So unfair! Not cool to choose a location and then complain about what you chose. 
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Yeah @jkamm⌠I weighed that in my decision for sure⌠but weâll be remote hosts for 6 months out the year in a couple years, and want to make sure guests canât easily disable the video camera.
I have one more camera with solar battery charger to add on the back of the house and my security net will be complete!
Nice! I need to get a camera on the back of our house as well. But I hate that airbnb makes you disclose exactly where each camera is on a public webpage.
Letâs be honest: they canât make you do it. If you have a hidden camera OUTSIDE and no one finds it is it really there? It might be worth the risk in order to protect your stuff.
This morning I was talking to a host who told me he has a camera outside on his driveway and one inside his closet. He has stuff in the closet he doesnât want messed with and so he put a camera in there. I donât find any disclosure of the cameras in his listing and heâs had 33 reviews so far.
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No, but if you donât and the guest cancels their booking because of it, the host is penalized for the cancellation.
Absolutely. They might even kick you off the platform altogether. Each host has to assess their risk tolerance and weigh the pros and cons of each option for themselves. Thereâs a host on this forum with a camera inside his common areas. Itâs visible and itâs disclosed. I wouldnât stay there but plenty of others would. Iâm not sure why you hate that Airbnb wants you to disclose the locations of yours.
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Firstly, very sorry this happened, this kind of thing feels violating and stressful.
First thing to cure the smoky issue, is fix it. You will continue to get complaints and it will sadly show in your reviews. Youâve got to remedy it. Repaint all walls as that should take care of all âsmokinessâ so you wonât have any of that in the future. You wonât want a smoky smell lingering in the place. Just take a couple days to do that or hire it out and get that done. If you have old carpeting, use Odorban or some specialized cleaner to remove smells, if you canât afford to replace them. Seal all surfaces. In my place, we had severe odors, and we repainted everything, and refinished wood flooring, and youâd never know it was the same place.
Second, put up more cameras, and use a real setup. I currently have a wired 8 channel set up, high up on the building where people canât reach. In the instance that a guest did mess with one camera, itâs no matter, because there are 7 more. (I live on the property anyways so in my case this doesnât matter, they would have to deal with my smiling face). I am considering upgrading to a better system with more cameras. I use a wired setup because of the extreme temperatures in my area, wireless is not feasible, as the extreme temperatures kills the batteries.
The police have advised me in previous matters, that a game camera always works better than security systems. Itâs also very easy to install, and inexpensive. You can sort of hide them in trees, or even right on the building (in a âbirdhouseâ, even on a post as a birdhouse) etc. Be sure to get one that does not show an infrared light flash at night, so it is invisible to your guests. Aim that at your entrance if you desire. They can be tilted so they donât need to be directly at your entrance. You will have to dump footage every so often to clear out the SD card. Perhaps they have some now that can loop over, Iâm not sure.
In my area, where it is very cold, I mean very very cold (average negative 20 degrees F in the winter or lower), I use Energizer Lithium batteries in the game cams and those work well in extreme cold, and I understand, in heat as well. I do have to change them monthly in the extreme temps. Footage, you have to dump or check manually to empty the SD card, unless maybe game cams have been upgraded since I last bought one. I have two. They are a hassle to dump footage, but a lot less of a hassle when you actually need to use them. Very easy to just grab images from, to supply to Airbnb, police, etc. Not so easy to get footage from a security system, or to even FIND the footage you need on the security system. Very easy on the game cam, easy to scroll through dates and times.
One last thing, on Airbnb, I disclose that cameras are on the âexterior of propertyâ. I say nothing about them being at entrance. No need to walk dishonest guests right to the location of your cameras.
Good luck.
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If someone has suggestions beyond what I have already done, I am all ears! The place has ALL new paint and new carpet. I have scrubbed and scrubbed and even brought in a professional company to do a deep clean. I have air fresheners sitting on the furnace intake. I bought some super chemically smoke odor enzyme spray and sprayed it a few times in the couple spots where the smell lingers. I bought an ozone machine and have run it multiple times. (There is a risk of running it too much- killing all my houseplants and potentially ruining carpet and fabrics.) The smell is very mild and really only left in one part of the house. And I am very upfront in my listing that there is a slight cigarette smell from a previous tenant but that we are working really hard to get rid of it.
We actually even put in all new light switches, outlets, ceiling light fixtures, and bathroom fans, because all of those plastic components had absorbed the smell. We also replaced all window blinds.
You have to ELIMINATE any trace of smoke smell or you
will continue to get poor reviews. If you have carpet you may need to pull it up, repaint everything and send the drapes to the cleaners.
Good luck
RR
Please see my post from 40 minutes ago, 3 posts above this one.
Here is the airbnb policy on security cameras, found in their help section.
https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/887/what-are-airbnb-s-rules-about-electronic-surveillance-devices-in-listings
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I think they probably havenât updated their support pages, because this is what it actually says on the host page:
(checkbox) Surveillance or recording devices on property
Describe any device that records or sends video, audio, or still images. Specify each deviceâs location and whether it will be on or off.
Wow, sounds bad. You may have to resort to arson.
Sorry some entitles a hole decided it was ok to ruin your house.
RR
Delivered by carrier pigeon
lol. It wasnât actually our house at the time. We just bought it. I noticed a slight smell when we looked at the house, but neither my partner or my real estate agent noticed it, so I chalked it up to my super sensitive nose. And I really thought with all the remodeling and cleaning weâve done that the smell would go away.
Or in my case, exterior of property (ie, ALL EXTERIOR PROPERTY IS COVERED 
if this seriously ever becomes an issue. I think some of you may be looking into this a little too literally, and leading folks directly to your cameras. Why do that?
Because thatâs what the site tells us to do??
âSpecify each deviceâs location and whether it will be on or off.â That doesnât really seem open to interpretation to me. Itâs pretty clear what they expect.
We have a severe opiate addiction problem in my town, and thieves are stealing anything and everything. Most of the people in my neighborhood no longer post vacation pix on FaceBook until after they return home, because the junkies also have Facebook and are always looking for homes that are not occupied. They even check the âCrime In Juneauâ Facebook page to see when people report their activities. It wouldnât surprise me if they are checking AirBnB to see who has vacancies. This is a small town, and for someone who lives here and sees outside pix of the house itâs easy to find it. They can then read the AirBnB listing and see where your cameras are. Not a very smart thing for AirBnB to do! It would be better if you disclosed that you had cameras in your listing, and didnât let anyone to see the details of where they are until they booked. Thatâs one reason I havenât bought cameras like my neighbors have. The other reason is I donât really want to spend the money because I can ask my neighbors to see any activity. And in fact one of my next door neighbors let me know that some stranger was rummaging through my recycle bin to highgrade the aluminum cans.
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My mom was a very heavy smoker. I bought the house 6 months after she died, and the smell was gone from most of the rooms after new paint, but for one room where she sat and smoked the most, I had to cover the new paint with Kilz paint to encapsulate the odor, and then paint again with latex paint. No detectable odors after applying Kilz paint.
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Have a similar problem happening now. I have a fully disclosed ring motion activated light and camera on my drive way and approach to the house. Not a problem for the past year, but yesterday guest arrived as normal. Overnight they deactivated it (there is a switch with a sticker saying âleave on.â When I woke up, it was off. The ring lock and window and door sensors are working so I know itâs not a power failure or system problem,. Itâs just the light and camera.
I messaged the guest this morning; very nicely implied that it must have been mistakenly switched off and asking them to turn it back on. No reply at all for 9 hours. Not sure what to do? Any advise?