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Add per-photo descriptions/captions & alt text on Direct booking sites

Feature requestsDirect sites

Category: Direct booking site → Listing content

Problem Hospitable Direct doesn't let hosts attach a description or caption to individual property photos. Photos are managed under Properties → Details → Essentials → Manage photos — hosts can reorder them and tag one image for the Accessibility section, but there's no per-photo caption field that renders on the public Direct site. Channels like Airbnb support this, so hosts coming from those platforms expect parity.

Impact on hosts and guests

Photo-specific context (extra fees, seasonal availability, "not included" items, access rules, safety notes) has to be crammed into unrelated fields (main description, House Rules, Amenities) or omitted entirely.

Guests can misinterpret images — e.g., assuming an amenity is free/included when it isn't — leading to complaints, refund requests, and negative reviews after check-in.

Creates a competitive gap vs. Airbnb and other OTAs that support captions natively.

Hosts lose a natural place to merchandise upsells and highlight differentiators (view, layout, upgrades).

Proposed solution

Add an optional caption/description field on each photo inside Manage photos.

Render the caption on the Direct booking site — below the photo in the gallery view, and on hover/tap in the lightbox.

Keep it optional; photos without captions render as they do today.

Where feasible, sync captions to/from channels that support them (Airbnb first).

Acceptance criteria (rough)

Caption field per photo, character-limited (e.g., 250 chars).

Displays on Direct booking site gallery and full-screen viewer.

Editable in bulk photo manager.

Included in the property duplication flow.

Localization-ready (respects existing multi-language listing content patterns).

Evidence / signal

Customer request via Intercom conversation #215475857165422 (Sep 2026), explicitly citing Airbnb parity.

Worth cross-checking Featurebase and Intercom for prior mentions of "photo caption / photo description / describe photos" before submitting — likely not the first time this has come up.

Workaround today Mention photo-specific info in the main property description, House Rules, or Amenities.

Status: Backlog1 comment

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Comments1

  • Frances Rebollido

    Team•

    Oct 15

    Comments from a user:

    1. The per-photo description field already exists in Manage Photos, including a “Direct bookings photo description,” but the Direct site doesn’t output it anywhere. So this should be a smaller change than the post describes.

    2. Please use that description as each image’s alt text (with the shared description as a fallback), not only as a visible caption. Alt text helps Google index the photos and makes the site accessible to guests using screen readers.

  • Linked to Direct - Allow photo captions