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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

#271

Post by mrguyorama »

bluejekyll wrote: post #181
noxToken wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>This is one of the reasons I don't stay in airbnbs - the system breaks the social contract. But it doesn't. People are breaking the social contract by not respecting the area. If I invite friends from out of town over for the weekend, is that breaking the social contract? If I'm going away for 2 weeks, and I have friends house sit for the duration, is that breaking the social contract? Tourists and visitors existing…

> It would have been a better use of everyone's time to knock and let us know. Sadly, too many people now are afraid of conflict, even small conflict, they prefer to call the police rather than deal with others directly. They don’t want to deal with it themselves. That anxiety I’m sure goes up with unknown Airbnbers, and so raises the likely good that people will probably call the police instead.

It shouldn't be my job to police some Valley company's profit center. They don't pay me a dime

Re: How to Find Hidden Cameras in Your Airbnb

#272

Post by mrguyorama »

intricatedetail wrote: post #25

I had a couple of situations where airbnb was a life saver (victim of abusive relationship). There are not many places where a male can seek a shelter as most of them are being targeted towards women and children. In my city hotels are extremely expensive so airbnb was a good option to have. I understand that tourists can be nuisance but I wouldn't like it to be banned.

Shouldn't we fix that by acknowledging that men can be the victims of abuse instead of forcing those in lower income areas to deal with the downsides of tourists?

Re: How to Find Hidden Cameras in Your Airbnb

#273

Post by vangelis »

mbostleman wrote: post #241
noxToken wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>This is one of the reasons I don't stay in airbnbs - the system breaks the social contract. But it doesn't. People are breaking the social contract by not respecting the area. If I invite friends from out of town over for the weekend, is that breaking the social contract? If I'm going away for 2 weeks, and I have friends house sit for the duration, is that breaking the social contract? Tourists and visitors existing…

I'd also like to see some data on the loud and unruly complaints. Of course those that have had problems are going to be the loudest voices, but it's anecdotal. I have friends in a nearby suburban neighborhood (we live in a heavily seasonal tourist area) where, amazingly, the HOA allows vacation rentals and they have the opposite impression: they have told me that they have always heard that vacation renters are loud…

Could be self selection for people who would pick their vacation rental in a suburban neighborhood with a HOA?

Re: How to Find Hidden Cameras in Your Airbnb

#274

Post by alistairSH »

Symbiote wrote: post #246
alistairSH wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hmmm, unless things have changed since I backpacked western Europe, hostels in London|Barcelona|Florence|Paris are dorm-style with shared bathrooms and other facilities. So, it's not a "Europe" thing either. As a 40-something professional, I would never stay in a hostel - I'm too old for that crap. I want a nice bed, a small living room, and a small kitchen.

If it says "we have a lounge where you can meet people, and info on trips" it's a backpacker hostel. If it says "we have a great atmosphere, and go clubbing every night" it's a party hostel. If it says "we have family and dorm rooms, kitchens and car parking" it's probably for families or school trips. There are also hostels used by people who are essentially homeless, though I've never seen one advertised. I knew so…

"apart-hotel" isn't really something that exists in the US. And I had no idea it was a searchable term in some online booking tools.

Somebody mentioned extended-stay hotels elsewhere as the closest analog in the US, but they tend to be focused on business travelers, and not always located in tourist areas. For example, there are a ton of extended-stay hotels near my office, but that's 30 miles outside Washington DC in the heart of the northern VA internet/tech zone (AWS, Google, the remnants of AOL, etc).

Edit - I'm looking at Hotels.com now, searching Inverness UK from the US site. "apart-hotel" is not an option under "Accommodation Type". Apartment is a distinct type from hotel, and it appears to be a mix of what you describe (bocks of apartments managed for vacation lets) and individual apartments (Airbnb-style).

Re: How to Find Hidden Cameras in Your Airbnb

#275

Post by ghaff »

jkoudys wrote: post #226
Symbiote wrote: post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In at least some cases the tourist tax is only for tourists. Business visitors don't need to pay the tax, if they show some evidence that it's a business trip. An example is Cologne's "Culture tax": https://www.stadt-koeln.de/politik-und-verwaltung/steuern-ge...

Interesting -- I'll look into that for NYC. I'm CTO at a startup based in Toronto, but we have a tiny space in Manhattan so it's pretty easy for me to schedule some business there and have my family tag along.

I've certainly never heard of hotel taxes only being for tourists in NYC. NYC is worse than most with all the taxes and fees they add. The worst was that for a number of years they had some Javits convention center enhancement fee. This was during a period when it wasn't even clear if the project was going ahead--though it eventually did.

Re: How to Find Hidden Cameras in Your Airbnb

#276

Post by randyrand »

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…

Not everywhere has hotels.

