.
- Caveat
- Host portrait, not listing photos.
- Year · venue
- 2020 · HICSS
- Data · sample
- OTA hotel thumbnails, deep learning
- Effect
- Lead-image content affects consideration and booking; the image takes about 33% of the property-page area.
- Caveat
- Conference paper; hotels.
Autores não verificados / authors not verified
The effects of the aesthetics and composition of hotels' digital photo images on online booking decisions
Study[59]- Year · venue
- 2023 · Humanities & Social Sciences Communications 10
- Data · sample
- OTA hotel images; Inception v3 plus logistic regression
- Effect
- Light and time of day, colour scheme, human presence and shooting angle predict booking decisions.
- Caveat
- Hotels; authors not verified.
- Year · venue
- 2026 · Dados de mercado / vendor data
- Data · sample
- 359,722 US listings, no controls
- Effect
- RevPAR $99 (6–10 photos) vs $293 (100+).
- Caveat
- Confounded by size, market and quality.
- Year · venue
- 2026 · Dados de mercado / vendor data
- Data · sample
- 5,039 classified covers
- Effect
- A 15% pool/view cover "premium" falls to under 2 points within the same ZIP code.
- Caveat
- Price only, not bookings or click-through.
- Year · venue
- 2026 · Dados de mercado / vendor data
- Data · sample
- 14,800 listings
- Effect
- Conversion 0.56% → 0.88% at 51–75% captioned.
- Caveat
- Correlational.
- Year · venue
- 2026 · Comunicado de imprensa / vendor press release
- Data · sample
- 10,000 listings in 9–10 cities
- Effect
- 12% of listings rated "good"; those were 35% more likely to beat their market. About 70% "undermined by poor-quality images"; 54% with photo–description inconsistencies.
- Caveat
- Scoring criteria undisclosed.
In short: peer-reviewed estimates put the effect of better photos at roughly +9% occupancy (quality) and +11% bookings (order and cover), and which room is shown can matter more than brightness. Airbnb's +19% is selection-biased. And over-polished photos can backfire through expectations and reviews. Everything points to realistic, well-lit, well-composed photos, not magazine shots.
OfficialStudy[45][46][47][19][48]05 —
Honest editing: photos and AI
What the platforms and the law say about editing, AI and virtual staging.
Airbnb ground rules for hosts: photos and description must accurately represent the space. Airbnb asks hosts to remove content where AI or other digital technology was used to edit flaws, hide damage or add amenities or attributes the listing doesn't have. Enforcement ranges from warnings and content removal to suspension, loss of Superhost, cancelled reservations and guest refunds taken from host payouts.
Official[16]Airbnb's Content Policy covers content generated or edited using AI, including photos and video, and bans superimposed logos, links or names advertising other businesses.
Official[18]Booking.com: images must be useful, informative and related to the actual experience; content likely to mislead is forbidden, including misleading AI-generated content. The photo requirements ask for images that set accurate expectations and advise against over-processed, filtered, over-saturated, heavy-HDR, fisheye or watermarked photos. Booking may remove properties whose inaccurate descriptions aren't corrected.
Official[41][35][30]EU AI Act (Regulation 2024/1689), applicable from 2 August 2026: a "deep fake" includes AI-generated or manipulated images that resemble existing places or objects and would falsely appear authentic (Art. 3(60)). Deployers of an AI system that generates or manipulates such images must disclose that the content has been artificially generated or manipulated (Art. 50(4)). The providers' machine-marking duty does not apply to systems performing standard editing or that don't substantially alter the input (Art. 50(2)).
Official[78]Context: an audit of 25,550 hotel photos on booking platforms (7 European destinations, May 2026) flagged about 19% with signs of AI generation or editing, without separating generated from enhanced photos. Surveys of traveller reactions contradict each other and are run by industry companies.
Market data[73][74]
Allowed and low-risk
- Exposure and white balance
- Straightening and lens correction
- Noise reduction
- Recovering blown-out windows and skies
- Removing temporary clutter that won't be there at check-in (cables, personal items)
Not allowed on Airbnb
- Removing permanent flaws (stains, cracks, damp, worn furniture)
- Hiding damage
- Adding furniture or amenities that aren't there
- Inventing views or daylight
- Changing room size
Grey zone: disclose in the caption
- Generative relighting (dusk skies, lights switched on)
- Virtual staging of an empty room
- Replacing a grey sky with blue
- Never apply generative edits to windowless or dark rooms
This is an interpretation, not legal advice. If a generative change could falsely appear authentic, Art. 50(4) may require disclosure, and the platforms' accuracy rules point the same way: say so in the caption (for example "Virtually staged" or "Sky enhanced") and keep the originals.
