What makes a listing in Georgia rent?
In Georgia, the country, a short-stay flat competes with thousands of others: the national tourism administration counted 15,420 Airbnb listings with more than 30,000 beds in December 2025. Airbnb says it ranks listings on four things: quality, popularity, price compared with similar listings nearby, and location. The owner controls the first three, and the listing itself, its photos, title, description and accuracy, drives quality and popularity before the first review arrives.
This guide sets out what the platforms ask for, in figures, and how to apply it to a flat in Tbilisi, Batumi or a ski resort: the photos to take, how to write the title and description, which languages to cover, how guests get in, and the rules that decide badges and reviews. Pricing has its own guide, linked below.
The numbers to know
| Item | Airbnb | Booking.com |
|---|---|---|
| Photo size | At least 1024 x 683 px, landscape | At least 2048 x 1080 px, landscape; 4000 x 3000 preferred |
| Photo count | No official minimum for homes; every room in the photo tour needs at least 1 | At least 4 per room; only the first 45 are shown |
| What guests see first | The first 5 photos on the listing, the first 1 in search | The gallery order you set |
| Title | Advice: fewer than 50 characters | Set by the property name |
| Review window | 14 days after checkout, both sides | 3 months after checkout, guests only |
| Top host status | Superhost: rating 4.8, 90% replies, cancellations under 1%, 10 stays | Genius: score 7.5 and 3 reviews |
Photos: the shot list
Airbnb asks for photos in landscape format, at least 1024 x 683 pixels, taken in daylight with the blinds open and the lights on, and showing the inside, the outside and the neighbourhood. New photos are sorted into rooms by Airbnb's photo tour, and a room appears in the tour only if it has at least 1 photo. The first 5 photos form the cover of the listing, and the first one is the large image guests see in search results, so choose it deliberately.
A practical shot list for a one-bedroom flat:
- The cover: the best room in daylight, or the view if it is the reason to book.
- The living area from 2 corners, so guests understand the layout.
- The bedroom with the bed made, plus the wardrobe or storage.
- The kitchen, with the hob, fridge, kettle and coffee maker visible.
- The bathroom, showing the shower and the washing machine if it is there.
- The balcony and the view at the time of day it looks best.
- The workspace and the air conditioner or heater.
- The building entrance, the lift and the street, which help with arrival.
Before the shoot, clear the surfaces, remove personal items, put out fresh linen and towels, and fix anything broken. Do not use editing, including AI tools, to hide flaws or add features that do not exist: Airbnb's rules for hosts allow it to remove such content and, in serious cases, refund guests from the host's payout. Keep the photos current, too, because Airbnb's location check asks hosts to photograph an inside area that must match a photo on the listing.
Hiring a photographer or doing it yourself
A modern phone in good daylight meets Airbnb's size rule easily; what professionals add is light, angles and editing. Prices in Georgia are mostly quoted on request. One Tbilisi studio that also works in Batumi publishes USD 25 per room or space with unlimited edited photos and video from USD 200; by our arithmetic a one-bedroom flat with 5 spaces would cost about USD 125. Aerial shots need care: the Civil Aviation Agency requires drones of 250 g or more to be registered, so hire an operator who has done so rather than flying your own over the city.
The title
Airbnb's guidance for titles, published in February 2026, is short: use fewer than 50 characters, because longer titles are cut in search; capitalise only the first word; avoid emojis, symbols and strings of exclamation marks; and do not repeat what search already shows, such as the city, the number of beds or the word "new". What remains is the one thing that sets the flat apart. Compare these approaches:
- Weak: "NEW!!! Beautiful apartment Batumi 2 beds sea".
- Better: "Sea view studio, 5 minutes to the beach".
- Better: "Quiet flat with balcony by Vake Park".
On Booking.com the property name plays this role; keep it plain and descriptive, and put selling points in the description and facilities.
The description
Airbnb divides the description into a summary followed by sections on the property, guest access, interaction with guests and other details. Its advice is to keep the text brief because guests scan it, to lead with the most important information, not to repeat the amenities list, and to disclose challenges. For a flat in Georgia, the points guests ask about most often belong in the first lines:
- The distance on foot to the beach, the Old Town, the metro or the ski lift.
- The floor, and whether there is a lift and a generator for power cuts.
