Article in *The Atlantic:* AirBnB Has A Hidden-Camera Problem

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The Atlantic reports:

Airbnb Has a Hidden-Camera Problem

This is not good. I have 2 takeaways from this article:

  1. Air needs to do a better job vetting hosts and enforcing camera rules; and
  2. Air’s contractors need to do a much better job training their lowest level CS folks on Air’s procedures and rules before ever letting them answer the phone!

This is the kind of crap that makes folks leary of every trying AirBnB.

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There was a news story on CBS (maybe NBC) about a week ago that covered the problem with cameras in Airbnbs, hotels and other public places.

I see a potential guest scam too - guests could bring their own outlet camera, install it, take pictures of the camera, complain blaming the unsuspecting host then get a refund for their stay. You know there are people out there who do this kind of thing.

It’s like this customer I had at the fast food joint I worked at as a teenager. He ate half his burger then brought it to the counter to complain it wasn’t cooked enough. We apologized and gave him a second burger which he ate half of, complained again quite loudly and demanded a refund which he got.

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I have read stories of guests finding cameras in the bedrooms/bathrooms of Airbnbs. In one case, the camera was hidden by a previous guest. The camera connected to the host’s WiFi network and uploaded footage to the internet.

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No the whole world has a camera problem.

Airbnb can’t really enforce the policy because the policy says you have to disclose if there are recording devices, but not each device individually. There are probably 40 different devices in my home capable of recording that fit into the description Airbnb gives.

Any mechanism that can be used to capture or transmit audio, video, or still images is considered a surveillance device. This includes but is not limited to things like Wi-Fi cameras (e.g. Nest Cam or Dropcam), nanny cameras, web cameras in computer monitors, baby monitors, mounted or installed surveillance systems, decibel and device monitors, and smart phones with video and/or audio recording capabilities.

So we got my smart phone, the 3 old smart phones in my drawer. All of my 7 TV’s are smart TV’s and have some sort of microphone. There’s the playstation connect. The Xbox. Amazon Alexa. My tablets. The stereo can record. My laptop has a built in camera. The PC has a microphone hooked up to it for karaoke. The Ecobee itself and the sensors detect movement and that probably qualifies. I also have a couple of snapshot cameras that I used to use before I had a smart phone but keep just because they work. That’s before we get to the actual CCTV system. There’s 10 cameras hooked up outside, 6 more sitting in a box in the garage (still have to disclose if its in or around a listing).

Obviously I can’t disclose all of that and that changes from day to day. Some common sense has to be applied. I just say ‘The driveway is on CCTV’ in the house rules and I think that covers it. But if Airbnb relaxed their requirement, some dirtball would probably take advantage of the system. So some discretion is required in enforcing the policy.

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I’m in a facebook group and someone just posted about discovering a camera in a home (in Europe) and how dissatisfied they are wit Airbnb’s response. They claim it’s been weeks, Airbnb deems it “case closed” and the host’s listing is still up.

One commenter said this “One of the many reasons why I’ll never stay in an Air BnB. All AirBnB owners receive many, many offers to stream their feeds to an offshore aggregator, who then streams those feeds out to paying viewers. The AirBnB owner gets paid for this (if they are shady enough to accept the offer).”

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** AirBnB owners receive many, many offers to stream their feeds to an offshore aggregator**

It appears that I am not on the offshore aggregators “A” list (or “B” or “C” list either).

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Me either. But the point isn’t so much that this probably doesn’t happen often, relatively speaking, but that posts like this are out there scaring people away.

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:joy: Ridiculous! Sorry folks its nothing most of the rest of us want to see!

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That whole thread is full of people dogging Airbnb. I’m just not going to bother with it. But after spending so much time here seeing the pro-host view it’s an eye opener to see the other side.

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Although an unusual occurrence, this brings up one very good reason to change the WiFi password often.

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Old topic, in fact so old that with the correct browser :wink: you can see the mould.

Closed for housekeeping purposes.

@ApacheMagic nothing to do with you, feel free to start a fresh topic relating to cameras, when you can.

JF

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