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How much does Airbnb photography cost in Melbourne?
Between $150 and $1,000+, depending on who you book and what they include. Most hosts with a one to three bedroom place end up paying $250–$500 for 15–30 edited photos. Here is how the market breaks down and where MT Visuals sits.
By Mikhail Teklu, MT Visuals · Updated November 2026
The three price bands in Melbourne
| Band | Typical price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Marketplace / budget | $150–$275 | 10–20 lightly edited photos, 30–60 minutes on site, 24–48 hour turnaround. Airtasker's Melbourne median for an Airbnb shoot is about $200. |
| Dedicated Airbnb photographer | $295–$500 | 15–30 edited photos, styling guidance, usage rights, 48–72 hour turnaround. Most established Melbourne specialists sit here: packages like $345 for up to 30 images or $360 for 12. |
| Editorial / premium | $550–$1,000+ | 30–60+ lifestyle images, drone or twilight, sometimes a stylist. Half-day shoots run to $2,000. |
Add-ons are priced separately almost everywhere: drone $55–$300, twilight $40–$300, floor plans $115–$190, styling $200–$550.
What drives the price
- Photo count. Most providers tier by bedrooms or by number of images. A four-bedroom house with a pool costs more than a studio.
- Turnaround. The standard is 48 hours. Twenty-four hours is marketed as fast. Same-day is rare.
- Who edits. Lightly edited marketplace shoots versus flash-blended, sky-replaced, colour-balanced images are a different product at a different price.
- Travel. Many photographers charge per kilometre outside the inner city. Check the fine print if you are in the west or on the Peninsula.
- Usage rights. Some providers license the photos; make sure you own them outright for Booking.com, Stayz and your own site.
What about Airbnb's own photography program?
It still exists in Australia but the price is quote-only and deducted from your payouts, you get 15–25 images, and it takes around a week. Full breakdown here.
Where MT Visuals sits
$250 + GST, any size property, 15–25 edited photos, delivered the same day. Drone exterior +$90 + GST. No travel fee within 25 km of Werribee (the west and Williamstown); a flat $65 to the CBD, Docklands, Southbank and inner suburbs.
That is budget-band pricing with a mid-band photo count and a turnaround nobody else in Melbourne publishes. The reason it works: we also shoot real estate listings all day for agencies, so the gear, the workflow and the editing are already running. An Airbnb shoot slots into the same day.
Is it worth paying for?
Airbnb's own numbers (their sample, not independent): hosts with professional photos earn about 21% more and get 19% more bookings, and 85% of hosts cover the cost of the shoot within one night. Treat the exact figures with caution, but the direction is not in dispute: the cover photo decides whether a guest clicks, and a $250 shoot that lifts your nightly rate by $20 pays for itself inside a fortnight.