- Heating and cooling, and hot water.
- Parking, if any, and how to reach the building from the airport.
- Honest drawbacks: construction nearby, a steep street, noise from a busy road.
Disclosing a drawback costs fewer bookings than a review that mentions it, because accuracy is one of the 6 categories guests rate.
Which languages to write in
Visitors to Georgia come mainly from neighbouring and Russian-speaking countries. In 2025 the national tourism administration recorded about 1.58 million visits from Russia, 1.25 million from Turkey, 948,000 from Armenia, 402,000 from Israel and 292,000 from Azerbaijan, followed by Kazakhstan, Belarus, India, Ukraine and China; visits from the European Union and the United Kingdom reached a record 499,890. Airbnb translates descriptions, reviews and messages automatically into more than 60 languages, so the original text matters most. A clear English description with a short Russian section on arrival and house rules covers most guests; in Batumi, where many visitors cross from Turkey by land, a Turkish line on check-in can help.
Amenities: list what is there, nothing more
Tick every amenity the flat really has, because guests filter by them, and none that it lacks, because a missing item becomes an accuracy complaint. Air conditioning and a kitchen are standard in Batumi listings, so they keep you in the results rather than lift you above them. What makes a difference is specific: a real desk and chair for remote workers, a washing machine for longer stays, blackout curtains, a hairdryer, an iron, and in the mountains a ski locker or boot dryer. If you mention internet speed, measure it and state the figure you measured.
Check-in and house rules
Airbnb lets hosts choose a smart lock, keypad, lockbox, building staff available around the clock, or an in-person greeting. Guests see the method when they book, but the detailed instructions only 48 hours before arrival, so write them for someone arriving tired at night: the building entrance, the floor, which door, how the lock works and whom to call. Airbnb notes that self check-in may not be available in every country. Georgian electronics retailers sell smart locks from about GEL 299 to GEL 999, and a keypad lock spares you key handovers and lost keys.
House rules should cover the number of guests, quiet hours (local rules treat 23:00 to 08:00 as night), smoking, parties and pets. Two local points belong in the message you send before arrival. Foreign tourists must hold health and accident insurance for their stay in Georgia under the Law on Tourism, with minimum cover reported at GEL 30,000. And we found no duty for a private host to register foreign guests with the authorities; a new state register of foreigners started on 1 September 2026, and reports on it do not mention hosts.
Booking.com: different rules
Booking.com's photo rules are stricter than Airbnb's: landscape photos of at least 2048 x 1080 pixels, at least 4 photos of each room, at least 1 of the bathroom, plus the entrance and the outside of the building; no filters, watermarks, phone numbers, web addresses or QR codes. Only the first 45 photos appear on the property page. The Extranet shows a property page score from 0% to 100% for completeness; filling in facilities, policies and languages spoken raises it.
Two programmes affect visibility. Genius requires at least 3 reviews and a score of 7.5, and gives discounts of 10%, 15% or 20% to frequent travellers. Preferred Partner is open to the top 30% of properties in a destination with a performance score of 70% and a review score of 7, in exchange for a higher commission. Booking.com accepts reviews only from guests who stayed, within 3 months of checkout, may stop showing reviews older than 36 months, and gives recent reviews more weight.
Reviews, Superhost and Guest Favorites
On Airbnb, guest and host each have 14 days after checkout to review, and both reviews appear when both are submitted or when the window closes. Guests rate 6 categories: check-in, cleanliness, accuracy, communication, location and value. Superhost status, reviewed every quarter over the previous 12 months, needs an overall rating of 4.8, replies to 90% of messages within 24 hours, cancellations under 1%, and either 10 stays or 3 stays totalling 100 nights. The Guest Favorite badge goes to listings with at least 5 reviews in the past 4 years, at least 1 of them in the past 2 years, very high ratings across all categories and cancellations and quality issues of about 1%; Airbnb evaluates listings daily.
The first reviews weigh most, because a new listing has few. Price the first weeks to fill the calendar, ask guests to review in the checkout message, and answer every review, including the critical ones, briefly and without argument.
