Worldwide, you can book accommodation through Airbnb, for example for a city break or round trip. But what many vacationers are not aware of is that they may be watched by the landlord. While staying overnight in someone else's home, cameras may be filming visitors just like that. On what scale does this occur? And where in the world are renters most often filmed?
In the description of Airbnb offerings, hosts must now mention the presence of a (security) camera. An analysis of nearly one million Airbnb lodgings by VPNgids.nl shows that 1 in 132 Airbnb lodgings have one or more cameras.
In addition to Airbnb's known to have cameras, hidden cameras are regularly discovered by tenants. It also occurred in the Netherlands. A Hoofddorper was caught by three French tenants. Installing a hidden camera in the bathroom earned him a community service penalty of 100 hours.
Stories like these erode travelers' trust in Airbnb. Confidence in Airbnb hosts was surveyed in the United States in 2019 with a questionnaire of over 2,000 users of the rental platform. Of all those surveyed, 58% were concerned about hidden cameras. Not entirely unjustified, as more than one in 10 renters has already found a hidden camera in an Airbnb stay.
Of all Airbnb hosts who indicate that cameras are present in the abode, a portion do not name where the cameras hang (17.2%). If it does state it in the ad, 69.6% of cases involve cameras on the outside of the abode, such as near the front door.
At nearly one in three Airbnb's with cameras, tenants are captured while in the residence. Those cameras film tenants, for example, while they are dining or watching television in the living room.
In addition, multiple cameras are common (36.5%). A large proportion of Airbnb's with indoor cameras have a camera in the hallway (44.4%). Many images are also captured in the living room (30.2%).
Los Angeles has the most Airbnb's known to have cameras: in total, there are 772 Airbnb's with cameras in the US city. There are also many Airbnb's in New York (714 stays), London (457 stays), Austin (401 stays) and Rio De Janeiro (394 stays) in which the owners have installed cameras.
Although Singapore has fewer total Airbnb locations with cameras, travelers here are most likely to be captured on camera in their Airbnb. In fact, Singapore is relatively the city with the most cameras: there is camera surveillance in 1 in 19 stays. The Texas city of Austin, Ottawa and Tokyo also have many stays with camera relative to the total number of stays.
Amsterdam ranks 38 out of 50 cities surveyed, with cameras at 1 in 625 Airbnb's. Thus, our capital city seems to have relatively privacy-friendly Airbnb's. By the way, Amsterdammers and visitors to the capital are frequently watched on the streets: there are at least 21,816 cameras in the city.
Interestingly, there are not many cameras at Airbnb's in Beijing either. After Munich and Bordeaux, there are relatively the fewest Airbnb's with camera surveillance: for every 3333 Airbnb's, there is only one where cameras are registered.
Globally, there are distinct differences, which are clearly visible in the map below. It is also possible to look up the specific data of a location. Click on the location to see specific figures.
The number of stays with cameras varies greatly by region. Relative to elsewhere in the world, there are relatively few cameras among Airbnb's offerings in European countries. Within European countries, nearly 1 in 500 stays mention a camera. In non-European countries, the number of cameras mentioned is much higher, at nearly 1 in 70 Airbnb locations.
Of all the European cities surveyed, Prague has relatively the most stays on Airbnb with cameras: 1 in 175 stays. London, Barcelona and Brussels also have relatively high numbers of Airbnb stays with one or more cameras.
Bordeaux, Munich, Porto, Copenhagen, Geneva and Vienna have the fewest cameras, at less than 1 in 1,000 Airbnb sites.
The scale of filming in Airbnb accommodations will actually be a lot higher than the number of registered cameras suggests. As previously mentioned in this article, more than ten percent of U.S. Airbnb users have already found a hidden camera in an Airbnb accommodation. It is therefore wise to pay close attention when entering an Airbnb accommodation. You can follow some steps yourself to reduce the chances of being surreptitiously filmed during your stay.
Tip #1: Check digital devices (and suspiciously positioned everyday objects)
Secret cameras are frequently hidden in small digital devices. Consider an alarm clock, router or digital picture frame, for example. Notice a lens in there somewhere, or that it looks different than you might expect? If so, see if you can take the power off.
Some fire alarms also sometimes have a camera hidden in them. Do you see a lens on a fire alarm? If so, put a small sticker over it if necessary.
A whole industry has sprung up these days with spy gadgets, which does make it increasingly difficult to recognize and detect hidden cameras. If hidden cameras are in a digital device, they are usually connected directly to the electricity grid and can be filmed continuously. But hidden cameras can also be incorporated into non-digital everyday objects. Then they usually work with a battery in combination with a motion sensor, or can be set at exactly what times recordings are to be made. In any case, be aware that hidden cameras today really do come in all shapes and sizes (air fresheners, planters, notebooks, pens, clocks, lamps, screws). Such hidden cameras are also easy to obtain and simply order online, even in the Netherlands.
Tip 2: Check bluetooth devices
Check your phone to see what devices can be found via bluetooth. If there is a device among them that you can't bring home, it could be that there is a wireless camera somewhere.
Tip 3: Scan the wifi network
There are apps that allow you to find out which devices are all connected through the same wifi network. In fact, many hidden cameras are connected to the wifi network.
With an app like Fing, you can use your Android device or iPhone to try to scan the network and find out if any suspicious devices are connected.
Tip 4: Search the stay
To be even more certain that you are not being filmed in your Airbnb stay, it is advisable to briefly search the stay. Look in places where you think a camera might be hidden: for example, open the closets, look under the sink and in the planters. Especially in the bedroom and bathroom, an observant look can't hurt.
Another tip: turn off all the lights, close the curtains and shine a flashlight around the room (from your smartphone, for example). Do you see something reflecting in a certain spot? Then check that spot, because it could be the lens of a camera.
To get a picture of cameras at Airbnb stays around the world, a total of 50 cities were surveyed using data from Inside Airbnb. Of all the cities surveyed, 27 are within Europe and 23 are outside of it.
The study included all ads from Airbnb's available in the specific cities in June 2020. In total, the presence of cameras was examined using 992,168 Airbnb ad listings in the cities in question. It was examined whether the word "camera" was located in the description of an Airbnb location.
There is an exception for Italian cities, as "camera" in Italian means "room. Needless to say, this word appeared very often in the ads. Therefore, we looked at which words appeared frequently in advertisements from other cities in combination with 'camera'. The Italian ads were tested for these words to determine when Italian texts specifically referred to a security camera.
Exactly where cameras are located within an Airbnb was determined in the study using a sample of 1,000 Airbnb stays. More information about the exact location of the cameras was manually searched in the ad texts of these stays.
Learn more about the results from the survey on the VPNGids.com website.
