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How to Find Hidden Cameras in Your Airbnb

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Re: How to Find Hidden Cameras in Your Airbnb

#101

Post by TeMPOraL »

_mghw wrote: post #93
TeMPOraL wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those places you're looking for are called hostels . They're cheaper and there's likely more of them than hotels in any given place. They're also legal and don't break the social contract. EDIT: I'm sorry, I only just realized that "hostel" in Europe means something entirely different from "hostel" in the US. What I mean by "hostel", per how we use this term in Poland, is a cheaper version of a hotel, where you still…

What?! Hostels suck. In principle, hostels have everything. A fridge, a kitchen and so on. In practice, though, you have to label all your food because there is one fridge for 50 people. You need to share the kitchen with everyone else too. Privacy is limited. Noise is biblical. Fucking party dickhead bros everywhere ruining everything. Creaky floorboards and noisy doors. I've done hostels all over Europe, and while…

I made an edit in my comment. Must be a US/Europe term difference. I don't know what the horror show you described is called in my part of Europe, but over here, hostels have nothing to do with shared fridge for 50 people, or limited privacy. They're just cheaper hotels. Kind of like a motel, except not optimized for cars, and usually in an apartment building.

Re: How to Find Hidden Cameras in Your Airbnb

#102

Post by TeMPOraL »

danaris wrote: post #92
TeMPOraL wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those places you're looking for are called hostels . They're cheaper and there's likely more of them than hotels in any given place. They're also legal and don't break the social contract. EDIT: I'm sorry, I only just realized that "hostel" in Europe means something entirely different from "hostel" in the US. What I mean by "hostel", per how we use this term in Poland, is a cheaper version of a hotel, where you still…

> and there's likely more of them than hotels in any given place. Not in America. You might find a few in & near major cities, but hotels and motels are everywhere , bed & breakfasts are fairly common, and AirBnBs are plentiful.

So what's the correct term for "a cheap hotel, usually without a minibar in the room"? Because that's what we call a "hostel" over where I live, and I assume in the rest of Europe.

Re: How to Find Hidden Cameras in Your Airbnb

#103

Post by exergy »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #101
_mghw wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What?! Hostels suck. In principle, hostels have everything. A fridge, a kitchen and so on. In practice, though, you have to label all your food because there is one fridge for 50 people. You need to share the kitchen with everyone else too. Privacy is limited. Noise is biblical. Fucking party dickhead bros everywhere ruining everything. Creaky floorboards and noisy doors. I've done hostels all over Europe, and while…

I made an edit in my comment. Must be a US/Europe term difference. I don't know what the horror show you described is called in my part of Europe, but over here, hostels have nothing to do with shared fridge for 50 people, or limited privacy. They're just cheaper hotels. Kind of like a motel, except not optimized for cars, and usually in an apartment building.

Ohh! Yep, communication breakdown. What you describe certainly sounds much better than the hostels I'm familiar with.

Re: How to Find Hidden Cameras in Your Airbnb

#104

Post by risyachka »

Airbnb is not evil. Tourists that don't care or follow the rules are. Without Airbnb, they will bring the same problems just to other people in other places.

Many hotels do charge unjustified amounts of money, so I am personally happy there is an option to pay reasonable money for good service. Also, it's not like hotels don't have their share of problems. Many hotels in many countries offer you pure garbage when you arrive, mix rooms, bad food, etc. And in many hotels, you can't sleep because of loud tourists or your hotel neighbors. With Airbnb when you find a listing with 30+ 5star reviews, at least you are sure it matches pictures and description.

So obviously, Airbnb has its flaws, just like any other service. But hotels are definitely not the solution to them, at least from a tourist's point of view, though I absolutely see how they are for some local residents.

Re: How to Find Hidden Cameras in Your Airbnb

#105

Post by TeMPOraL »

exergy wrote: post #103
TeMPOraL wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I made an edit in my comment. Must be a US/Europe term difference. I don't know what the horror show you described is called in my part of Europe, but over here, hostels have nothing to do with shared fridge for 50 people, or limited privacy. They're just cheaper hotels. Kind of like a motel, except not optimized for cars, and usually in an apartment building.

Ohh! Yep, communication breakdown. What you describe certainly sounds much better than the hostels I'm familiar with.

