The best Airbnb photo order puts your strongest photo first, the four photos that answer a guest's biggest questions next, and then walks through the apartment room by room in the order a guest would arrive. The order matters because guests don't all see every photo. Airbnb says the first five photos are the most important because they're prominently displayed on your listing, and the first one is the large photo that shows up in search.
Our guide to Airbnb listing optimization covers what good photos need. This post is about where each one goes.
Which photo should come first?
The first photo should show the one thing that makes a guest stop scrolling: usually the view, the light or the main living space. Airbnb's own words are make sure the first one is amazing, because it's the large one in search.
In search, that photo sits next to your title and your price, beside dozens of other listings. So ask which single photo makes this apartment different from the next one. A few common answers for apartments:
- The view, if there is one. A balcony with the sea in it.
- The living room in daylight, if it's big or bright.
- The balcony or terrace, if guests will actually sit there.
What usually doesn't belong first: the building's entrance, a close-up of a decoration, or the bathroom. They're useful photos, and they belong further down.
The cover photo and your Airbnb listing title are read together. If the title says "balcony", the cover photo should show it, or at least one of the first five should.
What is the best Airbnb photo order after the cover?
After the cover photo, use photos two to five to answer what a guest checks before booking, then follow the route a guest takes through the apartment. Here's the order we'd start with for a typical one- or two-bedroom apartment:
- The cover photo. The view, the main room or the balcony.
- The living room, wide, from the corner, in daylight.
- The main bedroom, with the bed made and the whole bed in the frame.
- The kitchen, showing the worktop and the main appliances.
- The bathroom, clean and bright, with the shower visible.
- The second bedroom, if there is one.
- The balcony or outdoor space, if it wasn't the cover.
- The workspace, if you list one.
- Details guests ask about: the washing machine, air conditioning, the coffee machine.
- The building and the street, so guests recognise them on arrival.
- The neighbourhood: the beach, the park or the café that's on your doorstep, but only if it's really that close.
Photos three to five are the bed, the kitchen and the bathroom for a reason. They're the rooms guests check before they book, so they should be visible without anyone opening the full gallery.
This is a starting point, not a rule. If the kitchen is the best room in the flat, move it up.
How does Airbnb's photo tour group your photos?
Airbnb's photo tour sorts photos by room, so the full gallery follows rooms, not a single list. Airbnb says its AI engine assigns photos to specific rooms, and you can add or change them yourself in the Listing editor.
What you control:
- The first five. In the photo tour, click or tap All photos, then drag photos into the order you prefer. The changes save automatically.
- Which room a photo belongs to. Check that the AI put every photo in the right room. A bedroom photo filed under the living room confuses the guest reading the tour.
- Every room has a photo. Airbnb says every room or space needs at least one photo so it can appear in your photo tour. If a room has none, add one or temporarily remove the room from the tour.
- Room details and captions. Airbnb suggests adding sleeping arrangements, amenities and accessibility features to each room, and you can add a description to each photo. A caption such as "Sofa bed for a third guest" answers a question before it's asked.
How many photos do you need?
Enough that every room has at least one photo and every important question has an answer. Airbnb doesn't publish a recommended number in its photo tour guidance, so we won't invent one.
A practical test: show the gallery to someone who has never been to the apartment, then ask them where the second bed is, whether the shower is a bath or a walk-in, and what's on the balcony. If they can't answer from the photos, add the photo that would tell them. If three photos show the same corner of the living room, keep the best one.
Every photo should be at least 1024 × 683 pixels. Airbnb adds that larger is better.
What should you leave out?
Leave out anything that's no longer true, anything that flatters the apartment more than the guest will find it, and duplicates. Old photos are the most common problem. Airbnb's accuracy question asks whether the home was accurately represented with up-to-date photos and info, and guests answer it after they've stayed.
- Old furniture. If the sofa changed, the photo changes.
- A wide lens that doubles the room. The guest will see the room's real size when they walk in.
- The view from the one window that has it, presented as if every room has it.
- Photos taken in another season or before a renovation that isn't finished.
Each one can cost an accuracy star, and that rating sits on the listing for every future guest to see. Our guide to 5-star reviews on Airbnb goes through what guests check in that category and the other six.
Questions owners ask
Which Airbnb photo shows in search? The first one. Airbnb says the first photo is the large one that shows up in search, and that the first five are the most important because they're displayed prominently on the listing.
Can I choose the order of my Airbnb photos? You can reorder the first five photos on your cover page by dragging them under All photos in the photo tour. The rest are grouped by room, and Airbnb's AI assigns photos to rooms, which you can change.
What size should Airbnb photos be? At least 1024 × 683 pixels, according to Airbnb. Larger is better.
Should the first photo be the outside of the building? Usually not. Most guests choose a city apartment for what's inside it or the view from it. Put the building further down unless the building itself is the attraction.
Setting up the photo tour is part of both of our plans, and on Full service we schedule a photographer when the apartment needs new photos. Both plans are on the pricing page.
