I just saw this too. It will interesting to see how they reorder the pictures. I beleive the money shot at our Lake House is of the water and the dock. PF is of the mountain view. If a higher performing picture is moved to the top I'll try it out and see. I guess the higher performing picture might be the kitchen on one house and the backyard on another.

I hope it can be overridden too - for us pool pics are #1 and if they decide to show a generic photo of the bath, that will look terrible.

Yeah I am not a fan of this... We will have to see how their algorithm judges the photos. I would hate to have weird photos highlighted that shouldn't be

I am very disappointed to see they’re not making this photo change a suggestion, and instead mandatory. I’ve heard so many hosts say their bookings on VRBO have almost stopped, including mine. This may be a desperate attempt by VRBO to get back some Airbnb traffic.

This will be interesting. Last year, i paid for "Cover Picture Optimization” with an SEO company because it was on sale and i was curious. I figured i'd try it. The top 3 photos that came back were surprising. I would have never selected any of them for my top 3. They are nice photos but i don't consider them my top 3 when i'm competing with other pool and view listings. I did move their suggestions closer to the beginning of the picture gallery after i tried it for a few days and didn't see any difference. I wonder if those top 3 will make it with this new VRBO feature. Ha. I'm in agreement Michael, i hope we can override it. Lol. Like you John, i like to think i know the money shot picture too.

When Patricia commented that Booking.com does a suggested order it reminded me so does Expedia. If you list on VRBO, you automatically get a listing on Expedia and they curate the photos for you. Expedia won't allow us to change our own photo order. Again, their hero photo for my listing is one of the last 2 photos in my gallery. Makes me wonder why i only get a few Expedia bookings a year. Check out your Expedia listings. They now only have 4 photos you can click thru before you must click on the actual listing to pull up the entire photo gallery, which is very shuffled compared to what i put on my VRBO listing. Those 4 photos would not even been in my top ten. LOL.

In a similar email from BeyondPricing, "Are you seeing a slow start to 2024? Through the first few months of 2024, our data has shown that booking demand is down by almost 15%. To help our customers, we took revenue management to a whole new level with Predictive Revenue – unlike anything else in the industry. And now, it's available to you...."

On one hand I like how they're trying to improve their platform. On the other, they have so many other fixes and features that should've taken priority. I'd like to see VRBO have the same polish as Airbnb. I guess we'll find out if these changes were worth it.

Saw this also. It will be interesting to see what it comes up with but like others have said, hope we can override. Booking.com does a suggested order and it was AWFUL!

Wow. If this is mandatory, I can't think of a dumber business move. Any increase in revenue will not be attributed to the photos by hosts. And, more importantly, any decrease in bookings will definitely be blamed on AI. I do think there's a lot of value that AI can bring to vacation rentals, but I also know any writing by ChatGPT is always stilted and inhuman-sounding. And my wife does a lot of YouTube videos and has used a tool that picks her cover photo. It's hit or miss on whether it results in better views. Very interested to follow this and see how it affects my Colorado STR clients. In my opinion, I think VRBO is stretching to keep up with Airbnb.

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Updated about 1 year ago on 02/28/2024. Most recent reply

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Michael BaumPoster

#2 Short-Term & Vacation Rental Discussions Contributor

Olympia, WA

Short-Term & Vacation Rental Discussions

VRBO Image changes?

Michael BaumPoster

#2 Short-Term & Vacation Rental Discussions Contributor

Olympia, WA

Posted February 27, 2024 13:35

Hey everyone, I just got this note from VRBO:

In the upcoming weeks, you may see the primary image on your listing and
the order of your image gallery change. That’s because we are gradually
launching a new AI feature that will automatically place your highest-performing image to the forefront of your listing.Based on previous Expedia Group testing, this new feature helps drive higher conversion and click through rates on listings.

This is a great opportunity to review your photos. Images help travelers
know what to expect at your property and see all you have to offer.

Travelers want to see a complete description of a property through imagery, so we
recommend uploading at least 25 high quality photos to your property
listing.

Read more tips and tricks about creating compelling imagery, or click below to edit your existing photos.

So I guess AI will be deciding what the best photo to use is eh? I sure hope I can override the AI decisions.

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