When you rent a Airbnb, you obviously stay on the private property of others. AAnd these owners all have different ideas about how to run their DIY hotel—and many of them love security cameras and other recording devices. On the one hand, it makes perfect sense: owners fear that the hikes they rent will destroy the place or commit crimes on their property. On the other hand, it’s pretty creepyespecially when recording equipment is hidden and you are not aware of it.
Complicating the issue of whether your Airbnb host is allowed to check you in is the overlap between Airbnb’s rules and applicable laws governing check-ins in the local area.
What is Airbnb’s policy regarding cameras and other recording devices?
Airbnb explicitly prohibits hidden recording devices of any kind. If you discover a camera or other type of recording device that has been hidden (in a smoke detector, alarm clock, or other location), you should report it to Airbnb and the police. However, Airbnb hosts may have recording devices outside the property to monitor the perimeter, and inside the property in common areas. Common areas are defined as places where you as a guest have no reasonable expectation of privacy, and include living areas and hallways. They are not allowed in bedrooms or bathrooms at all – and if a room normally considered a common area contains a bed, it is considered a bedroom and therefore cameras are not allowed.
Airbnb requires hosts to disclose recording devices on their property, so if you’re renting a property and only arrive to find cameras everywhere, you’ve got a legit beef. Some hosts use tricks to hide this information, such as listing it in a tiny font at the bottom of a listing. VRBO has a more restrictive policy which prohibits most recordings inside a property and requires guests to have the ability to disable devices inside the property.
One thing some hosts miss is that Airbnb has pretty broad definitions of check-in devices. Basically, anything that can save you counts, and that includes things like laptops or even smartphones lying around. So if a host has a computer in a room with a microphone and a webcam, they are supposed to disclose it to you because it could potentially be used to register. And for what it’s worth, Airbnb also explicitly prohibits guests to secretly register their hosts.
What does the law say about recording devices?
As you might expect in our perfectly functioning democracy, the laws regarding Airbnb guest registration are confusing, the best. At the federal level, there is a law prohibiting capturing images of “private areas” (i.e. our bathing suit areas) without someone’s consent if that person has a reasonable expectation of private life. This means that if your host informs you of a camera in the living room and you walk around naked like the day you were born, the host is perfectly within their rights, but if they mysteriously capture a video of you walking out of the shower, it is a federal crime. It is also illegal to record someone if your intention is to blackmail or otherwise harm them, although the intention may be difficult to prove.
As far as individual states go, it’s a mixed bag. Generally every state has some sort of law prohibiting recording someone when they have a reasonable expectation of privacy, and that’s about it: in 34 states, that’s all the protection you get. In other words, outside of bedrooms and bathrooms, all you have to protect yourself are Airbnb and VRBO rules.
The other 16 states have different levels of additional protection:
- In Kansas, New Hampshire, Maine, South Dakota and Delaware, Consent to covert surveillance must always be obtained and any recording device must be clearly visible.
- In Alabama, Florida and Minnesotait is explicitly illegal to use hidden recording devices in private spaces.
- In Hawaii, you can install all the cameras you want as long as you get consent from the registered people. In Arkansas you can even register people in private areas as long as they consent. And in Georgia you can install cameras anywhere, but only if they are clearly visible and easily identifiable.
- In California, any recording of any type of communication that could be considered confidential (i.e. not intended for public distribution) is illegal. This makes it virtually impossible for you to check into an Airbnb.
How to locate hidden cameras in an Airbnb
If you’re starting to get the creepy feeling of filming Jordan Peele being watched in your short-term rental, there are some easy ways to find hidden cameras:
- Use a flashlight with the lights off to look for glare on camera lenses.
- Look in vent covers and other openings in the wall where a small camera might be hidden.
- Unscrew and inspect smoke alarms and other devices mounted on the wall or ceiling.
- Use network scanning applications such as End search for connected devices on wifi
All of these techniques take a bit of patience and time, but can give you some peace of mind when you’re staying with someone else. If you do locate a camera that has not been disclosed to you, document it with photos, call the police and file a report. Then contact the platform through which you rented and file a complaint.
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