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Airbnb is banning indoor security cameras

theverge.com

381–390 of 527 posts

Re: Airbnb is banning indoor security cameras

#381

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it’s a good thing that laws are being passed to make it mostly impossible for AirBnbs to be in residential areas and to make it easier for residents to find affordable houses instead of tourists

I don't trust the laws. I think they're either implemented on behalf of the hotel chains, or else they only entrench people who already got "permits" for short term rentals, which now become basically golden tickets. I seriously doubt we'll see rents drop significantly anywhere.

And that’s how it should be - a hotel is a business in a commercial zone with professional management, pays taxes and doesn’t negatively affect home affordability

Re: Airbnb is banning indoor security cameras

#382
post #367

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"It would cost less for me to buy the groceries and make this at home".

Not that I always could or would care to go to the effort for a fancy meal, but in general it's going to be a lot cheaper to prepare most meals at home. Or maybe I'm misunderstanding you.

Of course it'll be cheaper to make most meals yourself. Especially since the imagined price doesn't tend to include rent, kitchen labor, service staff labor, or depreciating costs of kitchen appliances, which all go into the price of restaurant meals.

Re: Airbnb is banning indoor security cameras

#383

Earlier quoted context omitted.

6 beds (comprising of 4 different sizes of beds/sheets) make it quite wasteful if a bed is not used. It already takes ~5 hours to clean the home.

I would take the side of sanitation than taking a chance on having used sheets on the bed

My existing solution does, by asking guests to remove the sheets.

Obviously, if no sheets are removed, they would all be cleaned.

Re: Airbnb is banning indoor security cameras

#384

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Er, because they can. And do. As evidenced by the recent changes. The point is, you should either charge cleaning costs and not require the customer to do anything other than leave it in a “used” state - or - not charge cleaning costs but require the customer at least does some basic cleaning. Charging and also requiring customers to clean is unethical in my book.

Pardon what recent changes?

You don’t think the subject of this story isn’t a change of their rules and regulations?

Re: Airbnb is banning indoor security cameras

#385

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Be honest and build the fee into your rates. Why do you not do that? What is your rationale for charging it separately?

First, note that Airbnb shows it "built into the rates" when you put in the number of days you are staying when making a reservation. See this article from 2022: https://www.theverge.com/2022/11/7/23444561/airbnb-total-pri... But to answer your question - because it is a fixed cost per stay. If you stay two nights @ $250/night, you'll pay an additional $200 cleaning fee (so that would be $350 night if I were to "buil…

First off: https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/travel/airbnb-has-a-plan-...

And secondly if you reread my post you’ll see that I think it’s morally wrong to charge a cleaning fee AND expect guests to clean as well.

That’s double dipping.

Re: Airbnb is banning indoor security cameras

#386

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the average person doesn't know how to price restaurant food Could you be more specific?

"It would cost less for me to buy the groceries and make this at home".

Perhaps it's a bit pedantic, but that seems less like pricing restaurant food and more like pricing food in general, which is totally valid if you're on a fixed budget and considering how much to spend for food.

Re: Airbnb is banning indoor security cameras

#387

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find that abhorrent myself. What YOU pay for your cleaners is up to you. Stop nickel and dimming your customers - if you charge a cleaning fee then there's zero moral rights in my mind that you have to ask customers to also clean. Just up the nightly rates and build it in. When's the last time you stayed at a Hotel and found you got hit with a 'Room Cleaning" fee? What's next - a fee for allowing Heating to be used…

My cleaners travel 25 mins each way to my remote home and spend 5 hours cleaning. In a hotel, with identical setups in each room, they can do a lot more work in that time. My checkout list is clearly defined in my listing, which is doing great based on my ratings and bookings. The cleaning fee is not hidden. I would re-evaluate if I were not successful.

That’s entirely your problem.

And sure, your listing may be doing “great” now, but what if Airbnb change the rules as they may start looking at doing?

Sounds to me that your model may not be sustainable in the medium to long term. Life’s full of “we did like gangbusters last year until…”

Re: Airbnb is banning indoor security cameras

#388
post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unless somebody is making serious efforts and running hidden data wires, spy cams are pretty easy to find by the average nerd equipped with a cheapish spectrum analyzer by their RF signature.

Are they? Many are wifi connected, but record onto an sd card, which means they shouldn't be easily detectable, except when accessed, right?

Even if they are not sending data, there will be periodic communication between the access point and the device. Wifi power saving modes are pretty advanced and described here: https://howiwifi.com/2020/06/25/power-save-methods/.

Re: Airbnb is banning indoor security cameras

#389

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find that abhorrent myself. What YOU pay for your cleaners is up to you. Stop nickel and dimming your customers - if you charge a cleaning fee then there's zero moral rights in my mind that you have to ask customers to also clean. Just up the nightly rates and build it in. When's the last time you stayed at a Hotel and found you got hit with a 'Room Cleaning" fee? What's next - a fee for allowing Heating to be used…

My cleaners travel 25 mins each way to my remote home and spend 5 hours cleaning. In a hotel, with identical setups in each room, they can do a lot more work in that time. My checkout list is clearly defined in my listing, which is doing great based on my ratings and bookings. The cleaning fee is not hidden. I would re-evaluate if I were not successful.

I'm confused, if the dishwasher takes 4 hours and the cleaners clean for 5 hours, why do the guests have to start the dishwasher?

Re: Airbnb is banning indoor security cameras

#390

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would take the side of sanitation than taking a chance on having used sheets on the bed

My existing solution does, by asking guests to remove the sheets. Obviously, if no sheets are removed, they would all be cleaned.

And if your guest don’t remove the sheets after they sleep on them?
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