Official[16][41][35][78]Goodlight's position: we treat light, colour, sharpness and perspective in the photos the host already has. We never add or remove furniture, objects or fixtures, we don't touch windows, views or the outside, and we don't change the size of a room. It is realistic editing, not invention. Full policy
06 —
Portugal
Registration, EU rules and taxes for short-term rental hosts.
Every Alojamento Local needs an RNAL registration number (Decree-Law 128/2014, as amended). On Airbnb it goes in Listing → Registration. Registration is free, and changes must be reported within 10 days.
Official[79][20]Article 17 of Decree-Law 128/2014 requires advertising, commercial documents and merchandising to show the establishment's name or logo and registration number. Sources disagree on the fines for advertising without a valid number; check the consolidated text on diariodarepublica.pt.
OfficialMarket data[79][87]Regulation (EU) 2024/1028, applicable from 20 May 2026: platforms must ask hosts to declare whether a registration procedure applies; where it does, they may only accept the listing once a registration number is provided, and must make sure it is displayed clearly in the listing. They must also spot-check numbers and notify authorities of invalid ones. In Portugal the registry remains RNAL.
OfficialSecondary source[77][89]Decree-Law 76/2024 (in force since 1 November 2024) lifted the suspension of new registrations created by Mais Habitação and gave municipalities the power to regulate short-term rentals; the extraordinary contribution (CEAL) had already been revoked by Decree-Law 57/2024.
Official[80]Lisbon: the amended municipal regulation (RMAL) has been in force since 6 December 2025, according to PLMJ, with absolute containment areas (AL-to-dwellings ratio of 10% or more) and relative ones (5–10%), by parish or neighbourhood. Parish lists vary between sources; check with the city council.
Secondary source[81]Tourist tax: in Porto, €3 per person per night since 1 December 2024, from age 13, up to 7 consecutive nights. In Lisbon, €4 per person per night (13+, up to 7 nights), according to the press; we could not open the official city page. Airbnb collects the tax in Lisbon and Porto.
OfficialSecondary source[83][82][21]DAC7: platforms report host income for all EU listings from calendar year 2023. Airbnb reports to the Irish Revenue, which shares the data with other member states.
Official[24]Price transparency: following EU consumer-protection actions, Airbnb agreed to show the total price including mandatory fees, and Booking and Expedia agreed to stop misleading scarcity claims ("last room") and to present discounts honestly. Avoid fake "originally €…" anchors and fees outside the displayed price.
Official[84]
07 —
Myths and evidence
- False
Does a video make a listing rank higher on Airbnb or Booking?
There's no evidence for it. Booking says explicitly that you can't upload videos to the property gallery, and we found no verified way for a host to upload a video on Airbnb (Airbnb's ranking page mentions "photos and videos", but there is no such upload path). A video's honest value is off-platform: social media and a direct-booking site.
Official[36][1] - Unverified
Does video increase bookings by 403%?
Those figures (403%, 12%, 18% of bookings from social) trace back to vendors or an unfindable study. There is no independent evidence. Lodgify's data associates direct bookings with longer stays and longer booking windows, but that is vendor data too.
Market data[72] - Misleading
Is a brighter, more polished photo always better?
No. One study found medium-quality images can outperform high-quality ones in the long run because they raise expectations; another found content (which room, styling) matters more than clarity and brightness; and both platforms require accurate photos.
OfficialStudy[48][47][16][35] - Unverified
Do listings with 24–30 photos earn $2,521 more a year?
It's a marketing figure (Rankbreeze) with no published method. No study supports a magic number of photos; show every room.
Anecdote[76] - Unverified
Does a 100% property page score on Booking give 18% more bookings?
Channel managers attribute this figure to Booking, but it isn't on any Booking page we could find. What is official: the higher the property page score, the higher the quality rating.
Official[37] - Outdated
Does Booking require 24 photos and only show the first 45?
That's legacy text. The current page asks for at least 10 photos, plus at least 4 per room or unit and 1 per bathroom.
Official[35][44] - Outdated
Is the Booking review score the average of the six categories?
Not any more. Only the overall 1–10 score counts now, weighted towards recent reviews since January 2025; category ratings are optional and don't count.
Official[31] - Unverified
Does Guest Favourite require a 4.9 minimum?
