Sometimes Good Old Fashioned Eye Appeal Works (as long as you back it up with good content).

I’m all about content marketing — providing relevant information to people in search of it. But I have to admit — sometimes the eyes have it. Take for example Airbnb digital ads — from the moment I (and my sister) set eyes on them, we were hooked.

First, a simple disclaimer: I don’t like hotels. Never have. They depress me — so generic and impersonal, no matter the star rating. Even as a child, on the rare occasion we’d stay at a hotel, my enthusiasm for the place would last as long as my dip in the swimming pool.

So when I vented my frustration to my sister while trying to plan a getaway, I was primed for something more — human. I couldn’t take another photo of a scrubbed-clean hotel suite. She mentioned a digital ad she had seen. What drew her eye? Simple photos of getaways that just oozed personality. Rooms, apartments, homes, even castles for rent — anywhere in the world.

I. Couldn’t. Resist.

Turns out, neither could another 2 million people from around the world. Since launching its digital ad campaign featuring “pretty pictures of other people’s homes” Airbnb has, in just nine months, more than doubled their bookings. During that same time period, they increased their listings by more than eightfold. The gist of the campaign was to not only get more people interested in renting their listings, but to get those same people to list their own abodes as rentals as well. It worked. Airbnb increased their listings from less than 10,000 to more than 80,000. Currently, they tout that you can “Rent nightly from real people in 19,807 cities in 192 countries.”

Beyond the beauty shots, it gets even better. Because not only do they entice you with kitschy shots of great places to rent anywhere in the world, they provide a charming little YouTube video that explains how the whole thing works. After viewing the video, I was ready to book just about anywhere in the world. The Zen Loft in Spain. The Kasbah du Toubkal in Morocco. The Villa Boubouki in Greece. The modest Spruce House West in Idaho. And my personal favorite — the Old Stone House in Tuscany.

The beauty of it is this: they also provide you with plenty of user-generated content. Ratings of both those who lease and those who rent. House rules. Videos. Directions. Maps. Calendars. Points of interest. Profiles of those leasing the places. In other words, they humanized the whole experience — digitally.

The point of all this? Well, if you’re looking to get away — I’ve just pointed you to a great site that offers plenty of potential for a more personal travel getaway. Beyond that? Get into the mind of your consumer. Airbnb correctly gambled that the beauty shots of their places would get them plenty of hits, but they backed up the beauty with plenty of brawn — good content from all sorts of sources.

Airbnb — Travel Like a Human. Indeed.