An Airbnb guest claims she found a hidden camera in her host’s bathroom, which sparked a police investigation.
In a TikTok video viewed over 500,000 times, user @brittttttttanyyyyyy held the apparent camera attached to a charger port. At the end of the video, she walked around the Airbnb, showing two police officers in the room. The text overlay on the video read: “Someone is about to catch a crime for invasive visual recording in our Airbnb bathroom.”
The Airbnb appeared to be located in Austin, based on an “Austin” wall installation shown in the video but could not be verified.
Sympathetic commentators said the script played out their worst nightmares. “I literally changed clothes in a dark closet at Airbnb the only time I stayed there,” user @boolin.boling wrote.
Another user claimed to have found hidden cameras as a cleaner. “I clean rental cabins in the Gatlinburg TN area…there are cameras all over these cabins where they aren’t supposed to be,” @mountainmom3 wrote.
In a statement to Newsweekan Airbnb spokesperson said, “Airbnb strictly prohibits ‘hidden cameras’ and recording devices of any kind in private areas such as bathrooms and bedrooms. We take this allegation very seriously. and our dedicated security team is investigating thoroughly.”
But this woman’s experience is not unique. In 2019, a couple sued an Airbnb landlord in San Diego after they allegedly found three hidden cameras in the bathroom and bedroom of their rental. That same year, vacationer Max Vest claimed to have found cameras facing the bed in his Miami Airbnb.
Anatoly Igolkin/iStock/Getty Images Plus
TikTok user @brittttttttanyyyyyyy said the camera in his rental wasn’t necessarily planted by his host, commenting below the video, “Guess the owners would be smart enough to hide it better, my best guess is that their cleaning service put it there.”
A video published by UK computer security researcher Marcus Hutchins shared tips for spotting hidden cameras in an Airbnb. He suggested investigating devices placed in suspicious locations, such as a fire alarm just above the bed. Then he advised to illuminate the device with a bright light: under the light, a camera lens shows a bluish reflection. He added that night vision cameras use infrared LEDs, which can be viewed in the dark using a forward-facing phone camera. Since hidden cameras can be very small, Hutchins encouraged customers to check holes in walls or fixtures facing a shower or bed. Hutchins’ video has 33.5 million views on TikTok.
Newsweek has reached out to @brittttttttanyyyyyyy for more information.
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