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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

#81

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…

You speak about walking a tightrope with your neighbors and needing a special exception and yet blame for any souring of that relationship falls on guests that you invite to your property.

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

#82
post #9

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

Politicians lie. What surveillance are they subjected to in order to prevent and correct their behaviour?

Lol this seems like a terrible example, because i _do_ want surveillance/oversight on politicians.

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

#83
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…

New upsell checkbox at AirBnB: rent a SCIF for your stay.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sensitive_compartmented_inform...

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

#84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They could state as much if it is a genuine safety concern. Or not risk renting their home to complete strangers.

They stated "no pets". That's pretty black and white. Why did they need to say "No, really, no pets!" I am utterly infuriated by the attitude that breaking rules is okay. It's all the more galling that our society rewards some rule breakers. When I'm feeling particularly petulant I can sort of understand how one would feel an attraction toward authoritarianism and totalitarianism. From a realpolitik perspective renti…

Service dogs exist and are required to be allowed (by Airbnb and VRBO policy, possibly by law depending on location). It is also forbidden to ask about them, require proof that they are trained/certified, or anything else like that.

If you have a severe allergy to animals, you shouldn't be renting your home to random strangers.

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

#85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They stated "no pets". That's pretty black and white. Why did they need to say "No, really, no pets!" I am utterly infuriated by the attitude that breaking rules is okay. It's all the more galling that our society rewards some rule breakers. When I'm feeling particularly petulant I can sort of understand how one would feel an attraction toward authoritarianism and totalitarianism. From a realpolitik perspective renti…

Sometimes things just happen. Maybe a friend comes by to say hi and brings their little doggy, unaware of your host's policy. Now, if I had read "no pets, we are very allergic and it can cause serious health problems" I will tell me friend to get the hell off the porch immediately! If it's simply a standard "no pets, no parties, blah blah" it probably wouldn't even occur to me that a dog on the porch could possibly b…

I become frustrated with people find or create "nuance" rather than when things just happen. There's a certain kind of person who seems to instinctively look for ways to edge just beyond breaking rules. It's usually for their convenience, and sometimes to get an unfair advantage. It's galling.

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

#86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They could state as much if it is a genuine safety concern. Or not risk renting their home to complete strangers.

They stated "no pets". That's pretty black and white. Why did they need to say "No, really, no pets!" I am utterly infuriated by the attitude that breaking rules is okay. It's all the more galling that our society rewards some rule breakers. When I'm feeling particularly petulant I can sort of understand how one would feel an attraction toward authoritarianism and totalitarianism. From a realpolitik perspective renti…

People will break fewer rules the fewer rules you have - and people will also use their common sense to interpret the rules. “No pets” doesn’t seem like it precludes “friend drops by with a pet and we stay on the porch”, in the same way that “no parties” doesn’t seem like it precludes “four friends come for dinner one night”.

If you’re renting a house people will expect to use it like one, no matter how many rules are trying to make it into some more restricted experience.

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

#87

I believe having one of those anti-spy cam devices is now a travel necessity if you're staying in any modern Airbnb. There's too much to gain and too little to lose for any landlord. And spy cams are so cheap!

Do they actually work?

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

#88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They stated "no pets". That's pretty black and white. Why did they need to say "No, really, no pets!" I am utterly infuriated by the attitude that breaking rules is okay. It's all the more galling that our society rewards some rule breakers. When I'm feeling particularly petulant I can sort of understand how one would feel an attraction toward authoritarianism and totalitarianism. From a realpolitik perspective renti…

Service dogs exist and are required to be allowed (by Airbnb and VRBO policy, possibly by law depending on location). It is also forbidden to ask about them, require proof that they are trained/certified, or anything else like that. If you have a severe allergy to animals, you shouldn't be renting your home to random strangers.

I dropped on an edit. I don't consider service animals pets.

Having worked with the public in a variety of retail and volunteer capacities over the years I would agree, and expand, to say that short term rentals of your home to strangers is always a bad idea. People are, for the most part, poor stewards of anything that doesn't belong to them, and terrible at following rules.

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

#89
post #81

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…

You speak about walking a tightrope with your neighbors and needing a special exception and yet blame for any souring of that relationship falls on guests that you invite to your property.

I had to provide letters of support from my neighbors to the county. I have several house rules - mostly on not exceeding the number of guests in the reservation, providing the names of the guests, acknowledging no visitors, and no loud noise at night. So yes, I'd blame the guest if they brought an excessive number of people to my property, were loud, obnoxious, and otherwise annoyed my neighbors.

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

#90
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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).

Yeah, I think those are based on retroreflection.
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