New security camera policy is unreasonable

[Conrad76]

I presume all hosts received an email from Airbnb about security cameras, in which it says, "You’re not allowed to have cameras that monitor indoor spaces." That is completely unfair. The basic Abode security system that I have has a motion sensor with a camera that takes a snapshot if the sensor is triggered when the alarm is on, to get a picture of who or what is moving in the hallway. I disclose this in my listing, and I have a small curtain that guests can pull to cover the camera if they are concerned about privacy. Airbnb is essentially forcing me to get a different security system. How are other hosts dealing with this?

[Sherri176]

Totally agree with you. There is zero expectation of privacy in a shared living room and shared kitchen when the guest rents a room. Great rule for hosts who rent out the whole house though. Interesting though....if you have a motel or hotel you can list the rooms for rent on airbnb and you get to keep the cameras in the lobby. Maybe consider my living room is my lobby. I rent out my 2 guest rooms to mid term and long terms renters. I live in the house in the master. Can't believe I have to take my 2 cameras down in my shared spaces.

[Conrad76]

I contacted Airbnb support with my complaint and got back a long but probably templated response. I encourage the rest of you hosts who are upset by this policy change to also file complaints -- maybe if many hosts do that it will get their attention.

[Sissi36]

We got similar long and no content answer. It looks like a Chatgpt wrote.

[Dawn241]

I don’t have a shared space, however, I was wondering about hosts that do, you used to be allowed to have cameras in the kitchen and garage, just not bedrooms or bathrooms. You don’t want someone leaving in the middle of the night with your groceries and tools. It will be interesting to see if they amend the new policy. 

[Helen3]

I'm a homeshare host and it's never crossed my mind to have indoor/outdoor cameras .

why would you assume guests are likely to sneak away  during the night with your food and tools? 😀

[Will3749]

Greetings, I think you give humans too much credit, I have seen some pretty weird stuff at my listing, just saying. From people eating others food to doing thing that I cannot even type here. Mind you this a shared listing with 3 bedrooms so they are almost never alone in the home

[Dawn241]

Because there are hosts that posted on this board that has happened to them, no assuming. 

[Share0]

Try living in America. Lol.

[Richard3254]

Helen, I'm not concerned about about my food however, I have thousands of dollars in tools, over $200,000 in vehicles in my garage, over $250,000 in assets inside my $1.5 million home and property and most importantly, I have the safety of my wife, my service dog and the guests in mind so I don't want my rights to protect my property and the people I share it with to be infringed by AirBnB or any other party no matter the $ value.

The only people I know, who aren't interested in having surveillance cameras, are naive people and nefarious minded people such as the one who broke into my wife's car just over a month ago and one of my cameras captured which the police were very happy about.

Maybe you don't take your safety, your family's safety, the safety of your guests or your possessions serious however, I believe there's many like me that do and AirBnB has not right to deny anyone the right to protection as I stated above.

[Abi010]

Why did most people on this platform thinks, having a camera in one's property is to spy on guest, what of security to ward off intended bugglers, I am a live in host and having camera outside my home act as a deterent for jugglers, not just for guest. 

This is a time, we should all agree, so that Airbnb will be forced to review their draconian policy. 

Do people not book an hotel or go to the hospital because it has cameras.  Please let's be real and face this head on

[Abi010]

I meant it act as a deterent for bugglers,and not jugglers,  typo error 

[Anoop16]

Agreed

[Jency2]

Here in NYC we can only STR our homes we live in. As much as I don't want anyone taking my groceries or tools, I'm more concerned with someone taking my daughter's artwork and her supplies or worse entering her bedroom. I live in Brooklyn so I had ring cameras before starting airbnb. Also my outdoor camera captures every passerby, every car but not all of my guests. I rely on my hallway camera notifications when someone enters my house. I've caught so many guests trying to sneak in extra people. Because of the hallway cameras, I've been able to see several guests leave our doors wide open. Luckily because of the notification I can close them right away. We would never notice it with the outdoor I also installed a ring camera in my daughter's art room after we noticed someone sitting in her chair using her computer and guests have left drinks on  her art table. Even Though I've raised my prices and try my best to get good guests, some still have tried to open her door and go through her stuff.

[P41]

I had posted the same issue, but in a different topic here on the forum, so I will copy paste my opinion here as well : 

Hello fellow Hosts,

I received an update today saying security cameras inside the apartment would have to be removed.

I was wondering how other Hosts feel about this because to be honest, in my opinion, I think it's a bad thing.

I rent a private bedroom in my apartment in Paris and for MY own security, I installed a camera. I had so many issues with unauthorized guests throught the years that I started to feel unsafe inside my own apartment. Of course the camera was following all of Airbnb's rules, such as being marked on the listing, with it's location being in a common, not a private area (it's in the hallway, facing the entrance door).

So when having guests check-in, specially with the lockbox, it was a huge relief to see that the person coming in actually matches the person that made the reservation. 

Unfortunatelly,  I've also had many scenarios where at 5 am the guests staying in the bedroom actually opened my apartment door to an unauthorized guest to come in. I saw this in my camera notification the next morning. As a woman, alone , living in the same apartment as I'm renting a private bedroom (max of 2 guests), to wake up and see that there are 3 men on the room next door is really not a good thing but at least I was able to see that through my camera and ask a friend to come over and help me handle the situation, instead of just opening my own bedroom door and being surprised by this scenario. 

A lot of people are just disrespectul of the host's house rules and space so the camera at least gave me a minimum feeling of security inside MY own apartment and now Airbnb wants this camera to be removed and I don't consider this right at all. In cases like mine, it's for the host's own protection, since I live in the property, and for the protection of the host's property as well.

On another note, as I mentioned, my apartment is in Paris and French Law authorizes survaillance cameras on rental properties in accordance to some rules and as long as the tenant agrees with it. So if I put it in my House Rules (which the guests have to agree to before their reservation is confirmed, therefore, giving me their consent) tecnically it should be accepted by Airbnb, no?

Stay safe, (or at least try to, without a camera, now)

Paula

[Joseph2139]

Absolutely unreasonable - a camera should definitely be disclosed and its up to the guest to decide if they are ok with that or not. Especially with indoor cameras facing entrances and with no "private areas"  monitored.