Airbnb's Help Center gives no minimum. "Around 4.9" is a practical benchmark: the Guest Favourite average was 4.92 in February 2025.
Official[4][22] - Unverified
Does Airbnb's AI pick your cover from your first five photos?
Hosts report it, along with a support agent's quote, but no Airbnb document confirms it. Making all of your first five photos cover-grade is good practice anyway.
Anecdote[75] - False
Has the Strict cancellation policy been retired on Airbnb?
No. It is now invitation-only. Since 1 October 2025 there is also a Limited policy.
Official[13] - Misleading
Is Superhost a big ranking boost?
Airbnb says "added visibility". IntelliHost's market data points to a modest effect (+2.3 points).
OfficialMarket data[3][63] - Misleading
Does a pool or view cover photo add 15% to the price?
It's mostly geography: within the same ZIP code the difference falls to under 2 points (IntelliHost, vendor data).
Market data[65]
08 —
Sources
Accessed 5 November 2026. "Abstract only" means only the abstract or a search snippet was available.
- [1]
How search results work (art. 39) ↗
Airbnb Help CenterOfficial
- [3]
What's required to be a Superhost (art. 829) ↗
Airbnb Help CenterOfficial
- [4]
Understanding Guest Favorites ↗
Airbnb Resource Center · 2025-11-12Official
- [5]
Airbnb Help CenterOfficial
- [6]
Guest Favorites and highlights (art. 3495) ↗
Airbnb Help CenterOfficial
- [8]
Airbnb Resource Center · 2024-11Official
- [9]
How to organise listing photos into a home tour ↗
Airbnb Resource CenterOfficial
- [10]
Guidelines for writing your listing title ↗
Airbnb Resource Center · 2026-02-02Official
- [11]
The amenities guests want (2025 search data) ↗
Airbnb Resource Center · 2026-08-31Official
- [12]
Airbnb Help CenterOfficial
- [13]
Cancellation policies for your home (art. 475) ↗
Airbnb Help CenterOfficial
- [14]
Total price display is now standard for guests worldwide ↗
Airbnb Newsroom · 2025-04-21Official
- [15]
Simplifying Airbnb service fees ↗
Airbnb Resource Center · 2026-10-13Official
- [16]
Ground rules for home hosts (art. 2895) ↗
Airbnb Help CenterOfficial
- [17]
Setting clear expectations with every guest ↗
Airbnb Resource Center · 2023-02-17Official
- [18]
Airbnb's Content Policy (art. 546) ↗
Airbnb Help CenterOfficial
- [19]
Professional Photography programme ↗
AirbnbOfficial
- [20]
Portugal: registration (art. 2038) ↗
Airbnb Help CenterOfficial
- [21]
Occupancy tax collection (art. 2290) ↗
Airbnb Help CenterOfficialabstract only
- [22]
Our commitment to providing the highest quality stays (global quality report) ↗
Airbnb Newsroom · 2025-02-27Official
- [24]
DAC7 taxpayer information (art. 1385) ↗
Airbnb Help CenterOfficialabstract only
- [26]
Learning To Rank Diversely At Airbnb (Haldar et al., Airbnb engineers) ↗
arXiv:2210.07774 · 2023-08Study
- [27]
BiListing: Modality Alignment for Listings (Guy, Grbovic, Tan, Zhao, Airbnb engineers) ↗
CIKM '25 · arXiv:2508.20396 · 2025Study
- [29]
Understanding search results, ranking, and visibility ↗
Booking.com Partner Help · ~2026-10Official
- [30]
Booking.com · 2025-05-31Official
- [31]
Everything you need to know about Guest Review Scores ↗
Booking.com Partner Help · ~2026-02Official
- [32]
Understanding the Genius marketing programme ↗
Booking.com Partner Help · ~2026-09Official
- [33]
Understanding the Preferred Partner Programme ↗
Booking.com Partner Help · ~2026-10Official
- [34]
Improve visibility and ranking ↗
Booking.com Partner adviceOfficial
- [35]
Understanding photo requirements for your property ↗
Booking.com Partner Help · ~2026-09Official
- [36]
Uploading, deleting, reordering, and editing photos ↗
Booking.com Partner Help · ~2026-09Official
- [37]
Everything about quality ratings: FAQs ↗
Booking.com Partner Help · ~2026-08Official
- [38]
Video: Tips for capturing and uploading high-quality photos ↗
Booking.com PartnerOfficial
- [39]
Booking.com Partner SolutionsOfficial
- [41]
Booking.comOfficial
