An Airbnb guest discovered a hidden camera in his rented room disguised as a motion detector.
Archivist Jason Scott tweeted a picture from a colleague showing an IP camera hidden inside a motion detector, a reported by the Daily Mail.
Scott said in the post that his friend noticed the single motion detector on the wall and thought it seemed out of place. When he went to investigate, he realized that the “motion detector” was actually a camera in disguise.
In “oh, that’s a thing now” news, a colleague of mine thought it odd that there was a single “motion detector” in his AirBNB in the bedroom and voila, it’s an IP camera connected to the web. (He left at 3am, reported, host is suspended, colleague got refund.) pic.twitter.com/6KgkDmEZXB
— Jason Scott (@textfiles) November 28, 2017
The guest immediately left the rental property at 3 a.m. and reported the host.
Airbnb spokesperson Jeff Henry told BuzzFeed News that the company quickly banned the host from itself permanently and refunded the guest in full. He also said that if there are cameras present on a rental property, hosts are required to let their guests know.
“Cameras are never allowed in bathrooms or bedrooms; any other cameras must be properly disclosed to guests ahead of time.”
Though Henry said this type of incident is “incredibly rare,” it has happened before.
As recently as October, an Airbnb host in Florida was arrested for video voyeurism after a couple staying at his property discovered a camera inside the smoke detector. Investigators later uncovered footage dating back to 2008.
Other people have claimed that they found cameras during their Airbnb stays, but not everyone reported the discoveries.
One woman told Buzzfeed that she found cameras but didn’t report them until after her stay when the host accused her of causing damage to the property.
The woman said the company didn’t take her seriously at first, but she eventually received a full refund for her stay.
[Feature photo: Jason Scott via Twitter]
