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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

#51

Post by alistairSH »

0des wrote: post #15
spamizbad wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having someone's dog be on a porch for a few hours really doesn't seem like much of a violation. Wild animals do the same all the time.

What if the proprietor has a really bad allergy to animal dander?

Then they must not rent the property (on Airbnb or VRBO). Regardless of pet rules, Airbnb policy is to allow service animals in all units (only exception is shared units where the other occupants have health problems).

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/1869/assistance-animals

https://help.vrbo.com/articles/What-is-HomeAway-s-service-an...

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

#52

Post by falcolas »

pixl97 wrote: post #22
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.

And if you're running the spycams, this is why you get a good wifi system with VLANS to separate your traffic. Not saying you should run spycams, but always practice good network security.

Or keep them offline, recording to SD cards.

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

#53

Post by blankobj »

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.

If a guest were to try this at my Airbnb, I have in my house rules that guests may not disable security devices and an onsite inspection will be performed if they do. And that's exactly the type of guest I would immediately terminate their stay.

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

#54

Post by mtw »

spamizbad wrote: post #10
iab wrote: post #7

“So we broke the rules a bit and had pets, so what?” I get that this is a bit dystopian, but not hard to see why the man has installed these cameras

Having someone's dog be on a porch for a few hours really doesn't seem like much of a violation. Wild animals do the same all the time.

This is what the article author states. But how certain are you that the dog didn't actually poop on the property or entered indoors?

The author stated before that there were no dogs on the property but was forced to admit that there was indeed a dog. It is therefore plausible he is also taking liberties at his other statements

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

#55

Post by sgspace »

CaptainZapp wrote: post #35
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…

I don't think that I'll find any cameras, hidden or otherwise in a hotel room, which I rented anytime soon.

Depends what city you’re in

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

#56

Post by jwlake »

ed25519FUUU wrote: post #33
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.

I did this and the landlord contacted me saying the internet needed to stay on because he had a front doorbell camera. I’m not sure what Airbnb’s policy is here so I plugged it back in.

Small amount of googling: https://julianoliver.com/output/log_2015-12-18_14-39

Next time I'm in an airbnb I'm definitely nmap'ing and trying this out. ;)

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

#57

Post by oakfr »

dekhn wrote: post #9

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

Clients lying should not be a good motivation for a landlord to break the law. I'm not saying this landlord did, but am challenging your reasoning here.

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

#58

Post by elmalto »

herodotus wrote: post #46
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?

Op is probably talking about the additional guest (daughter) a night early and the dog on the property. IMO calling this breaking the rules is a bit of a stretch?

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

#60

Post by standardUser »

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…

Part of the appeal of staying in an AirBnB is to have more flexibility and independence than staying in hotel. But as hosts become more surveillant, at a certain point the roles are reversed and hotels once again become the better place for enhanced privacy and autonomy.
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