Cameras

[Cindy1715]

Hello,

my name is Cindy, we have a home in Ohio for 4 years now, I am super host and top 1%of the nation.

I just love doing this and have had no problems,until recently all has been great.

That being said we recently had guests get into a locked private area and steal our personal things, since they  allow no cameras to protect your things because it  violates the guests, but apparently Hosts are allowed to be violated🤷‍♀️

So my thing is I am wanting to put a door sensor on the door.
I didn’t know if any other hosts had these? 
Do you like them and what name brand?

[Diana2915]

Oh my gosh, that is terrible. what kind of locks did you have on the doors you didn’t want guests to get into? I also have locked doors that I don’t want my guest to get into. Maybe I should rethink the locks that I have on my doors

[Cindy1715]

we had a regular doorknob lock. Also have notes that say it’s a private area. Really unfair in my opinion. 

[Ahmed570]

I think its ok to put security cameras in the locked private place, as long as it doesn't violate the guests' privacy, because it is not part of the booked area.

[Cindy1715]

I feel the same but Airbnb disagrees 

[Helen3]

What did the guests say when you called them out on this @Cindy1715 

a horrible situation.

[Cindy1715]

They said they heard a loud crash in the basement and “as the door was unlocked” they proceeded to go see what it was. 
When we got there, nothing was in a state where it would have made a crash sound. Just rummaged through. 

[Helen3]

Hope you pointed out it was always locked ? 😆

sure the broken lock would have provided evidence .

[Frances3408]

@Cindy1715. Sorry to hear you had such disrespectful guests.

As hosts we need to hope for the best but plan for the worst. I have 3 external cameras and only once did a guest complain after they were caught breaking several House Rules and tampering with one camera to cover it up. Of course I made the rookie mistake of confronting them about it.

Remove all internal cameras and find a better external location for your valuable stuff and put a deadlock on it with camera coverage. Then update your listing camera location information.

Oh, and get a locked cabinet to store the modem and camera system so guests have no access unless they clearly break in. Before each stay take a quick video showing the cabinet is clearly locked.

[Cindy1715]

Thanks for that information, I had never even thought about that. 

[Joan2709]

@Cindy1715 

If the locked private area was inside the home, you can't have a camera inside in any area guests are permitted to access. Since the "locked, private area" is technically not an area guests have access to, one could argue that a camera inside is not in violation of Airbnb policies. If the locked area is outside (storage shed or other separate building), then a camera outside to monitor it is not in violation of Airbnb policies.

That said, that is something you will have to decide if you want to risk getting a listing suspension if you try to seek legal action and/or reimbursement against the guest for stealing, as your only proof would be the camera footage inside the locked space. Not sure what Airbnb would do under that circumstance? You could just take legal action against the guest and not report to Airbnb. However, you only have a guest name/phone number. Not sure if that is sufficient to make a police report.

[Cindy1715]

It’s such a crazy story. I did not have a camera down there to watch stuff, it was pointed at a crawl space because we had a groundhog problem for awhile and it was to make sure they didn’t dig their way inside. After the groundhog problem was gone, I just had really  forgotten about the camera, it was literally sitting on the hot water tank facing the wall. I was surprised when it went off, as it never has. All I could hear was someone going through stuff, I could barely make out one saying “this is just packing material over here”. I was heart sick,nothing worth money down there but  some of this stuff was my mom’s stuff that I had stored because she recently passed away, just precious things to me. I text the guests, then all the cameras went offline, and Airbnb sent me a message a little while later saying they suspended my account because the guests said I had cameras all over the house, I was completely shocked. I guess they packed and left.
I gave my side of the story and had to agree to camera rules and about 24 hours they turned my account back on. I just feel when you have such a good record with Airbnb they should have asked me what happened before they just shut me off. My home is very busy, almost always completely booked.
But I guess one thing I learned is after 4 years, and it’s all been good, there are more good people than bad, I’ve made several friends from guests. But  it really hurts when you get a bad one. 😞

[Helen3]

Thanks for the update.

I would have argued you didn't have any cameras inside in areas accessible to guests but in a private area not accessible to them. The only reason they an audio was made of them is because they broke the lock to get into an area they shouldn't be accessing.

do hope you left an honest review of these guests to help warn your fellow hosts @Cindy1715