Airbnb lets hosts put cameras inside your rental

Yes, Airbnb is totally cool with hosts placing video cameras inside their rentals. And yes, it’s creepy as hell. 

The issue of hidden cameras in Airbnbs is once again back in the news this week, after a family traveling through Ireland discovered a camera disguised as some sort of smoke detector in their rental. And while, according to CNN, Airbnb eventually sided with the family, the latest privacy-violating incident forces us to confront a larger structural issue sure to turn off many a renter: Airbnb policy permits hosts to put recording devices inside of their units. 

You read that correctly. There is no explicit Airbnb ban on hosts recording guests inside of the rented house or apartment in question. Airbnb does have rules governing the practice, but they shouldn’t necessarily put you at ease. 

For starters, Airbnb’s policy on cameras states that a host must “disclose all surveillance devices in their listings,” and that hosts are required to “disclose if an active recording is taking place.”

A good start, right? Well, maybe. When reached for comment, an Airbnb spokesperson provided the below screenshot of a real listing that the company says properly discloses surveillance devices. 

The disclosure, buried at the bottom of the listing, is troublingly vague. 

“Surveillance or recording devices on property,” it warns. “For added peace of mind, we have security cameras by gate entrance and common areas.”

Just what, exactly, is a common area? An outside back patio? The front hallway? A living room? It’s not clear. It would be all too easy for a renter to either overlook the disclosure, or misread it and think it applied to something like a back deck. 

We followed up with Airbnb for clarification, and a spokesperson replied that the above disclosure applies to the “property in general.” In other words, yeah, that’s all the warning you’re going to get if there’s a camera inside the rental.  

There is another important restriction that Airbnb puts on cameras inside of rentals, but this, too, shouldn’t completely assuage your concerns. The aforementioned policy states that the company “[prohibits] any surveillance devices that are in or that observe the interior of certain private spaces (such as bedrooms and bathrooms) regardless of whether they’ve been disclosed.”

However, that implicitly allows for hosts to put cameras in places — like living rooms or kitchens, perhaps — that Airbnb doesn’t consider to be “certain private spaces.” 

Essentially, you stumbling to the bathroom at 2 a.m. in a state of undress could be fair game for recording, as long as you have to pass through the living room to get there. You would be forgiven for finding that unsettling. 

It’s worth emphasizing again that, yes, Airbnb does ban hidden cameras, undisclosed recording devices of any kind, and cameras inside of bedrooms or bathrooms. But that really isn’t enough. As demonstrated by the Airbnb-provided example of a listing abiding by the rules, guests are still forced to navigate some serious gray areas when it comes to their privacy. And that’s not OK.

Making disclosures more prominent, and requiring hosts to specify the exact location and type of recording devices inside of a home, would go part of the way toward addressing the issue. But only part of the way. Banning interior recording devices completely is the only true policy that would assure guests that a host isn’t watching their almost every move — all with Airbnb’s tacit approval.