- [42]
Managing property scores (Property Scores API) ↗
Booking.com DevelopersOfficial
- [43]
Step 11: Add property photos ↗
Booking.com DevelopersOfficial
- [44]
Booking.com Partner HelpOfficialabstract only
- [45]
Management Science 68(8):5644–5666 · 2022Study
- [46]
Management Science 69(9):5209–5233 · 2023Study
- [47]
He, Li & Wang — Image features and demand in the sharing economy: A study of Airbnb ↗
International Journal of Research in Marketing 40(4):760–780 · 2023Study
- [48]
Zhang — PhD dissertation, incl. "Do Lower-quality Images Lead to Greater Demand on AirBnB?" ↗
Carnegie Mellon University, Tepper · 2019Studyabstract only
- [49]
Tourism Management 55:62–73 · 2016Studyabstract only
- [50]
CSCW '17 · 2017Studyabstract only
- [51]
Marketing Letters 32(1):1–16 · 2021Studyabstract only
- [52]
Marketing Science 36(5):645–665 · 2017Studyabstract only
- [58]
Overgoor, Rand & van Dolen — The Champion of Images ↗
HICSS · 2020Studyabstract only
- [59]
Humanities & Social Sciences Communications 10 · 2023Studyabstract only
- [61]
Xie & Young — Conformity vs. Differentiation (instant book); Chen, Feng, Feng & Wu, PACIS 2023 ↗
University of Denver · PACIS · 2018 / 2023Studyabstract only
- [63]
What actually gets you onto Airbnb's first page (with Key Data; 22,006 listings) ↗
IntelliHost · 2026Market data
- [64]
Photo count is a real revenue lever (359,722 US listings) ↗
IntelliHost · 2026Market data
- [65]
Your cover photo barely moves your price (5,039 covers) ↗
IntelliHost · 2026Market data
- [66]
Caption most of your photos, not all (14,800 listings) ↗
IntelliHost · 2026Market data
- [67]
A short Airbnb title leaves money on the table (70,529 listings) ↗
IntelliHost · 2026Market data
- [69]
Slow replies cost real money (164k listings) ↗
IntelliHost · 2026Market data
- [71]
Listing Optimization Report (press release) ↗
PriceLabs via 10minhotel · 2026-02-04Market data
- [72]
Lodgify vacation rental industry reports ↗
via ShortTermRentalzMarket dataabstract only
- [73]
AI-signal audit of 25,550 hotel photos (ABCD Agency & ContentGuard.me) ↗
via Breaking Travel News · 2026-05Market dataabstract only
- [74]
Appinio × TUI Musement survey; Bókun survey ↗
Appinio · Travel Daily News · 2024Market dataabstract only
- [75]
Airbnb AI changing the cover photo… ↗
AirROI blog · 2026-06-02Anecdote
- [76]
Rankbreeze photo-count claim ("24–30 photos")
RankbreezeAnecdoteabstract only
- [77]
Regulation (EU) 2024/1028 on short-term accommodation rental data, Arts. 7 and 19 ↗
EUR-Lex · 2024Official
- [78]
Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 (AI Act), Art. 3(60) and Art. 50 ↗
EUR-Lex · 2024Official
- [79]
Decreto-Lei n.º 128/2014 (RJAL), consolidated ↗
Diário da RepúblicaOfficialabstract only
- [80]
Diário da República · 2024-10-23Officialabstract only
- [81]
PLMJ · 2025Secondary sourceabstract only
- [82]
Como é aplicada a taxa turística ↗
Jornal Económico · 2025-07Secondary sourceabstract only
- [83]
Taxa Municipal Turística do Porto (folheto) ↗
Câmara Municipal do Porto · 2024-12-01Officialabstract only
- [84]
Coordinated actions: accommodation booking ↗
European CommissionOfficialabstract only
- [86]
Italy watchdog probes travel giant Booking.com (AGCM, Preferred Partner) ↗
RTÉ · 2026-04-22Secondary sourceabstract only
- [87]
ChekinMarket data
- [89]
EU Regulation 2024/1028 on short-term rentals enters into application on 20 May 2026 ↗
MCS AdvogadosSecondary sourceabstract only
Where Goodlight fits
Goodlight treats the light, colour, sharpness and perspective of the photos your listing already has. It helps with the photo levers (cover, quality, coverage), not the rest: reviews, price and settings stay in your hands. The video we also make is for social media and your own site; neither Airbnb nor Booking allows video on the listing.
More about Goodlight →General information, not legal or tax advice. Platform rules change; always check the source.