Furnishing and Photos

STR conversion is won or lost in the first three photographs. Everything else in this course is operations; this is the one where the money is spent before a guest ever exists.

What it actually costs

Why under-furnishing compounds

Long-term-rental furniture photographs like long-term-rental furniture. Skip the budget and you do not get one bad month — you get a permanently lower ADR, because you are now the cheap option against houses that look better than yours.

Got it? So design for the thing that sells it.

Design for the first three frames

A guest scrolling a results page gives you about one second and three images. Those three do almost all of the selling.

• Hero shot — the pool at dusk with the lights on, or the main living space. Wide, bright, no clutter.
• The feature that makes you different — the game room, the themed bedroom, the water view. If you do not have one, build one; it is cheaper than competing on price forever.
• The primary bedroom. Made properly, white linen, layered.
• Then everything else — every bedroom, every bathroom, the kitchen, and the pool deck in daylight.

One more thing photos do: they set expectations. A listing that over-promises earns three-star reviews from guests who got exactly what was advertised minus the styling. Shoot the house you actually have, at its best.