Airbnb and Vrbo Listing Photos: Size, Landscape and Watermark Rules

Published 19 October 2026 · by Tekiba

What Airbnb asks for

We read Airbnb's Help Center and Resource Center on the publication date above. The Help Center article on taking photos of a home listing gives the shape and the size:

Use landscape format: Photos in search results are all displayed in landscape—vertical photos won’t showcase your space as well.

Upload the right resolution: Use photos that are at least 1024px x 683px. When in doubt, a bigger photo is better.

A Resource Center article from Airbnb sets a higher bar, at least 1200 by 800 pixels and files "up to about 10 megabytes", and adds that photos are cropped into squares in search results. Another says you need at least 5 photos to get started, and the photo tour article says the first five are the ones shown most prominently. We found no maximum number of photos and no list of file formats on Airbnb's pages for homes.

On marks, the rule we found is in Airbnb's Content Policy, which counts photos as content. Among what it does not allow:

Content, including superimposed company logos, links, or company names, created for the sole purpose of advertising a separate business or other commercial entity unrelated to the listing

That is narrower than a ban on all watermarks. Airbnb's rules for Experiences, a different product, do say "No text or logos overlaid on the image"; its home pages we read do not. With Vrbo below saying no, and a mark adding nothing a guest needs, leaving it off is the simpler choice.

What Vrbo asks for

Vrbo's photo guidelines, on its help site, are more specific:

At least 1024 x 683 pixels, but ideally be 3840 x 2160 pixels or higher

Horizontal orientation (vertical orientation is acceptable, but horizontal displays best)

It accepts JPEG, PNG, WebP, AVIF and SVG, and asks for at least 6 photos at all times, warning that fewer for more than 30 days "can result in an indefinite suspension penalty." The same page lists what may get a photo rejected, including:

Text overlays, such as URLs or contact information

Graphic overlays, such as watermarks with logos or borders

Expedia Group, which runs Vrbo, adds in its content policy for hosts that photos should not show "exact addresses for vacation rental properties", door codes or key locations.

The location inside the file

None of these pages mentions EXIF, metadata or GPS. A photo taken on a phone in the house usually carries the latitude and longitude of where it was taken, the time and the phone model, in a block no one sees unless a program shows it. Whether Airbnb or Vrbo keep that block on what they display, their pages do not say, and we have not tested it. Expedia's rule is about what a photo shows, but the coordinates are the same address in another form, and the copies you send to a co-host, a cleaner or a listing service carry them too. Clearing them costs nothing.

The numbers side by side

Resizing and clearing a batch in the browser

1. Start from horizontal photos. Shoot the rooms in landscape. A vertical photo will be shown cropped, and neither site wants plain bands added around a photo: Vrbo lists borders among the reasons it may reject one.

2. Open the real-estate preset, then switch two things off. The Real estate listings preset sets a longest edge of 1200px, a company-name watermark and a 4:3 landscape shape on white. For these two sites, untick the text mark, and set Shape under Canvas to As the photo is: a photo that is not already 4:3, such as a wider one from a camera, would otherwise get white bands added above and below. With both off, a 4032×3024 photo comes out at 1200×900, above both companies' minimums, and every photo keeps its own proportions. Its sample file names are in Japanese, so type your own prefix, such as lake-house-, over them.

3. Go larger if you want to. Both sites say bigger is better. At Longest edge 2048 a 4032×3024 photo becomes 2048×1536, the free version's ceiling; Vrbo's ideal 3840 by 2160 needs the paid version and a photo at least that large, because SignetDrop never enlarges.

4. Download the ZIP. Each copy is drawn on a canvas and saved again from those pixels, which carries none of the original's EXIF across: no GPS position, no phone model, no time. Keeping EXIF is a paid option, works JPEG to JPEG only and is off unless you switch it on. Upload the copies, not the originals.

What this does not do

It does not check a photo against either company's rules, see a door code or a house number in the frame, or upload anything to Airbnb or Vrbo. Whether a photo is accepted is for Airbnb or Vrbo to decide, not us, and both can change their pages. Output above 2048px and larger batches are in the paid version, $29 once, with the full split on the pricing panel, and SignetDrop never writes its own name onto your photos. For the rules that apply when you sell a home rather than rent it, see our article on Zillow, Realtor.com and MLS listing photo rules.

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