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Our vacation rental had surveillance cameras. The landlord used them a lot

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Re: Our vacation rental had surveillance cameras. The landlord used them a lot

#41

Post by samstave »

fimdomeio wrote: post #8

Well this sounds very creepy, but imagine for a moment that the landlord might only be checking if there's child pornography going on at his house, then I guess it would be ok. Also he pinky sweared not to share those images with anyone else. Now imagine the landlord is not a person but instead a fluffy cloud...

We got this amazing Airbnb in Tahoe last year, and it had an electric anti-bear fence around it and a lot of cameras.

The instructions for getting settled in the house were first how to disable the electric fence then how to unplug the surveillance system during the stay, and obviously how to reenable them all on checkout.

This is how it should be done.

Re: Our vacation rental had surveillance cameras. The landlord used them a lot

#42

Post by falcolas »

Tenoke wrote: post #12
cs702 wrote: post #4

Video cameras are continually getting better, cheaper, and smaller, and therefore will be installed everywhere.[a] In coming years, if you're in a building or house that is not yours , odds are there will be one or more cameras taking candid videos/photos of you as you go about your daily life. [a] Take a look at the size of the lens on the back of your mobile phone. That's how small high-quality cameras already are…

There's devices and ways to detect hidden cameras. There's a risk to being caught putting hidden cameras. I doubt they'll be everywhere but it is a problem.

None of which are universally effective. Some rely upon RF detection, others the presence of IR illumination, and yet others the reflection of the CMOS chip.

But, a hardwired camera with no active illumination, behind an opaque sheet of IR transparent plastic (basically the kind of plastic on many modern electronics) would be incredibly hard to detect (without tearing everything apart).

Re: Our vacation rental had surveillance cameras. The landlord used them a lot

#43

Post by darkarmani »

mikeyouse wrote: post #27

If cell phone signal is good enough for decent internet coverage at your rental, just unplug the router so you don't have to worry about being watched all the time. One of the benefits of everything going cloud-based is that most of these stupid devices don't work without wifi/internet.

That's actually an excellent idea!

Re: Our vacation rental had surveillance cameras. The landlord used them a lot

#44

Post by AlbertCory »

throwiyjdjejh wrote: post #18

there's a trick to find hidden cameras in airbnbs: join their wifi network and use nmap to scan for all network devices in your subnet. then cross reference the mac addresses/try to reach the webinterface of the devices. this should catch most webcams.

If their router is like mine, a guest joins a separate network, and is not able to join the one I use. So they would not find all the devices.

Re: Our vacation rental had surveillance cameras. The landlord used them a lot

#46

Post by herodotus »

blankobj wrote: post #30

Ignoring this author for breaking the house rules and thinking he is in the right. The reality is Airbnb's are slowly being regulated away due to both the poor behavior of guests and bad hosts that have allowed guests to remain unchecked. All it takes is one bad stay for your reputation with your neighbors to be ruined. I am on good terms with mine, but realize that, if I hosted a stay that brought too many guests or…

I am missing something: which house rules did the author break?

Re: Our vacation rental had surveillance cameras. The landlord used them a lot

#47

Post by oakfr »

blankobj wrote: post #30

Ignoring this author for breaking the house rules and thinking he is in the right. The reality is Airbnb's are slowly being regulated away due to both the poor behavior of guests and bad hosts that have allowed guests to remain unchecked. All it takes is one bad stay for your reputation with your neighbors to be ruined. I am on good terms with mine, but realize that, if I hosted a stay that brought too many guests or…

I can relate, as a neighbor frustrated by rogue airbnb guests next door. That being said, as an airbnb customer, I could not imagine a split second renting a place with cameras checking on me. I haven't seen any so far. I may be too 2019, though.

Re: Our vacation rental had surveillance cameras. The landlord used them a lot

#48

Post by CaptainZapp »

eplanit wrote: post #20

Do laws prevent 'regular' hotels from doing this?

Why would a hotel do that?

Cameras in the lobby, the hallways and the elevators, sure. But in a hotel room?

That's a great way to kill your business in no time.

Re: Our vacation rental had surveillance cameras. The landlord used them a lot

#49

Post by AlbertCory »

only_as_i_fall wrote: post #34
dekhn wrote: post #9

hmm, seems like the landlord was justified. the client literally lied about having a pet.

Eh, if you only know someone had a pet because you spied on them I tend to think you're just being nosy. Obviously it doesn't apply here specifically, but there's a reason evidence obtained illegally can't be used to prosecute criminals. If we accept that two wrongs make a right then everyone is just worse off.

"Evidence obtained illegally" applies to criminal trials. These people were not facing even a civil trial -- they were facing being blacklisted and/or not getting their deposit back.

Re: Our vacation rental had surveillance cameras. The landlord used them a lot

#50

Post by scarecrowbob »

blankobj wrote: post #30

Ignoring this author for breaking the house rules and thinking he is in the right. The reality is Airbnb's are slowly being regulated away due to both the poor behavior of guests and bad hosts that have allowed guests to remain unchecked. All it takes is one bad stay for your reputation with your neighbors to be ruined. I am on good terms with mine, but realize that, if I hosted a stay that brought too many guests or…

" It's tough out there for Airbnb hosts to be good neighbors."

It's possible that it might be a priori impossible.

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