What lifts a listing in search
Airbnb's own explanation names the levers a host controls: quality photos and video; Instant Book, which may help a listing rank higher; fast replies for listings that are not instant; more open dates in the calendar; and a price that compares well with similar listings nearby. Booking.com ranks its default order on clicks and on bookings that are not cancelled, which depend on review scores. Our guide to seasonal pricing covers the price side.
Common listing mistakes
- Portrait photos, small files or dark rooms photographed at night.
- A cover photo of the building instead of the flat or the view.
- Titles in capitals, with emojis or the city name repeated.
- Amenities ticked that the flat does not have.
- Edited photos that hide wear or make rooms look larger.
- Check-in instructions that assume the guest knows the building.
- Contact details or QR codes in photos on Booking.com.
- A calendar left closed for months, which reduces visibility.
Building the listing step by step
Prepare the flat
Fix, clean, declutter, make the beds.
Shoot in daylight
Landscape, every room, the view and the entrance.
Choose the cover and first 5
The reasons to book, in order.
Write a short title
Under 50 characters, one selling point.
Write the description
Key facts first, drawbacks disclosed.
Tick the real amenities
Nothing that is not there.
Set up check-in
Method, instructions, rules and arrival message.
Open the calendar and price it
Then reply fast and collect reviews.
Risks and exceptions
- Accuracy complaints. Photos and amenities that promise more than the flat gives.
- Edited images. Can lead to removal and refunds.
- Slow replies. Weigh on ranking and Superhost status.
- Arrival problems. A late-night guest locked out writes the review.
- Copied text. Descriptions borrowed from other listings mislead and look alike.
Frequently asked questions
How many photos should an Airbnb listing have?
Airbnb sets no minimum for homes; cover every room, and on Booking.com take at least 4 per room.
What size should Airbnb photos be?
At least 1024 x 683 pixels, in landscape format.
How long can an Airbnb title be?
Airbnb advises fewer than 50 characters.
Which language should I write the listing in?
English, with a short Russian section; Airbnb translates the rest automatically.
Do I need a licence number on the listing in Georgia?
We found no such duty in the Law on Tourism.
Must I register foreign guests?
We found no such duty for private hosts.
How do I become a Superhost?
A 4.8 rating, 90% replies, under 1% cancellations and 10 stays in 12 months.
Is a professional photographer worth it?
Often, for the cover and the view; about USD 25 per room in Tbilisi.
Sources
- Taking great photos of your listing and setting up a photo tour, Airbnb (accessed 20 October 2026)
- Guidelines for writing your listing title, Airbnb, 2 February 2026 (accessed 20 October 2026)
- Write an appealing listing description, Airbnb (accessed 20 October 2026)
- How search results work, Airbnb (accessed 20 October 2026)
- Check-in methods and self check-in, Airbnb (accessed 20 October 2026)
- Superhost criteria, Airbnb (accessed 20 October 2026)
- Guest favorites and the Guest favorite badge, Airbnb (accessed 20 October 2026)
- Reviews for homes, Airbnb (accessed 20 October 2026)
- Ground rules for home hosts and location verification, Airbnb (accessed 20 October 2026)
- Airbnb Translation Engine, Airbnb press release via Hospitality Net, 9 September 2022 (accessed 20 October 2026)
- Photo requirements, Booking.com Partner Hub (accessed 20 October 2026)
- Becoming a Genius partner and Preferred Partner Programme, Booking.com Partner Hub (accessed 20 October 2026)
- How we work, Booking.com (accessed 20 October 2026)
- Statistical overview 2025, Georgian National Tourism Administration (accessed 20 October 2026)
- Law of Georgia on Tourism, consolidated 28 May 2026, Legislative Herald of Georgia (accessed 20 October 2026)
- Mandatory health insurance for visitors, Georgia Today, 16 December 2025 (accessed 20 October 2026)
- Unified registry of foreigners from September 2026, Georgia Today, 22 July 2026 (accessed 20 October 2026)
- Real estate photography in Tbilisi, Artmakers Studio (accessed 20 October 2026)
- Registration of unmanned aircraft, Georgian Civil Aviation Agency (accessed 20 October 2026)
- Smart door locks, Zoommer (accessed 20 October 2026)
Change log
- - Guide published from Airbnb and Booking.com help pages, GNTA 2025 visitor statistics, the Law on Tourism, Civil Aviation Agency drone rules and Georgian retailer prices.