Re: How to Find Hidden Cameras in Your Airbnb

#277

Post by Joeri »

terryf wrote: post #53
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…

This is one of the reasons I don't stay in airbnbs - the system breaks the social contract. The reason hotels are more expensive is because they have to follow a bunch of rules that makes everyone's life a bit better by having insurance for risks and zoning and so on. However you have to pay a bit more. So, if you ever find yourself complaining "I wish people did something in a not the absolute cheapest and effortles…

There are two ways to look at this.

One way is to say that uberized businesses are all like this: they remove costs from the sticker price and externalize them. It's the ryanair model as applied to other things. Removing insurance and offloading the costs of not having insurance onto the users, removing proper benefits for staff and externalizing the costs from that onto society, removing quality of service items and requiring users to make up the difference (like doing your own housekeeping in an airbnb, or uber drivers having to provide their own vehicles).

The other way of looking at it is these services providing a middle ground. People may not wish the "full option" service, and are prepared to pay less to get less. Someone who wants the full service can still get it, there are now just more options.

Re: How to Find Hidden Cameras in Your Airbnb

#278

Post by ghaff »

alistairSH wrote: post #274
Symbiote wrote: post #246

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it says "we have a lounge where you can meet people, and info on trips" it's a backpacker hostel. If it says "we have a great atmosphere, and go clubbing every night" it's a party hostel. If it says "we have family and dorm rooms, kitchens and car parking" it's probably for families or school trips. There are also hostels used by people who are essentially homeless, though I've never seen one advertised. I knew so…

"apart-hotel" isn't really something that exists in the US. And I had no idea it was a searchable term in some online booking tools. Somebody mentioned extended-stay hotels elsewhere as the closest analog in the US, but they tend to be focused on business travelers, and not always located in tourist areas. For example, there are a ton of extended-stay hotels near my office, but that's 30 miles outside Washington DC i…

Sometimes I stay at "apart'hotels" in Europe. At least at the chain I've used a number of times, it's really just a hotel with 1.) Some cooking facilities like an extended stay place in the US and 2.) Cleaning is just weekly. They also tend not to have features like bars and gyms that many hotels do. But, really, at least for my uses it's pretty much a hotel with a 24-hour front desk.

Re: How to Find Hidden Cameras in Your Airbnb

#279

Post by AJ007 »

fastball wrote: post #227
pen2l wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If I invite friends from out of town over for the weekend, is that breaking the social contract? That's different. You know your friends. You don't know your airbnb guests, and the reviews are only worth so much. I can't find the article now, but some porn company had an easy time gaming airbnb by getting good reviews in the beginning and using the place for shoots on the 10th stay or whatever. And, as a person who…

Right, so the owner is potentially breaking the social contract by maybe allowing someone without respect for others to stay in their home (though ratings systems are generally used exactly to allow this type of vetting in advance). But the guest is not automatically breaking the social contract by staying in an AirBnB, which is what was implied by the OC.

I don’t know what a social contract means, but in some cases you are breaking condo/apartment contracts and in other municipalities the owner is breaking the law.

As far as I’ve ever heard, as a guest, the worst that is going to happen is you are going to be thrown out. Municipalities in general don’t want to scare away tourists or visitors, so I would be surprised to see any fines or penalties in that directions.

Some municipalities have very large and escalating fines for listing on AirBnb. Miami Beach is $20,000 for first offense and I believe doubles on the second. Search “Airbnb Miami Beach” on google, and it is going to take you a while to figure that one out. I doubt most visitors have any idea.

Re: How to Find Hidden Cameras in Your Airbnb

#280

Post by TeMPOraL »

ryanmarsh wrote: post #266
TeMPOraL wrote: post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the hotel cabal. "Hotel cabal" is bullshit. Slightly less bullshit than Uber's "taxi mafia", but still a steaming pile of bovine excrement. AirBnB is a multinational corporation. It's displacing not just large hotel chains, but also all the local legal forms of short-term accommodation - small hotels, hostels, motels, BnBs, etc. It really bewilders me that people have fallen for the same reality-inverting marketing…

If you can’t see the harm in a few companies owning the vast majority of hotel rooms (under many brands) then I don’t know how we can have a productive discussion about this. Having personally made “status” in the various hotel cabal loyalty programs, and having used AirBnb/VRBO/HomeAway/etc... many many times as well. I say with confidence that the hotel chains have negative externalities that exceed those of the va…

> If you can’t see the harm in a few companies owning the vast majority of hotel rooms (under many brands) then I don’t know how we can have a productive discussion about this.

I can see harm in it. But the solution isn't enabling yet another single company to expand and capture even more of the hospitality market.

> I say with confidence that the hotel chains have negative externalities that exceed those of the various short term rental sites.

Name three.

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