Yeah, I started reading the comments in surprise, and immediately headed to English Wikipedia, which revealed the depth of the mistake I made.

Re: How to Find Hidden Cameras in Your Airbnb

#106

Post by chirau »

gpvos wrote: post #71
chirau wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An example is not a definition. Like i said, what is common courtesy and where? What is an a-hole? You mention these terms as if they have a universal definition, they don't. Chewing gum in Singapore could be an a-hole move. Is it in the USA? So what gives? And thanks to all my know-better self-righteous downvoters. I didn't know questions were inappropriate.

Commenting about being downvoted is inappropriate.

I take it it's not common courtesy??

Re: How to Find Hidden Cameras in Your Airbnb

#107

Post by danaris »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #102
danaris wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> and there's likely more of them than hotels in any given place. Not in America. You might find a few in & near major cities, but hotels and motels are everywhere , bed & breakfasts are fairly common, and AirBnBs are plentiful.

So what's the correct term for "a cheap hotel, usually without a minibar in the room"? Because that's what we call a "hostel" over where I live, and I assume in the rest of Europe.

Motel. They're usually what you'd expect from the lowest end of hotels, and (at least around here) a great many of them are left over from the '50s through the '70s—the pre-interstate era, where driving to visit somewhere several hours away usually meant stopping in some little town overnight.

I haven't personally stayed in one, because I have enough money that I'd never have to, but the impression I have is that one would contain a bed, a desk, a chair, a not-entirely-spotless bathroom, and not much else.

Re: How to Find Hidden Cameras in Your Airbnb

#108

Post by TeMPOraL »

risyachka wrote: post #104

Airbnb is not evil. Tourists that don't care or follow the rules are. Without Airbnb, they will bring the same problems just to other people in other places. Many hotels do charge unjustified amounts of money, so I am personally happy there is an option to pay reasonable money for good service. Also, it's not like hotels don't have their share of problems. Many hotels in many countries offer you pure garbage when you…

Now for the counterargument:

Airbnb is evil, because it facilitates and profits from rule and lawbreaking, up to and including turning whole apartment buildings into pirate hotels, while spinning the tale that it's all about individuals occasionally renting out their primary place of residence for a couple of days. It's evil because while occasional random temporary sublets aren't a problem, they become a problem when they stop being random and instead become a coordinated, frequent phenomenon.

It's evil because its whole business model is making money by encouraging people to break social contract and do wrong against their neighbors.

Sure, hotels, motels, hostels, and all other legit accomodations aren't perfect. But this isn't the way to fix them.

Re: How to Find Hidden Cameras in Your Airbnb

#109

Post by jddj »

CaptainMarvel wrote: post #47
JacKTrocinskI wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I call the police the owners of the condo do not suffer any repercussions, the tourists making the noise might get fined and maybe they learn a lesson maybe not, either way a new batch of tourists arrives a few days later and I have to go through the same ordeal. If the owners were the ones making the noise I could call the cops on them, they would get fined repeatedly and after sometime a judge might get fed up a…

The tourists will leave negative reviews causing that listing to become unviable. They might also complain to AirBnB who might remove the listing (though this seems unlikely..)

This could actually be pretty effective. Airbnb is very quick about disappearing anything from their platform with a less than perfect rating.

I discovered this after stumbling across some darkly funny bad reviews and then diving into their API to look for more of the same.

..Not that I am neither condoning nor condemning finding a way to dock the property a star over time. Personally I'm pretty tolerant of happy neighbourly noise - I like to feel like I have life around me, and I have a fairly good memory of how loud a neighbor I was when I was younger.

Re: How to Find Hidden Cameras in Your Airbnb

#110

Post by sashimy »

JacKTrocinskI wrote: post #6

Or just go to a hotel! I have a condo in a building where most of the units are listed on Airbnb or Booking.com, quality of life for residents like me has been drastically reduced by noisy tourists that come for a weekend trip and have no regard for keeping it quiet or keeping the shared spaces clean. I hope more cities begin to ban Airbnb. Tourists belong in hotels not in buildings where families try to live their d…

Or maybe just read the article, there is a link to a Desertsun article about cameras found in Palm Springs hotel bathroom.

Even if there is laws this doesn't mean that hotels are free from pervert.

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